Korean Job Discussion Forums

Hyeon Een · Joined: 24 Jun 2005

Let's talk about snakes. In what ways have you run into snakes in Korea? Here's a few of my snake things in Korea:

(1) I had a conversation class with some 6th grade elementary school students and the topic was sickness. One lad told me about the time he had a fever when he was staying with his grandparents. On realizing that his young grandson was sick the grandfather took his medical care into his own hands. He fetched his best wacking stick and went snake hunting on his farm. After a couple of hours he'd managed to bludgeon two good sized snakes to death and brought them home. At home grandmother used one snake to make a nutritious stew to cure the grandson (it worked =) ) and grandfather made himself some snake liquor for stamina.

(2) I taught at a University Language Center for a while and one of my students lived in a small small village just outside of the city. We were talking about things we hate. This guy hated snakes. Unlike most people who hate snakes this guy actually came into contact with them often. In his village there were often snakes hanging around. When he came home from uni late at night he used to use a flashlight as he walked through his village to his house. He frequently ran into snakes. Interestingly his reason for hating snakes wasn't that we was scared of them (he saw them a lot) but because the snakes in his neighbourhood weren't scared of HIM. He used to stamp his boots to get rid of the snakes, but apparentely they stopped being scared after a while and refused to move. This made him angry =)

(3) I went for a walk across a mountain one morning before class and ran across a snakeskin. Then about 10 minutes later I ran into a snake that was about 3m long. It was long and brown. It slithered away. The End.

(4) I was in an eel restaurant (Ok, not really snakes, but they're often called sea snakes here..) and I and my girlfriend were given a glass of bear bile soju as service. Good for stamina apparantely.. Not so good on the taste front though.

Anyone else ran into any snakes or Korean snake stories?

Ya-ta Boy · Joined: 16 Jan 2003 Location: Established in 1994

"If you whistle at night, snakes might come to you."

That's as close as I want to come to a snake in Korea or anywhere else.

ajgeddes · Joined: 28 Apr 2004 Location: Yongsan

I ran into a Viper my first month in Korea. We were up in the mountains and came across it. I will post some pics of it when I get my external hard drive set up.

bluelake · Joined: 01 Dec 2005

Hyeon Een · Joined: 24 Jun 2005

PGF · Joined: 27 Nov 2006

I've eaten rattlesnake back home, not so much for the taste as for the experience. But, when one of my adult students who is a CEO of a large corp., tried to take me to the country to eat dog, I insisted that we eat snake instead because eating dog is bad luck in my culture (dog is mans' best friend).

I've never seen a korean act so disturbed. The old guy had to play the part of the old guy who eats all things korean that is supposed to make their d ick hard. however, on the inside, he was a wreck. he fiddled with his chopsticks like a newbie watching live octopus pieces squirm on his plate for the first time. He later told me how much he hated snakes and he thought they were dirty and disgusting (he's a christian- 7th day adventist and brainwashed).

Yet, he choked down a bit of snake.... I was proud that I saved a dog and massacred a delicious reptile that tasted like ...... what else but chicken.

sistersarah · Joined: 03 Jan 2004 Location: hiding out

My husband's little cousin (about 10 years old) was bitten by a poisonous snake a year and a half ago. He was swimming in a creek in the countryside when he got bit. The kid was in the hospital for a week. Don't mess with snakes!

Korlingus · Joined: 01 Sep 2007

I've saw a few garter snakes and a yellow rat snake. The only poisonous snakes I saw were in botles of soju.

Here's a link to a site (in Korean) with good pics...

http://jdm0777.com.ne.kr/bem/bem.htm

Hyeon Een · Joined: 24 Jun 2005

rokricky · Joined: 18 Feb 2006 Location: Yongsan, Seoul

There are poisonous snakes here???? Shocked

Wait....don't tell me.....I prefer ignorance in these cases, because odds you'll run into a poisonous snake are very low, and then that it'll bite you.....It just ends up becoming an irrational fear.

I'd rather just go about pretending there are none.

Horangi Munshin · Joined: 06 Apr 2003 Location: Busan

My funny story about snakes happened in Seoul.

One of my flatmates and I were wandering through Dongdaemun market. We came across a crowd of men standing around a guy who had a microphone taped to his chest. Around him were what looked like big paint pails.
We stopped to listen and find out what the hell had attracted the curiosity of all the adjoshi. The guy with the microphone reached into one of the paint pails and pulled out a snake. It was thin and maybe 4-5 feet long. He then went on about something.
My flatmate and I were new to Korea and had no idea about what he was talking about. He kept on but used some sign language pointing at the snake then pointing at his crotch.
At that point my flatmate and I cracked up laughing. He noticed us and get quite angry telling us to get lost I suppose.

The other time I saw a snake was near Dongnae subway station in Busan. Similar story, a guy had a really fat python on a stretcher this time and a group of adjoshi were gathered around looking at it.