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dodgybarnet
Joined: 10 Mar 2003
Location: Directly above the centre of the earth. On a kickboard.
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 Posted: Fri Aug 04, 2006 3:40 am Post subject: What's your favourite Korean crazy superstition? |
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I know this topic has been done to death since... well, since foreigners first entered Korea, but I've been away for a year and was wondering if there are any new ones now that I'm back.
So let's see how many we can rack up. I'll bet "Fan Death" as my favourite by a long way. Any raises?
http://www.fandeath.net/
http://www.dodgybarnet.com/blog.htm#august |
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HapKi
Joined: 10 Dec 2004
Location: TALL BUILDING-SEOUL
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| Posted: Fri Aug 04, 2006 5:25 am Post subject: |
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| Writing names in red ink. Even crazier, I find myself avoiding it as well. |
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tomato
Joined: 31 Jan 2003
Location: I get so little foreign language experience, I must be in Koreatown, Los Angeles.
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| Posted: Fri Aug 04, 2006 6:19 am Post subject: |
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As a preventive against fire hazards,
it is important to unplug the heater before leaving the house.
Never mind the fact that a refrigerator uses a comparable amount of electricity. |
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Barking Mad Lord Snapcase
Joined: 04 Nov 2003
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| Posted: Fri Aug 04, 2006 6:27 am Post subject: |
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| tomato wrote: |
As a preventive against fire hazards,
it is important to unplug the heater before leaving the house.
Never mind the fact that a refrigerator uses a comparable amount of electricity. |
80W vs 3000W????? |
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ajuma
Joined: 18 Feb 2003
Location: Anywere but Seoul!!
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| Posted: Fri Aug 04, 2006 7:16 am Post subject: |
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| Come on...foreigners are superstitious too! Would YOU open an umbrella in your house/apartment?? Walk under a ladder? Do you knock on wood? |
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bellum99
Joined: 23 Jan 2003
Location: don't need to know
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| Posted: Fri Aug 04, 2006 7:20 am Post subject: |
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I am not at all....holy crap...
I just saw a black cat cross my path while I was walking under a ladder, speaking about my dead grandfather in a negative manner, throwing my hat onto my bed, breaking ten mirrors and stepping on sidewalk cracks.
Remember Drugstore cowboy  |
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ajuma
Joined: 18 Feb 2003
Location: Anywere but Seoul!!
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| Posted: Fri Aug 04, 2006 7:26 am Post subject: |
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| bellum99 wrote: |
I am not at all....holy crap...
I just saw a black cat cross my path while I was walking under a ladder, speaking about my dead grandfather in a negative manner, throwing my hat onto my bed, breaking ten mirrors and stepping on sidewalk cracks.
Remember Drugstore cowboy |
And of course all of this happened on Friday the 13th, right?  |
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I'm Seoul Lost
Joined: 19 Jun 2006
Location: In the mountains of Gyeonggi
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| Posted: Fri Aug 04, 2006 8:02 am Post subject: |
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| ajuma wrote: |
| Come on...foreigners are superstitious too! Would YOU open an umbrella in your house/apartment?? Walk under a ladder? Do you knock on wood? |
Is the ladder really that much of a superstition? People drop things all the time. Do you want some fool dropping their paint/hammer/etc on you while you're walking underneath their ladder?
I agree the other ones are foolish. |
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Son Deureo!
Joined: 30 Apr 2003
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| Posted: Fri Aug 04, 2006 8:19 am Post subject: |
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| Leg jiggling. Jiggling your leg will shake all of your good luck out of your body. |
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Antrugha
Joined: 05 Jan 2006
Location: On a 2-wheeled engine
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| Posted: Fri Aug 04, 2006 8:33 am Post subject: |
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| Son Deureo! wrote: |
| Leg jiggling. Jiggling your leg will shake all of your good luck out of your body. |
we shake our legs in tkd all the time to loosen up... doesn't seem to be much of a superstition, at least in my part of korea? |
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RACETRAITOR
Joined: 24 Oct 2005
Location: Seoul, South Korea
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| Posted: Fri Aug 04, 2006 4:20 pm Post subject: |
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I was talking about superstitions with a Korean phone student yesterday. He said, "I'm not superstitious--I'm Christian."
I had a whole bunch of superstitions I wanted to ask him about. Yes, he does make a wish when he blows out birthday candles. He didn't answer when I asked about the number 4. I was hesitant to bring up fan death because he doesn't consider it superstition. And of course I failed to ask if he believed in a long-haired dude who still protects believers 2000 years after his death. |
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mindmetoo
Joined: 02 Feb 2004
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| Posted: Fri Aug 04, 2006 4:42 pm Post subject: |
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| ajuma wrote: |
| Come on...foreigners are superstitious too! Would YOU open an umbrella in your house/apartment?? Walk under a ladder? Do you knock on wood? |
I don't follow those. I don't believe in god and I have a vague sense that an unbaptized baby is some how unclean but I can't say I really have any superstitions.
While I don't follow or believe in a horoscope, I would argue anyone who actually attributes any ability of the horoscope to guide your future is as silly as a Korean believing in fan death. Anyone popping homoeopathic remedies is likewise as foolish. |
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dodgybarnet
Joined: 10 Mar 2003
Location: Directly above the centre of the earth. On a kickboard.
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| Posted: Fri Aug 04, 2006 5:52 pm Post subject: |
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| mindmetoo wrote: |
| I don't believe in god and I have a vague sense that an unbaptized baby is some how unclean... |
That's kinda interesting - "unclean"? Seems kinda opposite to not believe in God yet believe in a tenent of one faction of one religion (it is mainly the catholics who believe "no baptism = no heaven for you")
| mindmetoo wrote: |
| I don't follow or believe in a horoscope, I would argue anyone who actually attributes any ability of the horoscope to guide your future is as silly as a Korean believing in fan death. |
It's true that westerners care just as much about horoscopes as koreans do. I've always found it interesting that people believe that a lump of rock 6,000,000,000km from the sun will affect your life (or that as a member of a particular sign, you share that day with a 12th of the population of the planet).
I don't doubt for a second that Westerners are equally crazy in some regards (Homeopathy being probably the latest weirdness, behind being obsessed with the show Big Brother)
That said though, Korea has come up with some good ones...
Like how your blood type affects how good of a match you are. Isn't it that men with type B- are the worst partners? - any of you males out there crapola at relationships as a result of this?
RE: black cats - I've heard both, that they can be good luck OR bad luck depending on whos telling it. Strange. |
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Beej
Joined: 05 Mar 2005
Location: Eungam Loop
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| Posted: Fri Aug 04, 2006 6:10 pm Post subject: |
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| If a woman wants to have a male baby, she should steal and wear the panties of another woman who has already given birth to a male child. |
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RACETRAITOR
Joined: 24 Oct 2005
Location: Seoul, South Korea
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| Posted: Fri Aug 04, 2006 6:11 pm Post subject: |
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| mindmetoo wrote: |
I have a vague sense that an unbaptized baby is some how unclean but I can't say I really have any superstitions.
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Give yourself a round of applause because that's a superstition. A side-splittingly funny one.
By the way, Dodgybarnet, that whole belief that type B blood is inferior actually comes from Nazi propaganda. The Nazis used the fact that Asians have a higher incidence of type B blood as proof that Aryans are superior to Asians. So whenever someone asks my blood type, I sieg heil them and say "88!" |
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