User Comments - bodawei

Posted on: Hospital Visits and Prescription Medication

'就是能看一般的病的医院，看不了大病'

谢谢，很有意思， 在昆明有很多”社区医院“。

还有很多一位医生一位护士的”私人诊所“。私人诊所是多半中医的， 对吧？

Posted on: Hospital Visits and Prescription Medication

Recent news report in Kunming included the following:

近几个月来，全国多个城市血库告急，昆明更是遭遇严重的“血荒”，在各方共同努力下情况初步缓解，昆明市260多家医院已能保证手术用血。*

I post this because of the reference to more than 260 hospitals (not to alarm foreigners contemplating a visit about shortages of blood.) In a city of about 4 million people (2006) it seems that there are at least 260 hospitals!

Purely from observation I would say that there are a few (say 30 or 40) large hospitals around the city, and so there must be many many small hospitals. (What qualifies as a 'small hospital' is unclear - as I say above, many are clinics located in residential streets.) Some only deliver traditional medical services. Most hospitals deliver a combination of Western and traditional medical services.

*It seems that the classifier for a hospital is 家, same as for a business. The dialogue does not include any conversation using a classifier for a hospital. It has a phrase 去一趟医院 - here the measure word 趟 refers to a *trip* to the hospital, not the hospital itself. Interesting construction.

Posted on: Introducing New Voices

迪璐

Thank you so much for explaining your name. I have had students with both 迪, and 璐, in their names, but not together. I think also that 李师 goes well. :)

My name is 柏大伟, 柏树的柏，大伟, 伟大的伟. Not exciting at all. But I do like the 柏 association with 柏树, 'cypress' in English, a tree that is admired in China.

Posted on: Hospital Visits and Prescription Medication

Thanks for that - interesting reading for Americans, and also the links to China. Although China has only 1.5 doctors per 1,000 persons, compared to Australia with 2.8 per 1,000 persons, a social atlas tells the real story, Doctors in Australia (and most rich countries) are crowded into the best suburbs in the big cities. In China, while income is unevenly distributed, the health resources appear to be more fairly distributed than in Australia.

Oh, and thanks for putting us back on top (at least from the point of view of the OECD) where we belong. :)

Posted on: Hospital Visits and Prescription Medication

You are right. And I try to stay true to this (I stray sometimes into generalizations but there are plenty of poddies out there to keep me on the straight and narrow.) I also try to give an honest impression - and this is one where I have done a fair bit of research. Part of this honesty involves testing what I find in as many places as possible. (Someone mentions 'I have to go to hospital' - I will no doubt put up my hand and ask can I tag along.)

Actually I also have been to local hospitals (an artefact now completely gone in Australia) .. the type you find in a little back street in a residential area. I went to one such for my hepatitis injections. :)

Posted on: Hospital Visits and Prescription Medication

All ChinesePod dialogues are works of fiction, and very entertaining ones at that.* But the main goal is language learning and this lesson has lots of meat - it's a great lesson.

There is usually ample opportunity to discuss related cultural matters - I am just contributing to the discussion first-hand experience. Anyone representing the 'other China' you refer to (based on first-hand experience preferably) are welcome to pitch in. The more the merrier.

* Fiction is often considered hard work because it is required to be true. As any avid reader of history knows, non-fiction writers are not bound by the same strictions.

Posted on: Hospital Visits and Prescription Medication

No worries - internal polling by the Australian Labor Party. I'm joking!!! It is a reference that was made in commentary on the recent publication of the Human Development Index, an annual index that combines a number of factors including a proxy for health. Australia is of course at number one and Canada is .. um round about number 32 I think. :)

Posted on: Chinese Fruits

This fish eats well. 这鱼好吃

Unless this is American (??), the English should be 'this fish is delicious'.

We say (someone) 'eats well' if they get plenty of good food. 'This fish eats well' means that it is getting plenty of good food.

Sometimes in English you might say something is 'good eating'.

Posted on: Smelly Cheese

I see you still don't have an answer - there is no difference, the latter is just a transliteration of the English. You'll hear both.

Posted on: Considering an iPad

What you can do is take the link at the bottom for a text version and then manually strip out the pinyin.