Habits We’ve Dropped and Acquired in Korea

Filed as: TLDR // Responses: 164

Woohoo! TLDRs! Haven’t done these for a while! We were supposed to do one last week, since we do them every second week, but with Martina’s busted ankle she needed to rest, so we postponed it until this week. Sorry guise! We’re back to our normal schedule now!

Anyhow, this week’s TL;DR question was quite easy, and we had lots of things that we excluded from the video, which we’ll talk about a bit here:

1) The X-arm crossing: whenever we go to a store and they don’t have something in stock, they cross their forearms and say “no.” Saying no would have been enough, but the arm gestures are just overkill; wonderful, wonderful overkill, that we have at first adopted in jest, but now do regularly, unfortunately, to which our friends give us the same confused look we gave the store clerks when we first met them.

2) Hand Phone: We call our cellphones handphones now. WHAT THE EFF?!?! Why call it a handphone? Is there a foot phone? Using the word “hand” is totally redundant. Like “this is mouthfood.” Anyhow, even though we hate the word, we use it all the time, and confuse the bajesus out of our Canadian friends. Thanks Korea! ARGH!

3) Intolerance of Salty Food: Now, this isn’t really a habit as much as a taste. We find that whenever we travel back to Canada, we can barely eat anything for the first few days, because it’s so overwhelmingly salty that we gag. No joke here. It’s really, really salty. Korean food doesn’t use a lot of salt, it seems, while North American food uses too much. So, after living here for a few years, our taste buds have totally changed.

4) Looking both ways before crossing a one-way street: Gotta be done. Or you die.

5) Momomo instead of blahblahblah: Korea’s version of “blah blah blah” is “momomo” We say it all the time now. Again, quite awkward when you slip up in front of your non-Korean friends.

6) Forks are awkward: We’ve been using chopsticks with everything now, and whenever we’re given forks to use we’re so…confused. Not that they’re confusing to use. They’re a lot easier than chopsticks. Forks are just so…barbaric. I don’t want to stab my food anymore. I want to pick it up. Chopsticks let you do that. It’s like, the more humane way to eat food. Sometimes we go to Korean restaurants and they won’t give us chopsticks, probably because they think we can’t use them, but we’re so much more comfortable with them now!

That’s it for now, I think. We could go on for a long time, but we already wrote a MASSIVE blog post today about Engrish in Kpop. We’ll try to keep this of reasonable length. Let us know if there’s anything we missed. Any habits you dropped or adopted since coming to Korea? I’m sure we’ll read the comments and be like “OH MY GOD HOW DID WE FORGET THAT?!?!” Ha!

On a side note: did anyone notice the new lighting? We got new lights and we’re totally stoked. We look so much crisper now, I think. Sorry. Nerd comment there. Carry on!

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http://twitter.com/DolsotDan Dan C

I keep saying 응… 응…. as I listen to a friends story.
jlk0070

What’s the name of the song that martina sings in the video?
she said it was one of eminem’s song as i remember.
i really wanna know the name. :)

Ps. i’m a korean student and living in seoul right now
and i’m 19 in korean age so it’s a tough time for me because you know
the huge test whatever ㅋㅋ
i live near 이화 university and i really hope we can meet someday

http://randomizm.tumblr.com Chiara Popalopa

I think it’s not eminem but Sugarhill Gang – Rapper’s Delight… Maybe Eminem used the lyrics in one of his songs because this one is like a hip-hop anthem.

http://twitter.com/SonamPem Sonan

LOL enjoyed reading it and related many things to my own experience. My colleague frm Bhutan visited Korea and she asked for direction, one man did the ” X arm crossing ” poor girl ,thought he meant go straight and turn left and then go straight and turn right, she could never find her destination ;)
Dori Hoffman

can anyone explain how to get to the page with the questions to vote up and down and to ask your own question? ive been trying to find it…

http://www.facebook.com/hdugas Heather Dugas

Yeah, on the top bar, click on ‘Contact’, scroll down and from there click the link that says ‘View Questions’ aaannnd Voila!

E H

Haha totally agree with the bowing and the thing about touching your elbow when you hand something to someone!! I just returned home from Korea and been doing that a lot. And the speaking really slowly and using hand gestures for everything lol!
http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100000813261577 Jessica Hope Satterfield

I’m 16 and I recognize the “Woot, there it is!” The hip it hop it etc thing I’ve also heard before. I also do the arm-in-a-circle-above-shoulder-thing while saying whoot-whoot! “Raise the roof” with the raise-the-roof-arm-waving is just normal to me…

The slow-talking-and-extreme-hand/arm-gestures is also something I do normally… I talk with my hands (I swear I was born to speak in sign-language) but the slow-mo talking really only happens when I meet new people because I talk really fast. I mean really, really fast. My family has to stop me sometimes and they’ll just be like “Whaaat?”

Now, loud talking? I think I only speak loudly when I get really caught up in a conversation because I get so focused on the topic at hand and stop paying attention to my surroundings.

The x-arm crossing… I don’t remember when or where I picked that up, but I did. It just sort of happens now… Bowing I know I picked up from watching WAAAAY too many K/J-Dramas and variety shows. Opening and closing doors is a bit of pet-peeve of mine. Manners, people, manners! Though I think it’s more of a romance-type thing? Holding a door open or pulling out someone’s chair is something you only do when you have a crush on someone or you’re in a relationship, I think.

