User Comments - bodawei

Posted on: Weighing Yourself on the Street

在澳大利亚的城市有大街上的称,在别的地方有没有？ 

Posted on: Ordering Food for the Group

You usually just make sure that there is more than anyone could possibly eat - this is the thing that is different to common practice in the West. But this is more so when one party is obviously host. When it is just friends having a meal there is less tendency to waste food - but typically food is left over. The size of dishes does differ from place to place so putting a number on it is conditional.

Posted on: Going to the Gas Station

xiao_liang

Just think of all of those nice benefits you get for your tax dollar!

Posted on: Going to the Gas Station

A rough petrol price ranking (from the Australian Institute of Petroleum) follows, in Australian cents/litre (June quarter 2009): 

·         Mexico (cheapest) – 75  

·         USA [and perhaps China] – 80  

·         Canada – 110  

·         New Zealand – 120  

·         Australia – 130  

·         Japan – 160  

·         Korea – 160  

·         United Kingdom – 200

·         Germany – 250

As I noted above, the main reason for the differences is tax.  

Of course these kinds of comparisons are of limited use, taken in isolation.  While Mexico may have cheaper fuel than Australia, because taxes are lower, it is necessary to consider what the community receives for their tax dollar. 

Posted on: Going to the Gas Station

Jenny's explanation for a dearth of petrol stations in the city of Shanghai sounded .. (I will try to be nice) .. staggeringly unconvincing.  Try a couple other possibilities: (1) the rate of car ownership in China is roughly one tenth car ownership in the US - so the demand for petrol stations is significantly lower.  I would expect the incidence of petrol stations to be roughly one tenth the incidence in the United States just on demand alone.  (2) Chinese city design is radically different to the West (despite Shanghai having borrowed much of its statutory control mechanisms from Sydney of all places).  You don't have many 'sub-arterial' roads (half way in the hierarchy between really major roads and minor roads) - this is where most petrol stations are found in the West.  

If there were 'fewer' petrol stations in Chinese cities out of concern for personal safety this would be rather 'out of character' with the rest of the physical (not to mention commercial) environment.  In my city, petrol stations tend to be tucked away all around the city (including in largely residential areas), in contrast to Jenny's observation about Shanghai.  My question then: where are petrol stations in Shanghai if not in 'residential' areas?  Shanghai 'zoning' of residential versus other land uses appears to be weak, to put it mildly, so it is very hard to point to an area and say - that is for residences, there is no commercial allowed here, no light industry, no bars and restaurants. The different uses in Chinese cities tend to be highly mixed. (I must say that is one of the things I like about China.)     

PS If you look at an American city that approaches the density of Shanghai (take New York City for example) - how obvious are the petrol stations there?  

Posted on: Going to the Gas Station

The whole petrol pricing thing takes a bit to get your head around. The most important thing to take on board is that the main reason for price differences around the world is TAX. Production costs differ little - okay some countries like Mexico/US might have a little comparative advantage but not much. Trivial. It's all about tax.

The second thing is that just because a business is Government owned does not mean that it forgoes a profit. That applies anywhere - in China as well as the West.

As for why costs go up and down and what that means for profit - let's just say that if the world price for oil goes up it does not follow automatically that the oil company makes more profit (than when the world oil price was low.)

Posted on: Renting an Apartment through an Agent, 2

Hi diquellatroiaporca (wow - that is a mouthful!)

Welcome to ChinesePod BTW - haven't seen you here before.

I am aware of machine translators - they serve a limited purpose in my view. Or I can look up my dictionary. :) In reality I do communicate about each of the items in my list anyway .. for better or worse. So......., the main point of my post is to generate some conversation, it is a better context for learning the language than looking up dictionaries - that is the beauty of ChinesePod. Secondly, I want if possible to snag new terms, or better still the actual words used by native speakers that may not appear in a dictionary; this way I may pick up a correction or update to my vocab, or even a regional difference.

Posted on: Renting an Apartment through an Agent, 2

谢谢你。 房东送给我们一些瓦器，炊具， 包括搅拌机还有榨汁机， 很大方对吧？ 而且他们给我一个新的冰箱买了。

Posted on: Renting an Apartment through an Agent, 2

沙发！ 

在中国房子一般有很多家具！ 比如沙发，冰箱，床，电视机，等等。 在厨房有瓦器，炊具 - 很奇怪。 

electric jug

toaster

toaster oven

blender

juicer

rice-keeper/ bin

dish rack (for drying dishes)

chopping board 

中文怎么说？ 

Posted on: Festivals, Holidays, Vacations, and Leave

There are definitely some cultural differences between the West and China, around the subject of holidays and leave.  

University students have to 请假 (ask for leave) - if not granted it counts against them when deciding if their attendance is adequate to sit the final exam.  Sometimes students bring me a doctor's certificate to prove they were sick. 

Work contracts can say that you have to 'ask' for sick leave - this is a bit weird for foreigners.  In the West we might have rules like, 'after two days off you need a doctor's certificate'.  

Also, being sick does not always give you a holiday - some employers insist that you do a make-up day.  

I have learnt actually to just arrange  'sick days' (ie. arrange a 'make-up' class) with the students directly - never try to make it official.