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riceNbeans
Joined: 17 Apr 2007
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 Posted: Sat May 19, 2007 6:19 am Post subject: Why all the spitting, seriously, why? |
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I was walking down the street tonight and I saw a group of good looking girls. Next thing I know, this girls spits. A second later, I turn the corner and a 20 something guys let�s one go.
I have been I Korea for almost two years now and I have seen Koreans of all ages do this. Sometimes, I notice that people will spit continually while talking to friends or whatever. I�m sure they must leave a nasty puddle. I�ve noticed that the older men don�t spit but rather, hawk lugs and hurl nasty throat butter. The kids, or younger people tend to drip out saliva. It�s not like they are chewing tobacco or anything like that. In Taiwan, especially in the south, a lot of guys spit up red stuff from the beetle nut that they chew. It makes you salivate a lot.
So, if no one is chewing anything, why all the spitting? I�ve never seen so much spitting in my life! The Chinese come close, but I still think the Koreans got em beat on this one. Is this a monkey see monkey do thing? Why, why, why? Someone please help me understand! |
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spliff
Joined: 19 Jan 2004
Location: Khon Kaen, Thailand
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| Posted: Sat May 19, 2007 6:23 am Post subject: |
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| They don't like to swallow. |
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Guri Guy
Joined: 07 Sep 2003
Location: Bamboo Island
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Richard Krainium
Joined: 12 Jan 2006
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| Posted: Sat May 19, 2007 1:45 pm Post subject: |
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| spliff wrote: |
| They don't like to swallow. |
Some do.  |
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huck
Joined: 19 Jan 2003
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| Posted: Sat May 19, 2007 3:56 pm Post subject: |
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The pollution and yellow dust in the spring can get some funky stuff in growing in your throat/sinuses...
Would you rather swallow a huge wad of yellow snot that's in your throat, or would you spit it out? If you swallow it, that's like eating from a used kleenex after someone has blown their nose...I see nothing wrong with spitting, even though they could be a bit more discrete about it sometimes. |
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crazy_arcade
Joined: 05 Nov 2006
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| Posted: Sat May 19, 2007 5:54 pm Post subject: |
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A lot of Korean's think it's disgusting and low class.
The principal at my middle school has noticed how much the students have been spitting and is planning a large scale school wide education program on spitting and littering.
Some people seem to think it's cool or makes them "hard' when they spit. And, yeah, seeing a girl spit is a huge turnoff. I'd expect seeing a guy spit would be too. However, I often a couple of young guys hanging out with a bunch of cute girls and the dude will be reaching as far back into their mucus reserves as possible and horking while hanging out chatting. Nasty. |
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jvalmer
Joined: 06 Jun 2003
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| Posted: Sat May 19, 2007 7:54 pm Post subject: |
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| I think if they had more garbage cans in public places, people would spit into the garbage cans. At least, that's what my friends do back home. |
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SuperFly
Joined: 09 Jul 2003
Location: In the doghouse
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| Posted: Sat May 19, 2007 7:57 pm Post subject: |
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| crazy_arcade wrote: |
A lot of Korean's think it's disgusting and low class.
The principal at my middle school has noticed how much the students have been spitting and is planning a large scale school wide education program on spitting and littering.
Some people seem to think it's cool or makes them "hard' when they spit. And, yeah, seeing a girl spit is a huge turnoff. I'd expect seeing a guy spit would be too. However, I often a couple of young guys hanging out with a bunch of cute girls and the dude will be reaching as far back into their mucus reserves as possible and horking while hanging out chatting. Nasty. |
No one in my wifes family spits. Not one engineer I work with (450) has ever spit in my presence. I agree, lots of Koreans don't. We just seem to only notice the ones who do. |
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cbeck13
Joined: 29 Dec 2006
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| Posted: Sat May 19, 2007 8:07 pm Post subject: |
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| you've been breathing in this air for two years and you don't know why they spit. i want you lungs. and they spit a hell of a lot more in china, at least beijing. |
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crazy_arcade
Joined: 05 Nov 2006
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| Posted: Sat May 19, 2007 9:38 pm Post subject: |
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| cbeck13 wrote: |
| you've been breathing in this air for two years and you don't know why they spit. i want you lungs. and they spit a hell of a lot more in china, at least beijing. |
Japan is breathing the same air as Korea and they don't spit a lot. England has had industrialized air pollution longer than anyone else in the world so do people spit there a lot?
