Korean Job Discussion Forums

[thegadfly]

During a discussion with my 5th grade elementary school students, I asked how many of them had been stung by a bee (it was tangentially related to a story we had read). None of them had been, and reacted as if getting a bee sting were some kind of life-threatening injury. For my part, I was also shocked, as I thought everyone in the history of forever had been stung at least once.

A very informal poll throughout the day showed that every American I had asked HAD been stung by a bee as a child (or a wasp or a hornet -- for the purposes of this inquiry, bee or wasp or hornet stings all count as the same thing, though I do indeed know they are different, mechanically as well as perceptively). None of the Korean teachers, however, had ever been stung, and reacted with shock that I had....

I am idly curious if my being stung by a bee is a cultural experience, a generational experience, an urban vs. rural experience (though I had been stung both in cities and in the countryside), or some other explanation...so I am taking it to the next, empirically-unsupportable step -- Dave's Poll!

Have you ever, in your life, been stung by a bee, wasp, or hornet? If so, please chime in and let me know what country you hail from....

A further tangent in the discussion was the scope and extent of other injuries the kids had had -- even scraped knees were pretty rare (4 of 15 in one class -- I had expected 15 of 15). Heck, most of my students do not even recall ever receiving a painful shot at the doctor's office -- most of my students claim to not have felt anything at all....

...so, are my students just an especially pampered batch of kids, or was my own childhood simply more fraught with pain and danger than I realized?

Feel free to regale me with tales of horrifying injuries sustained on the monkey bars, whilst jumping your Schwinn (with the banana seat) over improvised ramps, jumping off the swing at the apex (to see how high you could go), or otherwise risked your life -- back in the days when "no blood, no foul" was actually, literally, the rule....

[ThingsComeAround]

I think I've been stung 4 or 5 times in my life. I've been stung by a wasp once-

Last time a bee got me was when I was in Amsterdam with the gf. She wanted to use a Korean electric "bug repellent" while a bee somehow flew up my trouser leg. Bee doesn't like the smell, and refuses to leave my pants

I think most kids here don't get the usual "kid experience" you and I get from back home. I'm not surprised they didn't get stung- for what percentage of time are kids outside??

[Draz]

Never. I'm from Canada. I don't think it was very common among people I grew up with either. I spent tons of time outside as a kid, out in the yard or at the lake. I was taught the bee safety procedure: if you see a bee or wasp, hold very very still and it probably won't attack.

[thegadfly]

I've continued my informal poll -- not one of the Korean staff (secretaries, cleaning staff, bus drivers) have ever been stung, and reacted to my question as if I were asking if they had ever been bitten by a shark.

(edit) I just found one Korean who has -- the building manager was stung, once, as a kid. He is in his sixties, so this was more than 50 years ago, and when he told about it, the other Koreans gathered around like it was a war story.

I don't know why, but this seems really strange to me -- I mean, I presume a certain amount of shared human experience.

All of the foreigners at my school have answered, "As a kid? Of course -- but not since."

[mukukja]

I must have gotten stung at least twice a year when I was a boy out in the wilds of Atlantic Canada. Bees, wasps AND hornets.

My first time I kicked over an old stump with a wasp nest inside was great fun. Must have gotten stung about 5 times. Burning brush with my dad in the early fall when all the wasps were half-drunk on fermented apples. Stepped on countless bees running through the fields bare foot. The most painful sting was on the side of my head, though. Gave me a headache that lasted about 24 hours.

I was a wild thing as a boy, though. Any Canadians remember "clampering?" That was was we called jumping from ice chunk to ice chunk anyway. Or sometimes using a pole and heading out along the shore.

[ippy]

One word:

hornets.

If you come from a culture that has hornets, youre likely to give anything that looks like them a healthy dose of respect. Im from britain so wasps are swatted at and ran away from which of course annoys wasps because they are winged jerks.

But i promise you, if i lived in a culture that had 4 inch long wasps id pretty much leave the normal sized wasps alone just in case they were all best mates or something

[ippy]

[thegadfly]

Oh, there were hornets where I grew up -- and I certainly tried to avoid them, but then again, I was trying to avoid falling off my bike, too, but I still took quite a few spills, and had plenty of gravel burns to show for it....

[eamo]

I think it's interesting that I was indeed stung almost every Summer as a kid........but never as an adult. I think I was probably about 12 the last time I was stung.

Why have I not been stung for the last 30 years.......but used to be stung every year as a kid? Do wasps get more aggressive around kids?

[mukukja]

Ippy: to be fair, I would imagine that North American and Eurasian hornets are quite different. I certainly don't remember any hornets being 4 inches long!

To the OP: some of it might be a generational thing as well. I remember listening to what my Dad got up to as a kid (dropping a railroad tie on his foot and having the spike go completely through, getting caught in an offshore breeze and ending up over two miles from land on a chunk of ice) and wondering how he even managed to live long enough to make me.

[Zyzyfer]

Been stung twice, once by a bee in the grass that I stepped on, and once by a wasp that had snuck in my jacket in the back seat while I was driving. The wasp incident happened when I was for all intents and purposes an adult.

Was also bitten by a dog on the ear once for pestering it too much. Junkyard dog - Doberman, I believe - that wanted to be left alone. Not serious, though.

Not much else from animals. Plenty of spills etc.

I think mukukja wins the "crazy kid" award. Clampering? Jeez.

[thegadfly]

Zyz,

I was mostly talking about accidents -- when I was in middle school, we used to take those saucer sleds, tie them to about a 12 foot length of rope, attach the rope to the rear of a 4-wheeler, and see how fast we could pull each other around on them -- then we got the bright idea to try to knock folks off the sleds. Flying tackles into guys being drug along at 20 or 30 miles an hour...most of us learned what cracked ribs felt like. We actually found a couple of old tobaggons in one of my friend's barns, and we used them instead of the saucer -- more kids could pile on for the attacks...of course, we shattered them in an afternoon, and when his parents found out what had happened, they practically shattered our behinds....

I've been kicked, bitten, and stepped on by horses, kicked, stepped on and trampled by cows, bitten by rabbits, pecked by chickens and turkeys, buffeted by ducks, geese, and a swan, and actually once was clawed by a black bear cub...but I had a pretty rural childhood, so I KNOW most people don't have those experiences.

We used to shoot bottle rockets at each other, and had bb gun fights...not quite clambering, but still not as tame as the childhoods kids have nowadays...and again, those are all things I did NOT expect others to have experienced...but bee stings, scraped knees, and splinters and bruises? Yeah, I thought they were universal....

[Zyzyfer]

Eh? Not sure I get ya. The stings were both accidents.

I had one particularly bloody accident where I rode my bicycle into a ditch and blood was spewing from my mouth. Stuff like that is what I meant by spills.

Oddly enough, even though I did dumb things like jump off of big skateboard ramps to the ground and was clumsy as hell, I never broke a bone until two months ago.

[thegadfly]

[jvalmer]

Been stung once by a hornet, or something (wasn't a bee), when I was in my first year of University while mowing the lawn.

Also, have you seen some of the Korean hornets flying around? They drag their legs and are huge.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Asian_giant_hornet

Might be a reason most your students haven't been stung by something, they are probably taught to stay far, far, away from these things.

I once half emptied a can of spray in class on one of those suckers.