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Lesson Introduction
Summer is coming, and with that brings two things you can count on: Mosquitos, and, this year... the Olympics! Today on Dear Amber we discuss both of them. Some distinctly Chinese ways of dealing with those pests, and some distinctly Chinese features of the road to Olympic gold. Come visit us in the comments section too and share your thoughts with us!
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artkho says
June 12, 2008
good old tiger balm! it's quite effective. i also find vicks vaporub to be an effective remedy for itchy mosquito bites.
user5871 says
June 12, 2008
I usually just sprinkle meat tenderizer on myself, as mosquitos LOVE me for some reason...
If things get bad, my weapon of choice is Skin So Soft from Avon. It repels the little buggers and doesn't put toxic chemicals on my skin. However, it is not marketed for that, it is considered a "skin lotion".
amphivera says
June 12, 2008
Well, as much as I love my electric tennis racket I have this suspicion that all it does is paralyze the mosquitos for a limited time and after 10 minutes they come back from the dead. So if you want to be 100% effective you have to deliver the final blow personally.
I definitely advise against the mosquito coils. I remember reading an article about a case where the majority of workers at a mosquito coil factory fell ill or died within 5 years.
rash says
June 13, 2008
I've never seen the raquet-shaped bug zapper, but here in the Southeastern US bug zapping lanterners were a staple of my childhood. You can imagine the summer nights out in the back yard hearing the zapper hanging on the porch---- snap! zzzzzz!! pop!! The insect deaths were non-stop.
dtoronto says
June 13, 2008
Deet works best ... Deep Woods Off, or equivalent
scottyb says
June 13, 2008
Rash, I remember those as well, but they seem to have fallen out of fashion - I wonder why.
Amber, I was in Canada last year and had my first experience with black flies - those aren't much fun either.
Here in Florida, we have these little biting flies called "no-see-ums" that I think are much worse than mosquitos. Their bite feels like a tiny pin-prick (much more noticeable than a mosquito) and repellents aren't always as effective on them. They "attack" in swarms that you can't see coming (thus the name, haha).
kimiik says
June 13, 2008
According to the asian blood type myth :
JP (type B) likes to be the center of attention
Amber (type AB) stays in the corner :)
http://www.hahaart.com/dispbbs.asp?boardid=17&id=536&move=next
sushan says
June 13, 2008
An Advanced lesson on the blood type thing can be found here.
kesirui says
June 13, 2008
Actually what makes mosquitos like you is if your skin is healthy, your skin makes a kind of acid (forgot the name) that the mosquitos can "smell", all you poor healthy people. lol
Also I noticed the Chinese mosquitos are tiny compared to the U.S.
Someone I know accidentally touched one of those "mosquito racket" things, apparently it hurt a lot and his finger was numb for a while O_O
kesirui says
June 13, 2008
here's a link to the Chinesepod Olympics page:
http://chinesepod.com/olympics/
rash says
June 13, 2008
Did I miss something in the lesson? Where did the blood type discussion begin? I thought blood type was a big deal in Japanese culture. Chinese also talk about this?
excuter says
June 13, 2008
If a moscito is in my room I use glass (or something similar) and a piece of paper and catch it. I place the glass somewhere on the ground and usually I forget to take it outside at the next morning and let it go, so it dies after some days...But if you prefer the "tennis racket" keep in mind you have to press the button for a while to be sure it killed it...if it starts stinking you know it is dead ;-)
yase says
June 14, 2008
We do not seem to get many mosquitos here in Beijing - perhaps the drier climate deters them. The odd cockroach - yes, lurking around in dark places.
yase says
June 14, 2008
you can buy roll on anti perspirant in England easily - no problem at all from chemists,Marks & Spencers, supermarkets etc.
bazza says
June 14, 2008
I've already won about 5 gold medals on "Mario & Sonic at the Olympic Games'. :)
charleygarrett says
June 14, 2008
I'm having a weird problem with this lesson. Podcasting, right? So, it's an automated feed to my MP3 player. Well, I now have a list of 3 traditional pdf files that are "not found". One of them appears (from the name) to come from this lesson, but this lesson doesn't appear to have a pdf linked to it at all. What's up with that?
The other 2 are N0014 and CA0041, and I'll go search for those lessons and leave a similar comment there.
almajors says
June 14, 2008
北京有很多蚊子!
The mosquitos in Beijing are smaller, faster, and more resilient. I once squashed one to the wall, only to see it unwrap itself, and fly off.
They also are smarter. The apartment I was staying in, had nets over all the windows, yet still mosquitos would get in. They would fly in through the foyer, fly into the elevator, get off on the 9th floor, follow us to the apartment, and hide out until we're asleep.
After the 2 week stay, our room had many mosquito stains on the walls.
As for blood types, my girlfriend and I are both B+, yet she was getting slaughtered by them, while I only had the occasional bite.
Here in Toronto, mosquitos are much rarer, but still exist, especially a short drive north from Toronto.