Whew, that was long! (and late but I was grounded so…) I think my favorite segment besides WANKing has to be your TL;DR’s! I hope you ankle gets better, Martina!
http://www.facebook.com/Becca88222 Rebeca Brown

Can you do a TLDR on Religion in Korea? It mentions in your FAQ that you both minored in Religion and I’ve heard Christianity is BIG in Korea so I was wondering how big it actually is, have you been to any Korean churches or have Korean Christian friends and how (if at all) Christianity affects the drinking culture in Korea? Drinking/getting drunk is taboo to alot of Christians in the Americas- how different is that in Korea (do you still seem unsociable if you don’t drink if you say you are Christian)?
Also – what religion are you guys? Just curiosity… maybe you don’t want to talk about something so private online :)
tatiana roch

when and how did you guys get into K POP :)
http://www.facebook.com/people/한인티비/100002959718107 한인티비

hahah Kpop the best

http://www.koreanwebtv.com
one2smil0

Haha, handphone xD First time I hear this, but it’s similar to the Germans saying ‘Handy’. Where did this word come from O_Ö
And I have to agree with the salt amount of Western countries from Asian countries. My parents are like this, too. They don’t like too sweet or salty food: Maybe because they once lived in Asia for a long while, but now their tast buds still are not used to this …
Or one of my friends used to bow to people like my parents e.g. greeting someone and in other situations. So I think this is adapted in some regions of Vietnam, too.

I often use interjections like aish, aigoo, omo unintentionally, too.
Or when I’m sometimes talking with a quiet voice to Germans, but this would lead them into thinking that I’m not confident enough to speak with a clear and loud voice. Though my parents taught me to speak with a soft voice because I’m a girl. You know what I mean? Asian versus Western countries proprieties.

Well, I think there are more things, but I can’t remember them xD
http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=638414365 Annie van den Berghe

Cell phones/hand phones are called mobiles or mobile phones here in Australia. I have a feeling that it’ll take me a while to not call mine a mobile lol.
http://www.facebook.com/caitlin.burrows1 Caitlin Burrows

“There’s a party over here, a party over there, wave your hands in the air, shake your derrière . . . “
http://pulse.yahoo.com/_ULVAPOODNVQBYUQY5CZQGHK2ZA Bobio

I’m not korean or live in korea and I say aigoo all the time.
Amanda Appreku

I hold doors for people all the time… and I would say my parents taught me to be polite(all the time and I like being nice) and all but the fact is that I’ve been doing it way before I became accustomed to Korean stuff and mannerisms. I did it isn’t all my previous schools and I still do it now. I stand there and I’m like “Go ahead, why are you looking at me so weirdly?” But Korean dramas and reality shows have made me so much more aware of the fact that I do it so often and subconsciously. Also I’ve always been sort of uncomfortable when people hold the door for ME, it makes me feel like I’m forcing them to do something which annoy me a bit because I’m known to be the nicest person ever.
In school especially when guys(the usual people who I see in through my everyday passing) hold doors open for me I walk really quickly through it sort of thinking to myself, “Now you think I’m lazy” or “He thinks I can’t do anything for myself” and “You didn’t have to do that”…and yeah that’s basically it. Along with saying “예” and acting so…so formal to people I don’t know well. There are so many things that peole have mentioned here that I do but sometimes it’s just to confuse people XD
xBlushingBeautyx

Before I was with my husband—he’s Thai—I’d already picked up the habit of bowing from watching Korean dramas. What I specifically picked up from ze hubby is:
1) Taking off my shoes at the front door. I now cringe when non-Asians guests don’t do it.
2) What I like to call the “Asian squat.” Hm, know what I’m referring to?
3) Eating ze “Thai” way which is generally with a spoon in my right hand and a fork in the left. Thai folk only use chopsticks with noodles and sushi (pretty much).
4) When I’m surprised by something I’ll say “oi!” Not sure how to spell the sound.
5) I’m learning Thai so sometimes I’ll think in Thai… There have been many times I’ll want to respond to someone in Thai, but stop myself before doing so, haha.
6) This goes for the taste buds, but I far prefer Asian food over American.
Phew, I think that’s it–or at least what I could think of off the top of my head. =)
http://twitter.com/FlyOntheWall02 SeraS.

so you hating to say “handphone” in turkey we are calling them “pocket phone” =_=
http://profile.yahoo.com/SSNY3C5WIVP5BW3Z52YQRZH3OI JEREMIE PEARL

I bow to people I meet or greet, even though I have never been to Korea. When I apologize to people, I’m like, “I’m *bow* sorry! *bow*” I think I just picked it up from K-Dramas and variety shows and when I do it, people give me weird looks. Also when I talk to people, I say “Ne” and when I see people I know, I started waving, yelling, “Annyeong!”

I also pick up random Korean words and phrases and when I’m irritated or panicking, I suddenly blurt out all sorts of Korean words I know and nobody understands what I’m saying. Since my friends are also K-Pop fans, they can pick out a couple of words they understand like “Ya!” “Aigoo!” “Babo” and common phrases. But most of the time, it’s like I’m talking to myself.

Nowadays, I’ve also began to think about how convenient the Korean language is. I mean, you could just bow while saying sorry so you don’t have to look the person in the eye. There are a lot of stuff you can say in Korea without sounding as cheesy as you would if you said it in English.
I’ve also started using chopsticks and mumbling in Korean at home and … My dad hates it. I wanna go to South Korea so I can blend in…
http://www.facebook.com/Maria.Raize Maria Raize

I’ve never been to ANY Asian country but I DO kinda bowing thing (not exactly front bow Asians do but sort of turning-my-head-to-the-side-a-bit-and-low-it-down *weired*) all the time for saying “hello”, “bye” or “sorry”. LOL