Some Cultural Factoids

Korea has many customs, traditions and superstitions similar to the U.S., and many that are unique to Korea.  Here are a few I've learned, though I'm sure there's many more:

For birthdays, instead of cake or ice-cream people make myokgook, a seaweed soup.

You don't, however, ever eat seaweed soup before an exam.  It's slippery texture will make the answers slip away.  Instead, it's traditional to have yeot, a sticky rice candy.  It's believed to have effects opposite to seaweed.  It's common to see yeot springing up in all the stores this time of year, as kid's are taking their high-school and college entrance exams (i.e. the ABSOLUTE MOST IMPORTANT EVENTS EVER THAT WILL DETERMINE THE COURSE OF THEIR ENTIRE LIVES. Got to have luck on their side.)

You also don't wash your hair on the day of a big exam, since the answers might end up swirling the drain with the shampoo.

If you sleep in a closed room with a fan on, you will die.  This is a phenomenon called "fan death," and even though no-one is quite sure what causes it, (spot cooling resulting in hypothermia, suffocation caused by the air moving too fast for proper inhalation, or the spinning blades breaking apart the oxygen molecules are among the theories posited) a few cases are reported every year by the mass-media.  Infants and the elderly are most susceptible, as is common with most made up ailments.

If you write someones name in red, they will die or you want them dead.  This comes from the Buddhist practice of writing the names of the deceased in red, on gravestones or otherwise.

Koreans have an aversion to the number four, since the pronunciation ("sa") is the same as the word for death.  Buildings will sometimes skip the fourth, fourteenth, twenty-fourth, etc. floor, just like Vegas casinos will skip the 13th floor.  Or in some elevators you'll see an F in the place of the number four.  But just like in the western world, seven is a lucky number.

It's bad luck to break a bowl or plate.  It's worse luck to eat from a bowl or plate with a crack or chipped rim.

There's an expression, "Sam han sa ohn," which means literally three hot four cold.  This is the perceived weather cycle when the temperature is changing, three warm days followed by four cold days.  I want to vet the system but I can't be bothered to keep track.

There's just a few I've picked up, if I hear of any more I'll jot them down!