Disclaimer - these 'facts' may or may not be facts...
Some funny things I have heard
As you can probably imagine I have spent ALOT of time Googling information on South Korea, and through my online travels I have read some pretty interesting things. Some of them might be complete bullshit, but others may just be true. At the request of a friend (Nay - shout out to you pal!) I thought I might start putting some of the more interesting stories up in here. So, bit of a disclaimer here, these so called Korea facts may or may not be true. Its just things I have heard or read. And there are probably WAY more, so by all means if you hear something funny/weird/gross/interesting/scary or whatever please post it up! Drop me a comment, or an email, or fb me or whatever! I love new information :)
Korean 'Fan Death'
This one is all over other people's blogs... Its pretty ridiculous, but the theory is that if you leave a fan on inside while you are sleeping, and you haven't left a window or a door open, you might die. Apparently death can be caused by asphyxiation, the fan can suck the oxygen out of the room and leave you with no air. Another theory is that your body temperature lowers too much and you die of hypothermia. And another theory says that the fan blowing air over your mouth/face moves too quickly, and people cannot get enough air and therefore die. There have been documented deaths and during summer the government issues health warning about fan death.
Check out this link -
So there you go, fans can, and DO kill. Beware of fans.
And this pic just made me lol. I am totally going to start up a pics page, and put this one in there... It's like - "the Fan did it"
"Unlucky" things
This, I would imagine, may be a common theme throughout parts of East Asia. In fact, every culture has things that they consider to be 'unlucky' so I am not sure if this really counts. But it made me giggle, so I will put a few in...
The number 4
Number 4 is super unlucky, it has some link with death. I am not sure why... but there you go (I will do some research and see if I can find the reason).
In elevators and things like that, there is no 4th floor. Rather than using the number, they actually write 'fourth' or just the letter 'F'. Some building even leave out 4 all together and just go straight to 5. I was telling someone about this the other day, and they told me that its common in hotels and things to not have a13th floor. Thats why they often have a dining room or something like that on the 12th so they can go straight to 14 after (have a really big/high level I suppose...) so its not just them. But still, its just a number...
Writing in red ink
Also very unlucky. If you write someones name in red ink, apparently it works a little bit like a Death Note... You are increasing their chances of dying. I have read on a few ESL teacher blogs that its best not to do corrections in red pen either, as it can really upset the kids. It actually freaks them out. :s
Tongue Surgery
This one is a bit different. The belief is that if you have that part of your tongue that joins it to the bottom of your mouth cut, then you can speak better English. It has to do with pronunciation... So mothers think they they are helping their kids out by getting them to have tongue surgery and then being able to speak better English. I really do not believe this is the case, I am sure that with some practice and a good teacher they can pronounce English words just fine. But there you go.
Believe it... Or not?
I will totally check these things out when I get there :D
xx
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