Korean Quirks (a brief reference guide) Part 1

*this blog has all but gone extinct thanks to my distaste with blogger's interface manageability, so now I'll just keep it simple.

Koreans:

believe you can die from leaving an electric on at night while you sleep. no joke wikipedia "fan death"

make their public teachers change grades every school year, schools every five years, aren't allowed to work at the same school as a spouse or significant other

are largely intolerant of gay men despite the fact they blow dry their hair every morning, hold hands with their friends and consider pink a masculine color

don't use any form of checks, its either cash or card

have cable television on almost all new cell phones at a dirt cheap cost

use the same cell phone charger for every cell phone, every company

have cable television on the dashboard of almost every vehicle

don't have addresses on their buildings, the mail is addressed to areas of town that somehow make it your building

pay their bills at the post office and the post office takes care of getting the money to the companies

don't believe in lines, prepare to be cut in front of if you ever visit and bumped into frequently, there is no word for "excuse me" other than to get someones attention for a favor

LOVE MLB hats despite the fact they have their own professional baseball league, but you will rarely see anyone sporting one of these hats outside of the stadium

love the Beatles, Radiohead, and the Once Soundtrack

are incredible at ping pong, darts and anything else that involves very intricate hand eye coordination

go out drinking with their colleagues like Americans go golfing

call the Sea of Japan the East Sea and the Yellow Sea the West Sea, and don't try to tell them any different

don't tip, but you get far better service, all at the push of a button

have a fifth inning stretch in their pro baseball, only its the players that go out onto the field and actually stretch, again

have an incredible medical coverage system at incredibly low costs. A trip to an orthopedist, an X-ray and a splint cost me roughly 20 dollars and about a half an hour of my time. oh, and the doc diagnosed my arthritis correctly on the spot, something it took five doctors back home to do, and at too late a time to really do anything about it

pay about 6 dollars a gallon for gas, but a 10 minute taxi ride costs about 3 dollars

can be found eating dog meat, chicken anus and live octopus. two down one to go

don't grow facial hair. unsure if its intentionally or not

to be continued...