"Happy New Year" seems a pretty common greeting in New years worldwide; however, my uncle was angry with this when I said to him one year. I didn't know the reason and asked him why he didn't like this expression. Finally, I knew that there are at least two meanings with the same pronunciation as "Happy New Year" in Chinese. The first one is to hope someone feel happy in the New Year. And other one is to wish someone lose the recent position and do lower position, like supervisors and officers in Chinese pronunciation. After this experience, I used other expressions instead of "Happy New Year".
I found that some words are more easily to be expressed to opposite ideas in same pronunciation. And it will lead confusion or makes some to get into trouble. Specially in historical and cultural places, there are many idioms and words in similar tone. So, I think it is critical to take consideration to expression to avoid risk.
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