This week’s lesson was on American superstitions. When you actually think about them and actually find out what they mean then you realize how crazy some of them sound nowadays. You can look at my lesson Superstitions.
So this got me interested in finding more about Korean superstitions, so this is what I found as told by my students:
- Do not cut your toenails at night, or a mouse will come and eat them and become your doppelganger!
- Crows also bring you bad luck!
- The number 4 is their version of the number 13. They will not even make the 4th floor in hospitals and some apartments. The Korean word for four is pronounced almost exactly like the word for death in the Chinese language. Koreans also prefer odd numbers to even numbers, associating the former with positive “yang” energy and the latter with negative “eum” (or “yin“) energy. Funerals, for example, are therefore held for duration of odd numbers of days (three, five, seven, etc.) and tables laid with an odd number of dishes.
- It is bad luck to wash your hair on a test day, you wash away your knowledge!
- The same goes for seaweed soup, don’t eat it unless you want your knowledge to slip and slide right off your head.
- To ace the test, eat yeot (엿 ) a sticky Korean candy that helps the knowledge stick! Step on poo? Good for you!
- Who needs the toothfairy? Throw those teeth onto the roof for good luck!
- Dreaming of pigs and expect money on the way.
- Do not write anyone’s name in red ink. It is a sign of death. Red ink was generally used to record deceased persons in family registers and on funeral banners to drive off evil spirits, hence its association with death.
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Posted by Alex A-che on December 7, 2010 in Culture, Daegu, Every day life, School, Teaching Resources and tagged 엿, Korean superstitions, Korean yeot, seaweed soup, Superstitions lesson plan, unlucky number.
Oh no! I think I clipped my toenails the other night…
well……then maybe there is another Miss Rachel walking around somewhere. Your student’s are lucky! haha
I am now going back in my memory to see if I have dreamt about pigs lately! I really hope so!
I love seeing superstitions in other countries. I remember Taiwan also not being a fan of #4. The hotel I was at skipped floor 4.
Nice post! Some of their superstitions are bizarre. I have been learning lots lately too. For example you cannot go to anyone elses wedding the month before you are due to wed. You cannot wash yourself or leave your house for a month after you have a baby. Yes, a whole MONTH!! WTF!! As for the exams it is good luck to give people a plastic fork, so they can stab the information and it wont slip away!
Yes! My students told me to give them forks for tomorrow, since they start their finals. I must have given them the oddest look lol
In my coutry theres also the superstition to throw a tooth onto the roof for good luck!
Ah,and I was born in a Friday the 13th ^^’
I forgot to add that! …..ha and we believe in the tooth fairy. I told my students and they laughed
[...] again with the play on words, it will make all your knowledge ”slip” from your mind. Superstition or culture, it is a long running tradition in [...]
[...] In an attempt to break off some of my more intrusive habits, the ones that infringe on my day-to-day like (like counting steps all the time, being unable to pick anything up that’s “face down” on the floor, and so on… they get way worse)… so in order to break off of the control these weird unfounded fake beliefs had over me AND to show my true faith and trust in God, I walked away from a lot of this crap. gah! this so used to be me, all of these and more. i'd make my own up too. my mom used to always tell me those little superstition rhymes.. i think that's where it started for me. found this image over here. [...]
[...] Superstitions in Korea « From Korea With LoveDec 7, 2010 … You can look at my lesson Superstitions. So this got me interested in finding more about Korean superstitions, so this is what I found as told by … [...]
13 is bad luck because it was the day the catholic church overthrew and executed all the Knight’s Templars. The Salem witch massacure also supposedly happened on Fri the 13th.
Thanks for the info, I’ll pass it on to my students ^_^
That’s cool! But that’s a superstition! Can’t trust it!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
It’s always interesting learning about other culture’s superstitions