Well, I'm out of the hospital and back home, on my road to recovery.
I learned a lot of things in my five days in the Chinese hospital: vocabulary, culture, you name it. It was a total immersion experience.
The time the culture shocked the hardest was in the comforting or consoling. Every culture has things that are normal to say when you want to comfort someone. In English we say things like, "it's okay, breathe deeply, you're alright, everything's OK." Of course, everything is NOT okay, but we say it anyway. In Spanish people say "ya, ya, ya estuvo, ya pasó, no pasa nada" saying that it's already over, which is also not true. You're right in the middle of it. In Chinese people say 没事 "mei shi" (pronounced may-shir) which is an expression that covers the gamut of meanings--you can use it to respond to someone's thanks, someone's apologies, to tell someone not to worry, or to try to console someone in a difficult situation. Depending on context you could really translate 没事 to mean "it's okay/no big deal/don't worry/you're welcome/it's alright/you're OK/no problem/" and a host of other things.
Well, I heard 没事 or its English technical translation of "it doesn't matter" (as you pronounce this do it with a thick Chinese accent) way too many times for my own good during the five days I was in the hospital.
The funniest time was when I was undergoing the initial examination. The doctor had a camera he could use to see into my throat. It's a scope on a eight inch long probe, inserted into the nose. Well when that thing was well into my nose, I started gagging. The doctor promptly chirped "it doesn't matter!!" Sorry, but when I'm gagging on an eight inch probe stuck down my nose into my throat, it DOES matter to me!! But "it doesn't matter" is a long-standing gentle joke where we live, so even at the time in my head this was a humorous incident.
The worst 没事 story is one night I was getting my final IV infusion of the day. The nurse came in and had trouble finding a good place for this IV (they stick you again every time you start a new treatment, only using the veins in the back of your hands, and after a few days the good places are already used up). She got it a bit wrong and suddenly a bubble of fluid raised under my skin. I freaked out and told her in Chinese, there is a problem!!!!!! She took out the needle and quickly said "mei shi". I had been hearing "mei shi" so many times that I finally lost it, and yelled at her, "有事!!!!!!!!!" (Yo shir, there IS a matter!) Then of course we had to find another site for the IV and now both of us were tense and worried. After about twenty minutes of getting the back of my hand slapped and being scolded in Chinese for my bad veins (I didn't know the word for vein, but she kept repeating that word and the word for "bad" over and over so I clearly understood) we finally got the IV in. Then she finished by telling me, "Ming tian mei shi" about my other hand (tomorrow it doesn't matter).
[Side note--Of course, not all my nurses were like this. She was the exception not the rule. Most of them were a bit more professional and got it right while being kind, and no one else yelled at me for my bad veins. ]
My doctor's English was small but existent (which I was thankful for) and he was eager to practice with me. The problem was that when my throat was totally clogged it was hard to speak. Whenever I asked him about anything, a question about my health, when I was going home, how long I would have to stay, or anything else at all, his answer invariably included "it doesn't matter." He was trying to be kind and comforting, and I knew that in my head, but in those circumstances the constant repetition of that phrase drove me bonkers! He expressed a desire several times to learn more English, so if I ever get a chance to tutor him, the first thing we will learn are ways to respond to situations without saying "it doesn't matter!"
I learned a lot of things in my five days in the Chinese hospital: vocabulary, culture, you name it. It was a total immersion experience.
The time the culture shocked the hardest was in the comforting or consoling. Every culture has things that are normal to say when you want to comfort someone. In English we say things like, "it's okay, breathe deeply, you're alright, everything's OK." Of course, everything is NOT okay, but we say it anyway. In Spanish people say "ya, ya, ya estuvo, ya pasó, no pasa nada" saying that it's already over, which is also not true. You're right in the middle of it. In Chinese people say 没事 "mei shi" (pronounced may-shir) which is an expression that covers the gamut of meanings--you can use it to respond to someone's thanks, someone's apologies, to tell someone not to worry, or to try to console someone in a difficult situation. Depending on context you could really translate 没事 to mean "it's okay/no big deal/don't worry/you're welcome/it's alright/you're OK/no problem/" and a host of other things.
Well, I heard 没事 or its English technical translation of "it doesn't matter" (as you pronounce this do it with a thick Chinese accent) way too many times for my own good during the five days I was in the hospital.
The funniest time was when I was undergoing the initial examination. The doctor had a camera he could use to see into my throat. It's a scope on a eight inch long probe, inserted into the nose. Well when that thing was well into my nose, I started gagging. The doctor promptly chirped "it doesn't matter!!" Sorry, but when I'm gagging on an eight inch probe stuck down my nose into my throat, it DOES matter to me!! But "it doesn't matter" is a long-standing gentle joke where we live, so even at the time in my head this was a humorous incident.
The worst 没事 story is one night I was getting my final IV infusion of the day. The nurse came in and had trouble finding a good place for this IV (they stick you again every time you start a new treatment, only using the veins in the back of your hands, and after a few days the good places are already used up). She got it a bit wrong and suddenly a bubble of fluid raised under my skin. I freaked out and told her in Chinese, there is a problem!!!!!! She took out the needle and quickly said "mei shi". I had been hearing "mei shi" so many times that I finally lost it, and yelled at her, "有事!!!!!!!!!" (Yo shir, there IS a matter!) Then of course we had to find another site for the IV and now both of us were tense and worried. After about twenty minutes of getting the back of my hand slapped and being scolded in Chinese for my bad veins (I didn't know the word for vein, but she kept repeating that word and the word for "bad" over and over so I clearly understood) we finally got the IV in. Then she finished by telling me, "Ming tian mei shi" about my other hand (tomorrow it doesn't matter).
[Side note--Of course, not all my nurses were like this. She was the exception not the rule. Most of them were a bit more professional and got it right while being kind, and no one else yelled at me for my bad veins. ]
My doctor's English was small but existent (which I was thankful for) and he was eager to practice with me. The problem was that when my throat was totally clogged it was hard to speak. Whenever I asked him about anything, a question about my health, when I was going home, how long I would have to stay, or anything else at all, his answer invariably included "it doesn't matter." He was trying to be kind and comforting, and I knew that in my head, but in those circumstances the constant repetition of that phrase drove me bonkers! He expressed a desire several times to learn more English, so if I ever get a chance to tutor him, the first thing we will learn are ways to respond to situations without saying "it doesn't matter!"
