Korean Job Discussion Forums

capo di tutti capo · Joined: 18 Oct 2008 Location: Seoul

Every nations has their culture of wives tales. A wild bird flying into your house bodes ill luck or death, cramps and drowning if you swim within an hour after eating, shattered mirrors bring 7 years bad luck, etc, etc. I've noticed that East Asian cultures have the tendency to be more superstitious than the majority of Western cultures. What are your favourite Korean wives tales or superstitions?

Ubiquitous fan death; this is my personal all time favourite.

Eating food before you go to sleep will make your face puffy.

Don't cut your nails after dark or you'll be doomed to a life of poverty.

jvalmer · Joined: 06 Jun 2003

Drinking water during your meal is bad for your health. I wonder why soup isn't included in the drinking of water? Since soup is water with flavor.

Frankly Mr Shankly · Joined: 13 Feb 2008

Not sure of this one, but my mate told me his Kwife said that if you laugh after you cry you'll get a hairy a$$hole.

Chewing gum gives you a square jaw.

Rotten, fermented skate meat* is good for your stamina

*insert any other 'traditional' food here.

lugnut_9754 · Joined: 19 Oct 2008 Location: Ulsan, South Korea

RACETRAITOR · Joined: 24 Oct 2005 Location: Seoul, South Korea

Wow, that water one freaks me out.

One funny one that might be more of a middle school thing involves umbrellas. If you have one of those long umbrellas, you can use it to find out if a girl's a virgin. Just hand it to her when she's sitting; if she holds it between her legs, she's not a virgin.

Jarome_Turner · Joined: 10 Sep 2004

Ya I've been told the water one many times, never bought into it tho.

EzeWong · Joined: 26 Mar 2008 Location: Seoul

China's the worst ,

That crap starts getting annoying
For example:

You can't someone a clock for their birthday apparently the same word means death or some crap.

The letter 4 is supersitious, no buildings have 4 in them, or rooms with them (way to choose a common low number)

Like koreans, chopsticks in the rice is for dead people.

You shouldn't wear white, it's for funerals

You shouldn't marry someone with incompabitle zodiac, or else you'll have an unhappy marrige.

Apparently having a mirror visible or facing your bed or somethign is bad luck too. Some ghost shit that makes no sense...

There's a whole collection of random crap chinese supersitions, Sorry I'm chinese american so, if you detect slight bias, you'd be right.

girlcabbie · Joined: 15 Oct 2008

There's American diet book on low GI (good carb/bad carb) that suggests that _not_ drinking water helps you lose weight because it slows your digestion? Sounds fishy to me.

Jarome_Turner · Joined: 10 Sep 2004

My fiance keeps telling me the reason I don't sleep well at night is probably because our bed isn't alligned properly with the way the water flows under our house. I just smile and nod.

Horangi Munshin · Joined: 06 Apr 2003 Location: Busan

Does pricking your thumb and rubbing your arm actually help a sore stomach?

crescent · Joined: 15 Jan 2003 Location: yes.

Pleasuring your son to climax will help his nerves before the big exam.

livinginkunsan · Joined: 02 Dec 2006

Easter Clark · Joined: 18 Nov 2007 Location: Hiding from Yie Eun-woong

For hiccups, hold your nose and swallow (water or some other liquid) three times. This is true, actually. Very Happy

RJjr · Joined: 17 Aug 2006 Location: Turning on a Lamp

RACETRAITOR · Joined: 24 Oct 2005 Location: Seoul, South Korea

In defence of Koreans and Turks, there are still plenty of westerners who believe in astrology.

And to be even more fair to Koreans, who believe in some pretty ridiculous aphrodisiacs--dog meat, phallic mushrooms, phallic hot peppers, etc--well, there are still plenty of westerners who believe that asparagus and oysters are aphrodisiacs.

But yeah, we don't have anything that comes close to fan death.