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Off topic: The 30 most commonly mispronounced phrases in English - to all intensive purposes
Thread poster: Tom in London
Giovanni Guarnieri MITI, MIL
Giovanni Guarnieri MITI, MIL  Identity Verified
United Kingdom
Local time: 12:27
Member (2004)
English to Italian
. Dec 10, 2017

Tom in London wrote:

I was once told by an Englishwoman that she had spent some time in France living in a gateau.




 
Thomas T. Frost
Thomas T. Frost  Identity Verified
Portugal
Local time: 12:27
Danish to English
+ ...
Gâteau Dec 10, 2017

Tom in London wrote:
Having your cake

I was once told by an Englishwoman that she had spent some time in France living in a gateau.


I hope she didn't try to eat it too.

That would not have been a piece of cake.

One of the first times I went to a doctor here in Germany, the secretary asked for my Shipkarte. I had no idea why she was talking about ships, so I asked her what a ship card was. I understood, then, that she was talking about a chip card. The Germans pronounce “chip” as “ship”.

In France many people spend their Sundays watching le foot on the telly, perhaps while eating something from McDo. It sounds like something out of The Addams Family.


 
Tom in London
Tom in London
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Yes- Dec 10, 2017

Thomas T. Frost wrote:

Tom in London wrote:
Having your cake

I was once told by an Englishwoman that she had spent some time in France living in a gateau.


I hope she didn't try to eat it too.

That would not have been a piece of cake.

One of the first times I went to a doctor here in Germany, the secretary asked for my Shipkarte. I had no idea why she was talking about ships, so I asked her what a ship card was. I understood, then, that she was talking about a chip card. The Germans pronounce “chip” as “ship”.

In France many people spend their Sundays watching le foot on the telly, perhaps while eating something from McDo. It sounds like something out of The Addams Family.


Yes - gâteau. I couldn't be bothered to look for a circumflex, which isn't available directly from my (Italian) keyboard.

What on earth is a chip card (Shipkarte)?

[Edited at 2017-12-10 17:51 GMT]


 
Thomas T. Frost
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Portugal
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Ship card Dec 10, 2017

Tom in London wrote:

Yes - gâteau. I couldn't be bother to look for a circumflex, which isn't available directly from my (Italian) keyboard.

What on earth is a chip card (Shipkarte)?


Never mind the circumflex. Incidentally you can't write correct French with a French keyboard either.

The German ship card is a smart card used by patients to document their health insurance cover at the doctor and handle billing electronically, as the public health insurance is run by many private operators, and some people have private insurance.

In France they call the equivalent carte vitale.


 
Oliver Walter
Oliver Walter  Identity Verified
United Kingdom
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Henious crimes Dec 10, 2017

Is incorrect English a henious crime? I heard "henious" on the radio this morning, which reminded me that some people say "henious" when they mean "heinous".

 
Oliver Walter
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Circumflex Dec 10, 2017

Tom in London wrote:

Thomas T. Frost wrote:

Tom in London wrote:
Having your cake

I was once told by an Englishwoman that she had spent some time in France living in a gateau.

.....


Yes - gâteau. I couldn't be bother to look for a circumflex, which isn't available directly from my (Italian) keyboard.


I also don't have a French keyboard, but I have one (English, plugged into a USB port of my laptop computer) with a separate numeric keypad. If I want to type a circumflex, I type Alt+0226 (â) or, for the other letters, Alt+0234 (ê), Alt+0244 ( ô), Alt+0251 (û) (i.e. while pressing the Alt key, type the 4 digits on the numeric keypad). The upper-case versions are also defined. I have all the accented letters that I need (Fr and De) on a printout of a page defining the ISO 8859-1 character set, that I downloaded from somewhere (probably via Wikipedia) a few years ago.


 
Tom in London
Tom in London
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Save the NHS Dec 10, 2017

Thomas T. Frost wrote:

....a smart card used by patients to document their health insurance cover at the doctor and handle billing electronically, as the public health insurance is run by many private operators, and some people have private insurance.



Fortunately here in the UK nobody pays in this way. We have the National Health Service (although if the forces of the political Right have their way, we will end up paying, as you do). Thank you for your brief (and horrifying description) of how healthcare has been privatised in Germany.

[Edited at 2017-12-10 17:49 GMT]


 
Tom in London
Tom in London
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Probably Dec 10, 2017

Oliver Walter wrote:

Is incorrect English a henious crime? I heard "henious" on the radio this morning, which reminded me that some people say "henious" when they mean "heinous".


