This young man got two Chinese characters tattooed on his bicep and was told they meant “courage”. I have posted about the exact same tattoo earlier, when I first saw it in 2003.
The phrase 大過 means “big mistake” or “shortcoming”.
“Entrepreneurs are keen to communicate with English speaking Chinese directly without an interpreter, or even venture into a few words of Mandarin. Which quite often goes wrong. A pity, because many problems can easily be avoided by calling in an experienced interpreter.” Easier said than done?
In 2002 Brazilian soccer player Roberto Carlos starred in this Pepsi commercial. A humorous play on the politeness found throughout Asia (in this particular case Japan and Korea, the hosts of the World Cup).