Cold and flu medication

[MoTzu]

Hello, I'm new to china and I don't speak Chinese yet so I'm unable to explain to the pharmacist what I need.

I feel like I'm coming down with a flu and I was wondering if there's anything simple I can ask for in a pharmacist that works fairly quickly similar to codral or any of the other brand name western cold and flu tablets

[James3]

I recently came across someone on one of the language exchange partner sites who is a pharmacist. Wish I could remember where that was...seems like she was in Harbin. Sorry I'm no help.

[kdavid]

Get Contact C: 康泰克. There are two kinds, both with similar packaging--the main difference is one is blue the other red. Buy the red one.

 

Some pharmacies will require a prescription; others won't. Obviously, you'll need to check different pharmacies unless you get lucky at the first one.

 

Good luck!

[JenniferW]

Get the details written in English of the medication you want - generic details, not brand name.  Most pharmacies will have someone who could work from that (in my limited experience).

[MoTzu]

Thanks for the replies guys but I think my assumption I was coming down with the flu was incorrect.

I think it's actually the smog making me sick not the flu

I had to go into the office today and there was another foreigner in there complaining about the same flu symptoms I have and he was told it's not the flu it's the crazy smog we have at the moment, it was literally off the chart 2 days ago with a max of 545

[roddy]

Generally pharmacies will have specialised dictionaries behind the counter. If you walk in with the name of the actual active ingredient ( phenylephrine or pseudoephedrine in this case) you want they'll either know it, or look it up for you. In this case you might get arrested for trying to buy meth-amphetamine precursors, but generally it'll work ;-)

[MoTzu]

tattood white guy with a shaved head trying to buy psuedo by name in a chinese pharmacy, I'll pass lol

Good to know though helpful as ever roddy, you should be getting paid for all the advice you hand out haha

[imron]

the main difference is one is blue the other red. Buy the red one.

Worked out well for Neo.

[studychinese]

Pick up some pseudo for me while you are there. Cheers!

[abcdefg]

I think it's actually the smog making me sick not the flu

 

The mention here and somewhere else recently about Harbin smog has surprised me. I knew it could be bad in winter when all the coal-powered furnaces were fired up and the cold air layer kept smokestack discharge from rising high and blowing away. But I thought the summer air in Harbin was usually pretty clean.

 

I was there in the summer of 2008, and don't remember air pollution being a problem. Have any Harbin old timers noticed a change?

[MPhillips]

Speaking of the pseudoephedrine issue, you're not allowed to buy inhalers for asthma over the counter anymore in the US--what if an asthmatic loses his & can't make it to the hospital in time? I had asthma when I was young & I don't remember any of my druggie classmates wanting to steal a puff. Here an 18 yr. old can sign up to kill people in Afghanistan but can't buy a beer.

[MoTzu]

abcdefg : I don't know how to quote/reply directly to what you said sorry but everyone here appears to be surprised by the smog we're having. I wasn't here last summer to compare but every foreigner I've spoken to that's been here for more than a year said they've never seen it this bad apart from those few days last winter everyone knows about. My trainer has been here 11 years and said she's never seen it like this in summer only winter. Today appears to be clearing up though and the aqi is back down to 95, 3 days ago it hit a top of 545 on a scale that's supposed to end at 500, it was awful, I'd never seen anything like it before.

[MoTzu]

Mphillips : Nothing America does has made sense to me for a long time now. The American teachers I talk to here that have been gone for 5 years or more say they barely recognise the country they left

[MPhillips]

Thanks MoTzu--at least I know I'm not the only one who feels this way! PS--sounds like a couple of days ago Harbin was worse than Pittsburgh(the one-time capital of US steel production) was when I was a kid--it stank the minute you got off the plane. The price of prosperity I guess. Glad it improved so much over there! I hope to make it to the Ice Festival someday.

[abcdefg]

# 12 -- Mo Tzu --

...but every foreigner I've spoken to that's been here for more than a year said they've never seen it this bad apart from those few days last winter everyone knows about.

 

Thanks. That's what I was wondering. Glad to know it isn't that bad all the time. Harbin is on the list of places I like to visit off and on.

[MoTzu]

So the smog cleared and my flu symptoms didn't

Decided to do the rounds of the pharmacies, I showed them the chinese characters you gave me kdavid and they became very agitated, one guy seemed really unimpressed and ushered me out the door very quickly. I'm feeling pretty shitty and walking around wasn't fun so after 3 I gave up and went home to try a different approach. Put on a long sleeve business shirt to hide the tats, put on my reading glasses to look a bit more respectable and walked into the first pharmacy I saw and said ganmao which pleco tells me is common cold. Nice old lady grabs me a pack of psuedo and with body language explains to me to take 1 with a glass of water

[MoTzu]

oh and I ended up with the blue ones just because I don't have the communication skills here to explain I wanted the red ones. They say congestion and runny nose on the pack in English so I'm sure they'll work

[abcdefg]

MoTzu -- I realize you are sick and may not feel like taking on any extra tasks right now. But I'll still throw this out there just in case.

 

One of the things that has helped me learn Chinese has been taking advantage of every opportunity to acquire focused, topical vocabulary, stuff I want to know and use right now. Since you have a cold, flu or some kind of upper respiratory infection, you could learn some terms useful in describing it to a doctor or a pharmacist.

 

There is a lesson dealing with that in every single elementary textbook I have ever seen. Vocabulary for cough, sore throat, headache, fever, runny nose, and so on. Usually there's another lesson about diarrhea.

 

Others may have suggestions of what has worked for them, but one way to go about this project is via Yellow Bridge, in particular their "memory games." Here's a link: http://www.yellowbridge.com/chinese/memory.php

 

Scan through and find several elementary texts with lessons on the subject of colds and flu. Then just grind through the vocabulary on several of them. There's lots of overlap and repetition.

 

Most on-line Chinese-learning sites such as Chinese Pod and Slow Chinese also have beginner lessons on getting sick, since it's a fairly universal experience.

 

Man, I have been absolutely relentless about using every scrap of things like that as a springboard to learn the language in a practical manner, relevant to issues of daily living, since I don't take too well to just learning what's in any standard textbook.

 

Think about it. Might work for you, particularly if your orientation isn't terribly academic.

[MoTzu]

I couldn't agree with you more, I practiced how to say common cold making sure I had the tones right about 20 times before I went in there. I even had a headphone in repeating it over and over as I walked to the pharmacy. It's the same way I've learned to say water, steamed buns, goodbye, and most my counting.

 

It's the same way I learned to speak thai when I was in Thailand for 3 months, by the end of my stay I barely spoke any English there. Learning the correct words to say is easy because I'm a hobbiest programmer, languages are languages. Chinese screws me over though because I have a habbit of disregarding the tones and saying everything with a thick Australian accent

[kdavid]

Re: Recent smog in Harbin.

 

It started getting REALLY bad about two years ago. The past two winters were unbearable.