Probably the same people who say "mischevious" instead of "mischievous"


 
Tom in London
Tom in London
United Kingdom
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Italian to English
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:) Dec 10, 2017

Oliver Walter wrote:

I also don't have a French keyboard, but I have one (English, plugged into a USB port of my laptop computer) with a separate numeric keypad. If I want to type a circumflex, I type Alt+0226 (â) or, for the other letters, Alt+0234 (ê), Alt+0244 ( ô), Alt+0251 (û) (i.e. while pressing the Alt key, type the 4 digits on the numeric keypad). The upper-case versions are also defined. I have all the accented letters that I need (Fr and De) on a printout of a page defining the ISO 8859-1 character set, that I downloaded from somewhere (probably via Wikipedia) a few years ago.


Yes, Oliver; that was why I couldn't be bothered !


 
Thomas T. Frost
Thomas T. Frost  Identity Verified
Portugal
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Healthcare Dec 10, 2017

[quote]Tom in London wrote:

Thomas T. Frost wrote:

....a smart card used by patients to document their health insurance cover at the doctor and handle billing electronically, as the public health insurance is run by many private operators, and some people have private insurance.



It would be against the site rules to get political here, but the vast majority of people in Germany get health cover through their employment. Health costs for such patients are regulated, just as in the NHS, and so are the health contributions the employers have to make. The difference for this majority, compared to the NHS, is simply that the daily administration is managed by private health insurance companies, and that hospitals and clinics may be private, but still accept public patients under the public regulations. These patients don't pay when they see a doctor, contrary to France, where public healthcare only covers 70 or 80 per cent of the cost, and you have to take out private complementary insurance if you want to cover the rest (low-income families get 100 per cent cover, though).

Whereas in the UK you can add private health insurance to what you get from the NHS, you can completely replace public health cover by private insurance in Germany if you're an employee with a high salary or a freelancer.

Regardless of how you pay, you have to pay for healthcare somehow. In the UK you pay National Insurance. I pay no National Insurance or any other social contributions in Germany, but I have to pay my own health insurance, public or private.

Whether such a system is a good or bad thing is a political question that I'm happy to debate in private, but the Proz rules don't allow it here.

This is really off-topic, but since you started the topic and commented on health, I guess you'll accept it.


 
Tom in London
Tom in London
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Anything Dec 10, 2017

Thomas T. Frost wrote:

---- I guess you'll accept it.


Yes, I'll accept almost anything.

The politics came into it when I enquired what a payment card was. It is unknown in the UK to have to pay for healthcare (although for those who want it, they can pay for a completely separate system in the belief that it is better).


 
Thomas T. Frost
Thomas T. Frost  Identity Verified
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Local time: 12:27
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You just pay in another way Dec 10, 2017

Tom in London wrote:

It is unknown in the UK to have to pay for healthcare (although for those who want it, they can pay for a completely separate system in the belief that it is better).


Germans just tell the doctor (using their ship card) which company will pay their bill. They don't pay the doctor directly, just as you don't in the UK, unless you consult one of the more expensive ones. The NHS wouldn't have paid the private physiotherapy I once needed in Leamington, in any case, but it was really needed. They also didn't pay a private doctor I once needed for a specific condition, which the GP on the NHS didn't really want to deal with.

But you pay 23 per cent to the NHS as a freelancer in the UK, or something like that, unless they have completely changed the system I knew. So if you earn £30,000, National Insurance costs you £6,900 a year (except that there are a maximum and a minimum, but let's keep out the nitty-gritty details).

Public health insurance for freelancers in Germany costs from €3,600 to €7,200 a year, depending on earnings. The private German insurances are more expensive, but as an expat I've found a private international insurance that costs no more than the above minimum amount and covers me in most countries on the planet.

The German system is not such a racket as the US system, though. It’s nothing like it.


 
Tom in London
Tom in London
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Everybody Dec 10, 2017

Yes, of course everybody pays here, on behalf of everybody else. Which is a very different concept from just paying for yourself.

 
Thomas T. Frost
Thomas T. Frost  Identity Verified
Portugal
Local time: 12:27
Danish to English
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Indeed Dec 10, 2017

Tom in London wrote:

Yes, of course everybody pays here, on behalf of everybody else. Which is a very different concept from just paying for yourself.


The difference is really that you mutualise the risk in different groups. The international insurance I pay adjusts their prices once a year after actual expenses, so that if the insured use medical services responsibly, they also mutually benefit by paying less the following year.

What I like about paying a set amount is that if I earn more, I don’t have to pay 15 percent or 23 percent of the extra income in health care, as there is no relation between earnings and cost. On the other hand, if someone has a low income, they’ll be better off in the NHS, as they only have to pay a percentage.

I’d say the average German is just as well served by the German system as a Brit is by the NHS. It’s just a different model. You can always find single examples in favour of one or the other system, though.


 
Tom in London
Tom in London
United Kingdom
Local time: 12:27
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PAGE Dec 10, 2017

I don't think you and I are on the same page with this, Thomas. Let's return to the topic.

 
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The 30 most commonly mispronounced phrases in English - to all intensive purposes






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