User Comments - Cornelia
Cornelia
Posted on: Dinner with Friends
November 17, 2009, 11:23 PMI have a question to the expansion sentence
我就吃了两个。
(I'll just eat two.)
Why does this not mean "I have just eaten two" ? How come 了 meaning future i.o. change vs. previous state of not yet having eaten?
Posted on: Visiting a Friend at the Hospital
November 09, 2009, 10:42 PMThanks, bodawei & jimijames!
Of course, generalizing is difficult. But Germany seems rather uniform in that respect: there are mostly in-patients at a hospital and it is not very efficient. With an aging population and a statutory health insurance system that relies on contributions of employed labour and only a little general taxes there is way too little money. A fierce lobby fight between doctors in their own medical practices, pharma industry and hospitals.
The efficiency of the policlinics with their many out-patients of the former GDR* is lost. Any FRG** doctor is first his own entrepreneur, therapy options driven by often absurd payment regulations of the statutory health insurance system, which covers 90% of German population.
Generally Germans don't accept health care as a market. It is something which should be available with the latest scientific achievements to all. Let's see - the lately elected new government perceives differently and we will have the next step of "health reform" within a year.
* I wonder if any non-German remembers the acronyms almost 20 years after reunification: GDR=German Democratic Republic (east), **FRG=Federal Republic of Germany (west)
Posted on: Visiting a Friend at the Hospital
November 07, 2009, 07:40 AMI have some cultural questions about today's Chinese hospital / health care system (in, let's say, cities of more than 5 million inhabitants):
- How many beds are typically in one hospital room?
- What is the usual staffing of nurses, doctors,...? Does a patient need some extra nursing e.g. by relatives?
- Does health insurance cover the costs, and if so, all of them (rather than a daily contribution fee by the patient)?
- Are there fixed visiting hours or are visitors pretty free to come and go all day long?
Posted on: Turn Right, Turn Left
October 17, 2009, 11:29 AMThe concept of "big turn/small turn" actually helps us continental Europeans when driving in the UK and coming back: it is good coaching if the fellow-passenger gives this comment together with directions left/right - because as John mentioned: it will be opposite to what you have been recently used to.
Posted on: 把 Humbug
August 23, 2009, 10:19 PMI am also very happy with both the pdf and the dialog tab ! They really help me reinforce qing wen content which just listening never could.
Thanks!
Posted on: What's Your Job?
August 14, 2009, 07:41 AMWhen you are at corrections of expansion sentences you may take care of the word order in the last but one: 不这是我的车。不 should be placed after 这: zhe4 bu4 shi4 wo3 de che1 - this is not my car.
The only sentences starting with bu4 that I am familiar with are short negative answers to questions, like 这是我的车 ma? 不是。
Posted on: The New Series is So Close, We Can Taste It!
April 14, 2009, 10:05 PMThanks, rjberki! Now that you tell me I actually remember a poster of "Uncle Sam wants you"... but so far I had never understood what for.
Posted on: The New Series is So Close, We Can Taste It!
April 13, 2009, 09:43 PM"and Bob's your uncle"
is a phrase that I find in my English-German online dictionary (British colloquial, http://dict.leo.org/ende?lang=de&lp=ende&search=Bob%27s%20your%20uncle).
What is the difference if it's "Sam" i.o. "Bob"? ...I know this is a question better suited for EnglishPod...
Posted on: Expired!
February 20, 2009, 01:42 AMA question about dairy products: if suan1nai3 is yoghurt, how would the Chinese call real "soured milk" / cultured milk?
Different bacteria produce the two different kinds, see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yoghurt and http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Soured_milk.
Posted on: Water for a Cold
June 04, 2013, 08:58 PMHow would you call water of ambient temperature? ...not nearly cold enough for Americans with their love of ice cubes, not warm enough for Chinese...