Korean Job Discussion Forums

[simonandmartina]

When I taught in Canada I was told to be very aware of students' allergies. Here, I haven't heard of a single student with an allergy. Are there peanut allergies here, or is it just a North American thing.

It sounds stupid for me to ask, because I'm sure other people must have peanut allergies, or anything allergies, but I just haven't met any, apart from the odd alcohol allergy that makes someone's face really, really red.

[Jane]

Funny thing: I asked the same question last week. My friends who are teachers or parents back in Canada go on and on about how strict school are about what food can be brought to school and in what containers.

But, Korea doesn't seem to have this concern. And, Korean air still serves peanuts! Air Canada has gone as far as to have a peanut-free section on the plane.

[caniff]

[Skippy]

The Koreans are genetically superior to us - they have no arm hair and now they have no peanut allergies

Actually check this link out!

http://koreamed.org/SearchBasic.php?RID=648159&DT=1&QY=%22Peanut+allergy%22+[KW]

[PatrickGHBusan]

Now that you mention it OP, I cannot recall discussions on peanut allergies while I was in Korea. This may be because its not discussed or well known as an allergy.

In Canada, its everywhere however. Then again, the tracking on peanut allergies has intensified in recent years so you hear about it often.


I like the standup comic who joked about peanut allergies in the US. He said something along the lines of if your kid can die by touching a door knob that was previously touched by another kid who had peanutbutter for breakfast then sorry but your kid is not gonna make it....

[denverdeath]

Had a student who had the allergy. Found out about it when I tried to share my Snickers bar with him. It does exist.

p.s. Think it was those bars that also contained melamine or whatever it's called. Whatever. He's still alive.

[J Rock]

[quote="Skippy"]The Koreans are genetically superior to us - they have no arm hair and now they have no peanut allergies

Now that we're talking about it why do Koreans have little or no arm hair and not much facial hair? I bet if you asked a Korean the answer they gave would be different from a scientific answer. Now i'm curious.

[simonandmartina]

Ok, so I'm not crazy. I remember one school I taught at in Canada told me that I can't bring oranges. If I so much as peel it one of the staff members will become deathly it from the fumes.

Something about that worries me, and it really makes me wonder why that's not such a concern here. It's either poorly tracked or just non-existent.

Or, it could be all the kimchi. Kimchi cures allergies.

[reactionary]

I'm sure some Koreans have peanut allergies - they just haven't had any/enough high profile cases to ban peanuts from all schools and public places. Remember how airlines used to serve honey roasted peanuts 20 years ago? Hell I used to get served peanut butter and jelly sandwiches in school. give it time.

We're the ones coming from "liability" cultures that ban everything "just in case."

[djsmnc]

[jvalmer]

Peanut allergies is rare among Asians, and almost unheard of in SE Asia where in some countries peanut oil is almost universally used in cooking.

Based on my non-scientific opinion, it's mostly about exposure. Many North American kids are raised in a too clean environment and don't build up an immunity to many elements.

[ThingsComeAround]

Most Asians are "allergic" to milk

But they sure do love ice cream

[Mr. Pink]

[Mr. BlackCat]

While I agree many 'allergies' are in the head, many are very real. The most deathly are also the most common; shellfish and peanuts. But let's not forget that many people are 'intolerant' of other foods (dairy and the main component in most breads (I'm totally drawing a blank on the name right now, starts with g...I think)).

I think the reason why allergies are not so prevelant in Korea is due to an insular population that hasn't moved much from its home for a very long time. Plus Koreans tend to eat the same food, with not much diversity within their diet. Think of all the different kinds of foods Western kids are exposed to (for better or for worse) compared to Korean kids. Even most of the 'foreign' foods adopted here are heavily Koreanized. I'm not knocking it, in fact there's a whole movement now in the West all about only eating foods from your area for this very reason.

Anyway, just because Koreans don't recognize allergies doesn't mean they don't exist. This is still a country that reports any death not understood right away as caused by a running fan. When my parents went to school there were no allergy warnings and I'm sure kids suffered and/or died all the time and no one knew why, or it was considered a freak accident. The problem I see is that once something is explained many people tend to over-diagnose and treat it. See also: behavioural disfunctions and asthma.

[Hyeon Een]

Koreans do suffer from allergies, but peanut allergies are almost unheard of. I recently did a discussion class about 'dangerous foods' (based around an article about the Korean talent who nearly died from eating blowfish recently). Anyway the students had a list of food like this:
shellfish
spinach
peanuts
etc. and had to talk about if they were dangerous and how so.

Out of about 60 students only one had even heard of peanut allergies (she had an American friend with a peanut allergy).

Peanut allergies have, for unknown reasons, become increasingly more common in N. America. I believe around 1% of the population has them now. The number of children with peanut allergies doubled between 1997-2002. I suspect that in most posters grandparents' youth the allergy would have been almost unheard of.

The most common food allergies that Koreans seem to suffer from are: peaches, cucumber and alcohol.