User Comments - bodawei

Posted on: Interested in Chinese Medicine

Jason mentioned 'massage' in the context of Chinese medicine, and that they use acupuncture points. I have a comment turning into a question. I would say that the prime motivation for visiting a regular massage place here is the 'treatment' - for medicinal purposes as I think Jennie said. My local foot massage place has a long list of ailments/disease that are treated there. In fact, some of the small clinics we were talking about under the heading of hospitals recently look like massage places, although generally massage treatments there are given on beds rather than in a large chair. Podiatry is possibly the number two motivation (many people have their toenails fixed up after a foot massage). Pure pleasure (probably the main motivation in the West) would run third at best, I think, and I guess that is the question. It seems to me that Chinese people do not go to foot massage motivated by pleasure, certainly not purely for pleasure. There is a social motivation - it is generally a social event. Where does physical pleasure sit in the scale of things when Chinese people go to foot massage? I am talking about regular foot massage guys. :)

Oh - and good job Jason - I look forward to hearing lots more lessons from you.

Posted on: Hospital Visits and Prescription Medication

I guess the possibility of dying in line is present if you are about to have a heart attack.

But there is a cultural explanation for this sense that hospitals are too crowded and un-responsive to our needs. In the West, people can stay on the waiting list for medical treatment for years. We keep our queues out of sight. :)

Posted on: Nothing more than 而已 (eryi) and 罢了 (bale)

Hmm I think you're right; the English translation could perhaps be 'to' her rather than 'about' her. It is implied that the words are spoken to her because she 就 (immediately) cried. But also I guess she could have been just within earshot of the words being spoken ABOUT her. Still, TO her would make more sense. We don't actually know what was said but it doesn't really matter, because mean or well-intentioned she cried.

Posted on: Nothing more than 而已 (eryi) and 罢了 (bale)

wande

I'd be interested in knowing whether you can use 而已 this way. All of the examples seriously diminish the subject, but in your example the 而已 is used for emphasis - which is of course one use of 'just' in English. It was just fantastic.

你只说说英语而已，对吧！不是中文。。

(Have you just spoken English in Chinese?)

顺便我同意。

Posted on: Hospital Visits and Prescription Medication

tgif

Point taken, in a global economy national boundaries take on a different meaning.

I would go to Princeton to see Dr House. :)

Posted on: 人口普查

不好意思，我应该说某人是无感情的， 我的朋友们，哈哈。不怕，不想麻烦，就无感情的。

Posted on: Addresses

Could you also just say 二零七？ Certainly if it was a room rumber or the number of an apartment - I thought that it was also usual for street addresses. But I seldom use street addresses. :)

Posted on: 人口普查

我觉得这个媒体课程不太难，课程很清楚。 啊，我喜欢人口普查，可是很多中国人不太喜欢，他们无感情的！

Posted on: 人口普查

Instead we have a link in 'Related Conversations' to: http://chinesepod.com/community/conversations/post/6468

All due respect to this poddie, but it is nothing to do with the Population Census, Chinese people or even Chinese culture. (Okay, maybe this is why you disabled the 'tags' feature.)

But come on guys - I don't complain about this very often; isn't it time this useful little feature was fixed?

Posted on: 人口普查

Yes but in Chinese culture time is a little vague. I think we did well to get it only 9 days after the Census collection finished. :)