Babelfish in iPod City

Hi, this is Richard here! Lily "guest-wrote" the last four posts so I felt that I should be doing my share. I am more of a computer geek while Lily and Andrea possess a literary flair. Case in point: instead of calling the earlier post "What time it is in Milan?", I would've chosen something you'd read out of a computer manual like "Day 2- .... ".

With that said, I cannot thank my wife enough for using her fluency in Cantonese and Mandarin to help me ease communications with the staff at the hospital. By the way, the correct way to refer to the official language in China is Putonghua (literally, the common language). At physical therapy today, Dr. Lee gently chided me when I said my one and only phrase in Mandarin,"I do not speak Mandarin" to him . He told me that since Mandarin or Guo Yu, means language of the country, it therefore includes all dialects of China. Because I spoke Cantonese, (albeit very limited) I cannot say that I do not speak Mandarin.

While most of the staff here speak some English and a large portion of the patients (at least while we're here) are from English speaking countries, "lost in translation" is a daily affair. However, any effort to communicate is welcomed by both parties. Hand gestures like a thumbs up are readily understood. If one can secure the services of someone to help translate during the first few days, that would be tremendously helpful.

IPOD City in the title of this post refers to Shenzhen where many of the IPODs are manufactured. In fact, you can have your IPOD engraved for free when you order it through APPLE. It will be shipped to you direct from Shenzhen.