User Comments - bodawei

Posted on: Physical and Virtual Schools

Look I don't want to be rude about Shanghai but what is this about not wearing your pyjamas in public? Don't they realise that visitors would flock in from all over the world to see THAT.  Hell I would come from western China, where we are far too sophisticated of course to do such a thing as wear our jarmmies outside. 

The virtual school idea sounds great - but one hour a week may not be enough!   

Posted on: Foot Therapy

@Barbs

We can't get Blogspot in China - I have a blog there I haven't touched for five months. :-( I'd hate to miss out on something; can you put it somewhere else we can access?

Posted on: Foot Therapy

Okay, I gotta share. In 2006 I received acupressure treatment to treat atrial fibrillation. Better than drugs.

Posted on: Foot Therapy

In the text books they have illustrated case studies of acupuncture treatments that 'went wrong'. There are many horror stories - enough to convince any sensitive-minded Westerner to stay away.

Posted on: Foot Therapy

I should add that traditional methods are far from dying out. It is indeed popular; or a better word is probably 'ingrained'. There are many more small traditional clinics than hospitals - there are several in our neighbourhood. I don't have data, but there is sufficient demand to keep a traditional clinic going in every street around here.

Also, even in hospital there is a significant amount of traditional practice. I have been treated by Western and traditional practitioners simultaneously - an unusual experience to say the least. And a Western trained doctor may still dispense what we would consider traditional advice and remedies. So, it is deeply ingrained in the culture, even to the extent of guiding the diet of the typical Chinese family.

Posted on: Foot Therapy

Can I add to Changye's response? I agree with his points, but there is also a significant portion of the population who would consider it 'backward'. These people may choose Western medicine for the same reason that they do not ride bicycles any more. In fact they support the Government's various efforts to ban or limit the use of bicycles. There is also an age divide: many older people continue to use traditional medicine including acupuncture; many younger people do not.

BTW Chengye's first reason may seem a little far-fetched, until you appreciate that traditionally Chinese acupuncture uses bigger needles, more needles, and 'heavier' needling, than we are used to in the West. Chinese doctors are much more into pain than we are now in the West. Acupuncture as practiced in the West is a modified form of the traditional practice.

Posted on: Computer Problems and Tech Support

Hi Changye

Gotcha! Thanks for that. I did suspect that you were talking 口语. By the way, it is kind of formal in English as well, unless said as a joke. Many educated people would use it in conversation, but most of us aren't that educated. :-) In my case I am over educated, which is just as bad as under-educated.

Posted on: Computer Problems and Tech Support

Ah, this raises an interesting cultural question that we were just discussing over on Xiaophil's 'List of Emotions'. In my experience you would never say in English 'you are a magnanimous person' unless you had your tongue firmly in cheek. You however may say 'he is a magnanimous person'. So if you say 你是海量 we can safely assume that the meaning relates to alcohol consumption. I take it from Changye's comment that this is so regardless of my culture point. Which raises the further question - does the magnanimous meaning actually get a run in real life, or does it just reside in dictionaries??

Posted on: Computer Problems and Tech Support

海量 (huge capacity for alcoholic drinks) - Oxford Concise. 海量脂很大的酒量，对吧？ 而且，海量有别的意思，是宽宏的度量的意思。 很有意思。 英语说‘magnanimity'.

Posted on: Computer Problems and Tech Support

我觉得酒鬼比海量赢，因为，因为。。。。。。因为我很喜欢这个汉字鬼.

I like both 电脑中毒了 and 电脑感染了 better than 'computer virus'. Actually I posted before I'd listened to the lesson; John does say that 中毒 is an abbreviation of 中病毒 which spoils my theory that Chinese has avoided the vagueness of the English 'virus'. Semantically it is exactly the same as the English.