Betel nut uses

My point is that compares to tobacco and booze, both can also be very disgusting when used with poor habits, and can also cause just as many health issues, people seem to look down on betel nut users more.

Mind you, when you smoke tobacco, others get hurt from second hand smoke. When you drink irresponsibly and drive, others could get hurt from vehicular accidents. When you spit betel nut juice on the floor, the worst that happens is someone else has to clean it up.

HS, you’ll probably know about this, isn’t it also the case that indigenous Taiwanese traditionally grew their own tobacco and this practice was wiped out by the Taiwan tobacco monopoly, including actual arrests and prosecutions?

I would say it is like a mix between chewing tobacco (or smoking a cigarette) and having a strong coffee. Effects last 20 minutes at best. It wakes you up and can help you focus. It also can make blood rush to your head and feel very hot and sweaty.

Not really worth it in my opinion but I can see why the workers use it - primarily to stay awake.

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That’s a good description of the effects. For me it also felt like a combo of chewing tobacco and strong coffee, providing a coffee-like pickup mixed with a hot flash and a little light-headedness. I also made the rookie mistake of swallowing the juice. Not a mistake I would make a second time.

Considering tobacco is only native to the Americas, and could only have been introduced by the Dutch or the Spanish at the earliest, while some tribes probably didn’t get into the action until the Japanese.

Aboriginal words for tobacco includes:
tamaku - Bunun, Seediq, Paiwan, Rukai, Thao, Tsou, Puyuma, Pazeh, Kaxabu, Taivoan
tamaku’ - Mayrinax Atayal, Plngawan Atayal
tamako - Kanakanabu, ‘Oponoho
tamako’ - Saisiyat
tumaku - Teldreka
maku - Ci’uli Atayal
sababake - Thakongadavane
tjamaku - South Paiwan
tabaku - Sakizaya, Northern Pangcah, Basay
tbaku’ - Squliq Atayal
abow tbaku - Ts’ole Atayal
tabko - Tao
tebaku - Kavalan
tbaku - Kavalan
rahlxngutamaku - Hla’alua
finkes - Coastal Pangcah
rnabawlumak - Truku
puqan - Toda

We can sort of guess how early a word is borrowed by how much sound change occurred. Most of these are obviously loanwords from tobacco, however the ones with an /m/ instead of a /b/ in the second syllable probably were borrowed much earlier.

Those with a /b/ were probably Japanese loanwords, and the ones with an /m/ were probably Spanish or Dutch loanwords. It’s worth noting most Pingpu aboriginals use the /m/ version. Finkes sounds like a borrow from the Dutch word for fingers, perhaps describing the shape of cigars, puqan sounds like a Holo loanword for pu-ian (哹煙).

So, for those who got tobacco from the Dutch or the Spanish, their 200 year old tradition of growing was cut short by the Japanese state monopoly.

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I don’t know. Cigarette smokers are looked down a lot these days. Maybe not as much in Taiwan as in the states, but it’s catching up.

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I like betel nut girls which are not so much a health concern.

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Do you know why? You can not spit the juice on the street now, but very often they just throw their spit-cup they use on the road, making a huge mess. Plastic, juice, nuts, not a pretty sight!

Throwing out cigarette butts isn’t nice either, but spit-cups is just disgusting.

There should be something about chewing that makes you feel different, why chew? So, it’s like driving after a beer or two?

[insert smutty STD joke here]

C’mon now. Betelnut girls are very fine people.

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I thought the problem was that you would get oral cancer from kissing them.

Oh, wait. :doh:

The betelnut girls don’t get high off their own supply. This is drug dealing 101, man.

  1. Who says it’s “their own” supply? Labor issues 101, man.
  2. That’s not what my second line was about. :zipper_mouth_face:

You think all those street dealers are selling “their own” supply? Get woke!

Doubleyou the eff, dude, I’m saying they ain’t! You’re saying they are.

It’s just a handy mnemonic, dude. You’re taking it too literally (as usual).

Betel nut girls are like Monet paintings. Beautiful from afar, but a rough mess up close.

So’s this.

@discobot quote

:left_speech_bubble: I have been impressed with the urgency of doing. Knowing is not enough; we must apply. Being willing is not enough; we must do. — Leonardo da Vinci

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I don’t know about that. I think thick pancake makeup covering bruises holds up well to close viewing.

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