In the spirit of giving you some time to recover from the Blitzkrieg that was our last Elementary dialogue, our lesson for today slows things right down. One of the parties to our dialogue barely speaks, in fact. So join him, and a close friend of his, in the hospital for a moment of unguarded intimacy....
 said on
February 2, 2010
Good podcast. I know it's a bone of contention, but I've never found the term 小姐 derogatory when used with serving staff as long as one is being respectful. Attitude counts for so much in communication.
 said on
February 2, 2010
@orbital

You're right. In conversation with the waitress, or a lady, one can call her 小姐, respectfully of course, like "小姐, can I have...", but normally one doesn't call her 小姐 when in conversation with a 小姐 (I guess 美女 would be more colloquial in this case,or... I don't know). 小姐 is referred to the profession, like "她是做小姐的", "she's a 小姐".
 said on
February 2, 2010
By the way, I love the cute picture on the right. Imagine the last request of the Teddy bear should be...
 said on
February 2, 2010
@orbital,

if we call some girl张小姐,李小姐,we just call them in the respectful way, but if we say she is A 小姐,the meaning will change a loooot.

O(∩_∩)O~