I was discussing the finer points of paraphrasing with my students last week, and we were practicing our paraphrasing skills on a passage from Consumer Reports about the effectiveness of bike helmets in preventing head injuries/death in bike crashes. The students and I were joking with each other about the fact that no one in China wears bike helmets even though tons of folks ride bikes. They couldn't see the point of wearing one. The safety level regarding vehicles here reminds me of the U.S. three or four decades ago. No one wears seat belts in cars (some people even cut them out of their car). In fact, taxi drivers get a little pissy if you buckle up; they take it as an insult (i.e., you don't think that they are good drivers). People hold their babies on their laps in the front seat of the car (no child car seats for sale, as far as I can tell). Few people wear head protection when riding motorcycles or scooters. If you do see someone wearing head protection, it's usually a construction-site type hard hat.
What cracks me up is that every little kid I've seen on roller blades wears a helmet. Because that's MUCH more dangerous than riding a bike.
1 comment:
A while back, I wrote about a similar situation in Taiwan. I think it has gotten better here, though. The interesting thing I found when talking to my students here about a motorcycle helmet law was that no one argued against such a law on the basis of personal freedoms. I remember motorcyclists in the States protesting against helmet laws as infringements on their rights...
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