Most people say people in Beijing spit because of all the dust from the Gobi. |
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crazy_arcade
Joined: 05 Nov 2006
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| Posted: Sat May 19, 2007 9:40 pm Post subject: |
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| cbeck13 wrote: |
| you've been breathing in this air for two years and you don't know why they spit. i want you lungs. and they spit a hell of a lot more in china, at least beijing. |
Japan is breathing the same air as Korea and they don't spit a lot. England has had industrialized air pollution longer than anyone else in the world so do people spit there a lot?
Most people say people in Beijing spit because of all the dust from the Gobi. However, it's not like people need to clear their throat and spit every couple of minutes. It's just a bad habit that becomes and addictive to the point where people are doing it a lot pretty much unconsciously. A little good education on the matter can fix it up.
I remember in Elementary school when my friends and I went thought a huge spitting phase. That was until one cute girl said, "Why are boys spitting so much...that's gross." Spitting habit stopped. |
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Dev
Joined: 18 Apr 2006
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| Posted: Sat May 19, 2007 10:09 pm Post subject: |
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My explanation is because Koreans are copycats.
How else do you explain old Korean men lip smacking and old Korean women gum cracking? Oddly, these two annoying habits are not shared between the sexes. |
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LiquidSunshine
Joined: 31 Mar 2003
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| Posted: Sat May 19, 2007 10:15 pm Post subject: |
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| smoking makes you spit |
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Alyallen
Joined: 29 Mar 2004
Location: The 4th Greatest Place on Earth = Jeonju!!!
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| Posted: Sat May 19, 2007 10:59 pm Post subject: |
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| huck wrote: |
The pollution and yellow dust in the spring can get some funky stuff in growing in your throat/sinuses...
Would you rather swallow a huge wad of yellow snot that's in your throat, or would you spit it out? If you swallow it, that's like eating from a used kleenex after someone has blown their nose...I see nothing wrong with spitting, even though they could be a bit more discrete about it sometimes. |
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tuberculosis
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| TB is spread by aerosol droplets expelled by people with the active disease of the lungs when they cough, sneeze, speak, kiss, spit or use the unsterilized eating utensils of the infected person. These infectious droplets are 0.5 to 5 �m in diameter and about 40,000 can be produced by a single sneeze.[16] People with prolonged, frequent, or intense contact are at highest risk of becoming infected, with an estimated 22% infection rate. A person with untreated, active tuberculosis can infect 10�15 other people per year.[2] |
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Tiger Beer
Joined: 07 Feb 2003
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| Posted: Sat May 19, 2007 11:34 pm Post subject: Re: Why all the spitting, seriously, why? |
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| riceNbeans wrote: |
| I was walking down the street tonight and I saw a group of good looking girls. Next thing I know, this girls spits. A second later, I turn the corner and a 20 something guys let�s one go. |
Where are you living? It seems to vary significantly from place to place.
I almost never see spitting where I'm living in Seoul.. but years ago when I lived in a remote corner of Busan (Deokchondong), I saw it all the time.
My personal opinion is some places are very educated about it, and others simply aren't. I also heard in certain Chinese cities, they banned spitting, but obviously most of China, they haven't.
Same with standing in lines. Years ago in Busan, it didn't seem like Koreans could stand in line properly or enter elevators or subways properly - generally a huge pushing match. Now, in 2007 (compared to back then in 1996), the Seoul subways are incredibly organized and orderly comparitively to back then. Years of public education programs did the trick in certain areas like Seoul, but probably not in the rural areas. |
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