View previous topic :: View next topic |
Author |
Message |
sojourner1

Joined: 17 Apr 2007 Location: Where meggi swim and 2 wheeled tractors go sput put chug alugg pug pug
|
Posted: Fri Oct 31, 2008 5:43 am Post subject: Why so much strong halitosis (bad breath) in Korea? |
|
|
Often when people talk to me or just in the same room, the breath knocks me out in disgust. I hate to knock Korea, but I'm continually grossing out on the breath many men are packing. They sure are packing a strong punch of an odor. I've never smelled anything like it anywhere else and wonder on a daily basis what causes it. I noticed in cro
Is this considered a serious problem in Korea? I know in the west it would limit your social opportunities, job opportunity, and anything involving people. I never smelled bad breath like this in the west, despite being around many Asian people. I feel it's not a race thing, but a Korean thing.
Why do so many Korean men have strong knock you out severe halitosis? |
|
Back to top |
|
 |
VanIslander

Joined: 18 Aug 2003 Location: Geoje, Hadong, Tongyeong,... now in a small coastal island town outside Gyeongsangnamdo!
|
Posted: Fri Oct 31, 2008 5:49 am Post subject: |
|
|
gimchi |
|
Back to top |
|
 |
SA gal
Joined: 18 Oct 2008
|
Posted: Fri Oct 31, 2008 6:30 am Post subject: |
|
|
not just the guys, my female co workers stink bad as well |
|
Back to top |
|
 |
Mix1
Joined: 08 May 2007
|
Posted: Fri Oct 31, 2008 6:34 am Post subject: |
|
|
Bad breath exists all over the world. And if a person smokes, that makes it even more potent. Also, bad breath is a two way street. How do you know you don't smell just as bad?
Still, it's depressing when you kiss someone and all you can taste is the kimchee chiggae they had for lunch. It's a good thing I like kimchee chiggae though, or I'd have never gotten to second base.
 |
|
Back to top |
|
 |
okokok

Joined: 27 Aug 2006
|
Posted: Fri Oct 31, 2008 6:39 am Post subject: |
|
|
Mix1 wrote: |
It's a good thing I like kimchee chiggae though, or I'd have never gotten to second base.
 |
In Korea, second base is such a let down. You gotta swing for the fence every time. |
|
Back to top |
|
 |
ciccone_youth

Joined: 03 Mar 2008 Location: Japan
|
Posted: Fri Oct 31, 2008 6:40 am Post subject: |
|
|
It's the kimchi and garlic.
I wonder if we smell weird to them also? |
|
Back to top |
|
 |
esetters21

Joined: 30 Apr 2006 Location: Seoul
|
Posted: Fri Oct 31, 2008 6:49 am Post subject: |
|
|
ciccone_youth wrote: |
It's the kimchi and garlic.
I wonder if we smell weird to them also? |
Dammit..I'm the bastard here. My gf is Korean and hates Kimchi and for the most part doesn't like Korean food. Her breath never smells bad.
I, in turn am a smoker and drinker and onion and garlic lover. Poor girl! |
|
Back to top |
|
 |
theholyinnocent
Joined: 06 Apr 2008
|
Posted: Fri Oct 31, 2008 9:02 am Post subject: |
|
|
ciccone_youth wrote: |
It's the kimchi and garlic.
I wonder if we smell weird to them also? |
The Koreans I work with (I'm in the US) once told me that my male co-workers "smell like cheese" if they work too hard. Then a disagreement broke out over whether they smelled more like cheese or butter. Really, the thought of either made me want to puke.
Then they were like, "You don't eat cheese and butter, right? Because you don't smell like it." I actually don't eat much dairy at all, especially not cheese and only small amounts of butter, so their comment surprised me. I mean, it would have if I'd had time to be surprised before I ran to the bathroom to puke at the thought of cheese-breath and cheese-armpits.
As far as the breath of the Koreans I work with, it seems to be more that they just don't care. Like, if I have coffee, I reflexively get kind of self-conscious about breathing too close to other people until I have some gum or something. But they don't seem to have that hesitation. It's kind of like how no matter how many years I've been eating Korean food, I instinctively reach up to shield my mouth from view if I can't fit an entire bite of noodles into my mouth at once -- and thus have to either bite it in half or (horrors) slurp it in. They can't believe that I do that without thinking, and they always tell me to relax. But it just happens naturally. Same with staying at arm's length if I've eaten something really spicy or just had coffee or whatever. It seems like less-than-minty-fresh breath is something they don't really find all that embarrassing? So like their breath doesn't get worse than other people's, but they take fewer steps to hide it. |
|
Back to top |
|
 |
Faunaki
Joined: 15 Jun 2007
|
Posted: Fri Oct 31, 2008 9:07 am Post subject: |
|
|
Rule:
Eat K food = brush your teeth a lot and often. |
|
Back to top |
|
 |
Mix1
Joined: 08 May 2007
|
Posted: Fri Oct 31, 2008 9:22 am Post subject: |
|
|
okokok wrote: |
Mix1 wrote: |
It's a good thing I like kimchee chiggae though, or I'd have never gotten to second base.
 |
In Korea, second base is such a let down. You gotta swing for the fence every time. |
...As opposed to second base in other countries?
Anyway, I was talking about baseball literally.
 |
|
Back to top |
|
 |
bangbayed

Joined: 01 Dec 2005 Location: Seoul
|
Posted: Fri Oct 31, 2008 9:30 am Post subject: |
|
|
Kimchi and rice for breakfast. All you need to know. |
|
Back to top |
|
 |
ernie
Joined: 05 Aug 2006 Location: asdfghjk
|
Posted: Fri Oct 31, 2008 4:48 pm Post subject: |
|
|
the bad breath that i notice is definitely not garlic or smoker's breath. i think it has more to do with people often skipping breakfast here because my co-workers are surprised that i eat breakfast every morning. i can tell if someone is hungry if their breath smells bad. it doesn't matter how many times you brush your teeth because the smell comes from your stomach! |
|
Back to top |
|
 |
IAMAROBOT
Joined: 16 Oct 2008
|
Posted: Fri Oct 31, 2008 5:25 pm Post subject: |
|
|
They don't floss. They sell floss, but nobody buys it and none of the dentists tell anybody to do it. My co-teachers have the idea that flossing will spread their teeth apart. |
|
Back to top |
|
 |
BS.Dos.

Joined: 29 Mar 2007
|
Posted: Fri Oct 31, 2008 5:34 pm Post subject: |
|
|
Not sure about Korean's breathe, but there's a little store underneath my apartment block which I sometimes use and the old woman that runs it is usually there from dawn till dusk everyday, so she has to eat there. I went in there yesterday morning and the place absolutely stank of fish. It was truly fucking awful. This was at about 09:30 and she was sat there eating this putrefying fish matter with all the attendant K side dishes; rice, kimchi, vomit etc. I was literally gagging and I very nearly puked my breakfast up all over her it was so bad. |
|
Back to top |
|
 |
laserprinter

Joined: 18 Jun 2008 Location: Seoul, South Korea
|
Posted: Fri Oct 31, 2008 7:08 pm Post subject: |
|
|
have you noticed their love of dried fish? |
|
Back to top |
|
 |
|