Korean Job Discussion Forums

[offtheoche]

[hugekebab]

Its the dried fish that really gives it the smell of death. garlic and kimchi just smell like garlic and kimchi.

I have also heard that we smell of rancid butter to them, and that makes complete sense with regard to the western diet.

[ernie]

there sure is a lot of (hopefully) unintentional racist bullshit on this thread! i eat as much kimchi and garlic and drink as much alcohol as your average korean dude and my breath smells fine. i also brush only twice a day, i.e. not after lunch, which is less often than most koreans i've met.

the bottom line is: garlic breath smells like garlic, smokers' breath smells like cigarettes, fish breath smells fishy, and booze breath smells like (surprise surprise) booze. the bad breath i'm thinking about smells nothing like any of these.

here's a simple test: the next time you encounter that HORRIBLE ROTTING STOMACH smell, ask the person if they're hungry. i've done this a few times (you'll notice the smell is the same in korea and in canada) and the person is always surprised, "How did you know?" (you probably shouldn't answer this question truthfully)

instead of carrying around mints, how about a box of crackers or some fruit? this will alleviate the bad breath and make them much happier and more focused in class. i have no idea how anyone can function without eating breakfast. i am a PISSED OFF MONSTER ON THE WARPATH in the morning until i obtain food (and good coffee).

[Freakstar]

I really haven't met many Koreans with bad breath. Maybe cuz I'm Korean-American and eat a lot of kimchi and garlic too...I just don't notice it? Yeah I've encountered kimchi breath, cigarette breath and alcohol breath, but no Koreans with major halitosis or chronic bad breath. At least Koreans don't have major body odor. Hate to be racist (feel free to jump all over me but no one's perfect and though I don't consider myself to be a racist necessarily I do have certain prejudices cuz after all, hey, I'm only human blah blah blah), but I was recently having dinner at a table next to a group of people from Nepal and man, I could smell one guy's body odor from where I was sitting 5 feet away. Every time he lifted his arm to bring his fork or water cup to his mouth, bam!!! I'd get a big whiff of some funky, foul onion smelling odor! No kidding - I nearly gagged through my whole meal. And from the looks of it, the Koreans at the table to the right of this guy's table (we were to his left)were also in the same nauseous state. I would have asked the waitress to reseat me and my girlfriend except that the restaurant was packed.

[nobbyken]

Most Koreans have less sweat glands than most foreigners.
There is a teacher at school who is almost as sweaty as me in the heat, so the above statement is really a generalization.

It would make sense for Koreans to shower less, if they never sweated or smelled of BO.
Foreigners do have a milky type smell, but we are so used to it, it is like no smell. We have more sweeat glands, so even if we're not sweating, we have evaporation coming from our pores.

I stopped drinking straight milk a few months ago, and was surprised that after sweating I didn't have BO?

Definately a link to your body smell and what you eat. Have you ever seen those people who can tell what you ate for dinner the previous night, simply by smelling your armpits?

[CeleryMan]

This thread is wrong on so many levels, but so very necessary. I have no patience for people with stank breath... that funky nostril fire is a killa!!!