Occasionally, when one grows weary of the medical superstitions of Chinese friends and family, it is useful to head to a major hospital and hear the same platitudes from the professionals. It helps put things in perspective.In this podcast we follow Apple on a trip to the hospital after a freak boating pile-up on Houhai. What you'll hear is what happened before consensus opinion settled on the drip. So listen in as we teach some general medical terminology and also share some secrets on how to sound like a native speaker. Oh yeah, and don't move that arm for at least 100 days so the bone has time to knit. You heard it from us first.
barrister
said on January 8, 2009
Nice podcast. I remember running into the expression shangjindonggu before as well. One of those strange expressions that makes no sense before you learn it, but that you hear a surprising amount afterwards.
stratman1
said on January 8, 2009
I have horror stories with the Chinese medical system that for my own mental health I will not go into. Lessons learned: diagnose yourself using the internet, figure out what medicine you need, and go to the Chinese doctor and say that you need this medicine. Sometimes you have to lie and say you were diagnosed back home already and you ran out of medicine, the doctor will be more than happy that the responsibility lies with someone else.
This will save you 1000's of kuai in IV drips and wrongly prescribed medicine.
(or you could just get decent insurance and go to the foreign doctor)
Nice podcast! I usually try to avoid having too many China venting sessions that are such a staple of conversation between fellow foreigners, but I could bitch for days about the bullshit that comes with getting sick in China. It's worse than the sickness! If you have chinese friends and/or family, stay healthy, for godssakes!
saunders
said on January 8, 2009
"Lessons learned: diagnose yourself using the internet, figure out what medicine you need, and go to the Chinese doctor and say that you need this medicine."Speaking from experience as well, this is fantastic advice. The medical system in China is very accessible and it can be very fast for common procedures, but you absolutely HAVE to know what you need done and be aggressive about self-diagnosis. Getting a diagnosis of anything non-trivial is just not going to happen.I'd disagree that going to the "foreign doctor" really makes much difference though. Some of those places charge a lot of money but don't offer better service - just a more upscale environment and a chance to interact with someone who speaks English. I remember being amazed to find out that Worldlink was charging over $200 for a vaccination that would have cost about $2 in a normal hospital.In general, I'd recommend people look at insurance plans with a high deductible, since you don't want to be dealing with insurance payments unless it is an emergency. You have to be a bit careful though, since many plans only kick to cover costs AFTER diagnosis and/or hospitalization, and it can waste a lot of time and money getting to that stage in China, assuming you ever do.
leanne
said on January 8, 2009
有創意！
stratman1
said on January 9, 2009
@saundersActually since I've been back home I've missed the quickness and accessibility of how things worked in China. Where in a Chinese hospital I could get a blood test and results in 15 minutes, here you have to go to a separate lab and wait five business days for the results. Ridiculous!With regards to the foreign doctor thing, I meant places like United Family Hospitals in Beijing and Shanghai where the doctors are foreigners/westerners, trained in the west. I went once and it was just like going to the doctor back home, only they charged money. It was like 600 kuai for what ended up being a fifteen minute chat with a doctor, so I wouldn't go back. But if you're a business man with (good) insurance and no Chinese, or you have a serious medical problem like a heart attack or something, go there and don't take my previous advice :)
toneandcolor
said on January 9, 2009
Slight problems with the fix: no Chinese on 蒙古大夫 or 混饭的 terms and only 20 seconds of silence after the "Let's try this in context" bit...
trevelyan
said on January 9, 2009
thx toneandcolor
ameristar888
said on July 19, 2009
still no sound on the fix per comment above from toneandcolor.
Is daifu the more correct word for doctor rather than yi sheng?
Recently went to a local Beijing hospital for diarrhea. They gave me and IV and the cost was RMB 200.
trevelyan
said on July 20, 2009
@ameristar888 - daifu feels more colloquial to me, and it's the one used in slang expressions like 蒙古大夫 (quack doctor). 医生 feels more serious. Will get the fix rerecorded too. Apologies for inconvenience. This must have slipped through.
ameristar888
said on July 20, 2009
@trevelyan - my ayi says "daifu" is older, ancient 古老 word for doctor, where "yi sheng" is a newer, contemporary usage of doctor.
Gail天堂的声音
said on July 20, 2009
@ameristar888,
actually my mother would say 大夫 instead of 医生，but i like 医生 more.
i think 大夫 is, maybe, a little bit old, but it's not 古老. people today can still use it, and it's not strange.
trevelyan
said on July 20, 2009
Interesting guys - I guess I was totally wrong on that one. Strange, I've always felt it was a lot less formal.
fho71
said on June 1, 2013
In the sentence Wo de yanjing you bu shi x guang; what purpose does the you4 provide? just additional emphasis?
Echo
said on June 3, 2013
@fho71,Yes, it's used to add emphasis. For another example, we usually say 你又不是我，你怎么知道我怎么想？Ni3 you4 bu4 shi4 wo3, ni3 zen3me5 zhi1dao4 wo3 zen3me5 xiang3. （You are not me, so how could you know what I'm thinking).--Echoecho@popupchinese.com
beaudarc
said on January 11, 2019
at 5:30 Echo and Brendan use er4ba3dou1. I can't figure out the hanzi for this. Could you tell me what it is?
beaudarc
said on January 11, 2019
Never mind, figured it out. Sounds to me like Echo says `er4ba3dao1 and Brendan says `er4ba3dou1' as it turns out it is `er4ba3dao1'... 二把刀
