After the Mexican flue, SARS and MERS it was about time the world got hit by another pandemic. Allegedly, this time it all started on a Wuhan wet market where the locals buy their portion of snake and armadillo meat. In this post, I share some virus-related key vocabulary and firsthand footage from Corona-survivors.
(Note: this article was posted on 31 January 2020.)
Shortage of face masks
To start on an optimistic note: Did you know that if you’re still alive today, you’re a virus-survivor too? (One of 7.7 billion people)! If you were planning to go to China, you might want to postpone your next trip though and wear one of those trendy face masks if you use public transport, just in case. That is if you can still lay your (disinfected) hands on one. For this Chinese YouTuber it all seems too late.
China is red
It’s a very, very serious situation, so I did some homework on the virus-related key vocabulary that you read in the Chinese news. “For your daily apocalypse click here”. The virus is everywhere. It’s amazing how quickly bad news spreads and people start panicking. Even here in Europe many ten thousands miles away from the disaster zone the news is dominated by it. Online news papers provide hourly updates as if the world will perish. It’s almost like a drug.
Business opportunities
But where disaster strikes, you’ll also find business opportunities! Do you think 25 bucks is a good price to protect yourself against virus infection? The Asian girl on the picture sure does. Did they pick an Asian girl for a reason or is it just me? From what I hear masks in Germany and many other countries are sold out at the moment.
武汉加油！
Meanwhile people in Wuhan can’t go nowhere, so during the long cold nights they started shouting at each other to uplift their spirits. A rather unusual spectacle, isn’t it? It’s hard to imagine a complete lock-down on such a gigantic city.
| 新冠病毒 | Xīnguān bìngdú | New corona virus |
| 感染新冠病毒的人 | gǎnrǎn xīnguān bìngdú de rén | People infected with the new corona virus |
Who can you trust?
Virus vocabulary
| 感染 | gǎnrǎn | to infect |
| 感染新冠病毒的人 | gǎnrǎn xīnguān bìngdú dí rén | people infected with the new corona virus |
| 受到病毒感染 | shòudào bìngdú gǎnrǎn | get infected with the virus |
| 无症状感染者 | wú zhèngzhuàng gǎnrǎn zhě | people that are infected but do not display any symptoms |
| 传染他人 | chuánrǎn tārén | contaminate others |
| 有传染力 | yǒu chuánrǎn lì | to be contagious or to have “contaminating power” |
The ultimate learning video
| 确诊 | quèzhěn | confirmed diagnosis |
| 确诊病例 | quèzhěn bìnglì | confirmed cases |
| 死亡人数 | sǐwáng rénshù | number of dead people |
| 2%死亡率 | 2% sǐwáng lǜ | death rate of 2 % |
What’s this Corona virus anyway?
| 封城 | fēng chéng | sealed city |
| 宣布”封城” | xuānbù”fēng chéng” | to announce that the city is sealed |
| 武汉 | wǔhàn | Wuhan |
| 症状 | zhèngzhuàng | symptoms |
| 无症状携带病毒者 | wú zhèngzhuàng xiédài bìngdú zh | infected people without symptoms |
| 治疗 | zhìliáo | medical treatment |
| 接受治疗 | jiēshòu zhìliáo | receive medical treatment |
| 扩散 | kuòsàn | to spread |
| 病毒扩散 | bìngdú kuòsàn | the spreading of the virus |
The best vocabulary list, sorted by language level, on the Corona virus I found so far, you can download here.