Reason those lanters fell out of style is because they killed all bugs indiscriminately, including many beneficial ones and ones vital to the food chains
architpol says
June 14, 2008
I remember that in Taiwan it was considered good luck to have a gecko in your room. Not only that, the gecko's usually found the mosquitoes that were hiding so it helped reduce the number of mosquitoes you had to deal with every night. Even so, I often heard that horrible zzzzzzz in my ear! Just like the CP lesson.
trevlu says
June 14, 2008
I've heard that rubbing the inside (slimey side) of a banana peel on your mozzie bite helps too.
Never tried it though so I can't confirm how good it is... I almost wished I got a mozzie bite so I could find out. And when I get one, chances are that there won't be any banana skins lying around
dave says
June 15, 2008
That government sanctioned system of treating children like little eugenics projects is disturbing. Take one look at the ripped biceps on some of those little gymnast girls and I think it would be hard to feel any other way about it. How a gorvenment could sponsor something like that is beyond my ability to understand. It's a clear case of child abuse in my eyes.
almajors says
June 15, 2008
Let's keep our comments off the great radar of you-know-what to prevent the site from being "delisted" from the web.
Or at least properly obfuscate them so they don't appear to be critical of policy makers.
chillosk says
June 15, 2008
We have that coil thing in the Philippines, we affectionately call it "katol."
And one technique I used to kill those huge mosquitoes in shanghai was cover myself up with a blanket, with my arms exposed. Wait for those suckers to come down for a bite and then WHAM.
And check the ceilings, they usually hang out there.
Hate it when they bite when you're asleep. Cowards.
boran says
June 15, 2008
An article in Friday's Wall Street Journal discusses the prominence of Chinese women in the Olympics (see The Great Women of China).
In particular, they note that the Chinese women have won more gold medals than the Chinese men over the last two Olympics and that China is the only country that gives equal funding to both men and women athletes. One of the reasons given by a coach for the women's dominance is that they know how to 吃苦 (chīkǔ), "eat bitterness" or endure hardships.
tvan says
June 15, 2008
Here's a link to a video included with that article in the online version of the Wall Street Journal.
As an aside, if anyone can explain to me why I couldn't insert that video (other than comments regarding my native intelligence/lack therof), I'd be much obliged.
excuter says
June 16, 2008
excuter says
June 16, 2008
I dunno why but I guess you tried to embed the code instedt of using the "insert/edit embedded media" button with the link only. I tried the embedding= didn´t work; then I tried the button + your link and evoila it worked ^_^
leolee912 says
June 16, 2008
你必须站起来承担些什么,否则你会趴下去失去一切!
You must stand up and response for something ,or you'll prostrate and lose everything.
can i make friends with you ,i.m from chinese,
my msn:leolee912@hotmail.com,add you ,may be i can help you chinese.
horsiebabe says
June 17, 2008
The other day I was eating at Pizza Hut in Shijiazhuang, and apparently there was a fly or mosquito buzzing around, I didn't notice it, but what I did notice was the loud zap when the waitress hit it with one of those tennis racket things. It wasn't next to me, but I looked at the lady it happend next to and she looked completly shocked and disgusted! What was real funny tho was the waitress didn't even say anything. After she hit it she picked it up off of the table and walked away. I laughed for a long time!
ewong says
June 19, 2008
Thanks for putting up the chinesepod olympic site :)
I always see 爽起來 on some Beijing Olympic ads and posters. What does actually mean?
amber says
June 19, 2008
hi ewong,
爽起来 (shuǎng qǐlai)
It has the feeling of 'get happy' or 'get excited for'
ewong says
June 19, 2008
thanks amber.
Can you use 爽起来 to tell someone who is sad to "cheer up"! 爽起来吧！
amber says
June 19, 2008
hi ewong,
Yep, you can use it in that sort of context, too!
carlosmentos says
June 23, 2008
Taking a high-dose B Vitamin supplement seems to help. There's some debate about this, but I've found that it either keeps mosquitoes away or makes the bites smaller and less itchy if they do bite. Apparently, mosquitoes don't like the smell of the B vitamins (I think it's B-1 they especially don't like). Seems to work for me, so I'd say it's worth a try.
li73 says
June 25, 2008
I found this article on China's Olympians, in this morning's NYTimes-online. Amber and David talked about this,
1. with the promising athletes getting whisked away to special-special-special schools
2. performance-based remuneration
www.nytimes.com/2008/06/21/sports/olympics/21athlete.html
In my humble opinion, there's a considerable amount of national pride at stake here -- this is a country working really really hard to shake off any remnants of it being a developing nation. Technology, infrastructure, and Olympic gold seem to be what gets positive press... hence the immense resources put into these areas.
matt says
June 26, 2008
Those zappers don't just kill bugs indiscriminately; they kill the ones attracted by light in favour of those which are not attracted by light. That's quite logical - but the zapper manufacturers don't tell you that mosquitoes are attracted by carbon dioxide rather than by light. I've seen some zappers here in Singapore which have include CO2-producing chemicals.
We use a zapper because the mosquito:other bug ratio is so high that we get a significant hit rate and its preferable to inhaling who knows what chemicals from those coils that just deter rather than murder...
ewong says
July 3, 2008
I read from an email that bottles of Listerine are good mosquito killers
wilsonwan says
June 22, 2009
为什么没有人跟进更新呢?又一年过去了, 蚊子又多起来了.