Korean Job Discussion Forums

[carloa]

This is a genuine questions.

I am wondering why people here don't cover their mouth when they cough.

My sick co-workers cough all day, sat right next to me, and they make no effort to cover their mouths.

You can see this on buses and on the subway also.

I am wondering, is it because it is not common knowledge that germs are transmitted to others through coughing?

Or is it because of a lack of consideration.

I would love to know why.

Thank you in advance

[optik404]

I think it's just people being lazy.

[Hokie21]

The vast majority of my students do not cover their mouths....I'm not surprised as they are children. BUT my foreign co-teachers (who are British) are the worst about this! They openly hack up a lung or cough for minutes on end in the teachers room with no attempt made to cover their mouths. It's almost like it's a competition between them to see who can cough the loudest.

I don't get it.

[byrddogs]

Don't concern yourself so much with the trivial things that you as a guest have no right to wonder about.





"Here is Korea"

[Lucas]

[son of coco]

[Hokie21]

[Lucas]

[Scorpion]

Wow, this thread got off topic pretty darned fast. But yeah, they really need to start covering their mouths. Coughing over other people is just nasty, and it's a mass phenomenon here unfortunately.

And no, it's not okay for kids to do it. It's the job of parents and teachers to teach children basic manners, consideration for others, and good hygeine. They then take these good habits and practices into adulthood. But that doesn't happen here. And as bad as the coughing is, the sneezing is even nastier. Nothing like sitting on the bus and the guy behind you doing a power sneeze.

[byrddogs]

[atwood]

I normally respond by saying, "Thank you for sharing."
Quizzical look?
"Your germs."

[Stain]

[maitaidads]

[Stain]

[andrewchon]

That's because they are uneducated peasants and don't know about dangers of spreading their deadly germs everywhere. You must take the inititive and get them boxes of tissues and stacks of hankies and lead by example. Get some Glen-20 or what ever the spray-on germ killers and spray whenever there's an uninterupted cough.

However, there's chance that they'll react unfavourably. Consider the case of Richard II of England. There were many reasons for Henry Bolingbroke to depose the son of Black Prince and usurp his crown, and one of them was introduction of knife and fork at meal tables. Before that Angevin nobles and ladies of the court ate with their hands. Crusade, anyone?