WTF – Korean Air Masks

Filed as: Korea FTW! // Responses: 46

It’s yellow dust season now and the air is heavy in Korea, so we’re doing a video on Korean air masks. We’re starting to use them now. If you don’t know about Yellow Dust season, it’s one of our least favorite parts of the year. Supposedly, sand from deserts in China annually blow down to South Korea and make the air terrible to breath. Your eyes burn and your throat itches. And the stuff is everywhere. We left our clothes to dry overnight by the window, and our black shirts had lots of yellow dust all over them by the morning. Uggghh. It also supposedly clogs your engines, but we haven’t had that issue with our scooter. We’re just coughing and sneezing a lot more. Gross!

Anyhow, to combat the nastiness of the air, people in Korea often wear air masks. We were quite taken aback when we saw them at first, because we usually just associate them with doctors and surgery. We’re not used to seeing them worn out in public like this. Let’s face it: they’re not really the coolest things you can wear. They look kinda creepy. To combat the weirdness of air masks, you can make them look cute! Oh boy! You can wear the hamster that we displayed here (or what Martina likes to call the Gamster: hamster + gangster), or you can have a Hello Kitty one, or a Thomas the Tank Engine. Why Thomas the Tank Engine? We don’t know. Supposedly he’s quite popular here.

A more pressing question is this: are these things effective or not? Any doctors here? We imagine that surgeons wear these masks so they don’t spit on you by accident when you’re cut open on their table, but for day-to-day use, how effective are these in preventing you from either a) getting sick or b) breathing in pollution. Anyone? We’re quite curious about this. Yeah!

Also, don’t forget that we’re starting our new segment tomorrow: TL;DR Thursdays, where we answer your top rated questions in video format. You’ve got a few more hours to vote until we start recording. We’re surprised at how fun the questions are so far. Hooray!

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  • Sascha Wong

    Bahahaha I automatically thought of pokemon too when Simon said you could collect them all. Geeks FTW! 

  • Animalgoddess101

    You guys have a scooter?

  • Anonymous

    If you want a mask that really works, use a N95 mask.

    Its designed to either contain or prevent contraction of tuberculosis.

    This type of mask is primarily used in hospital settings. I’ve used them while taking care of active TB patients (the ones that spit out blood) all the time.

    You can purchase them in grocery stores or local 24hr pharmacies. I’m not sure if they have these in Korea for purchase by ordinary citizens though. They have them readily available in the US, however. :

  • Anonymous

    This one is funny!  I hate the heat inside those masks though.  LOL

  • Arnell

     Martina- Your eyes were gorgeous in this video, what color of eyeshadow did you use?

    I found this one more informative though lol I never knew about yellow dust season. How long does the season last or is it year long?

  • http://www.facebook.com/Kissmykimchi KissmyKimchi Korea

     I finally broke down and bought another of those face mask thingies and used it this time! I was hacking up so much phlegm from my bout with the flu that it was more to protect other people than myself! Ha!

  • http://www.facebook.com/people/Regan-Britstra/670668223 Regan Britstra

     Did you realise that you missed both 6 and 16… what a coincidence. 

  • jazzyfish

    Hahahahhahahah.. ” Simon uses bad metaphor. It’s not very effective..”
    It’s magikarp all over again!

    * :(.. I miss those days I used to play pokemon…*

  • Minmin

    Those masks are so cute, but it would be too weird to wear it here. I thought before that people wear them to prevent from getting ill, but I was told by a Japanese that usually people wear them when they are ill themselves, so they don’t spread the bug to other people.

  • mystic

    I want one! There adorable!  to bad your looked at really weird if you wear one in canada unless your like dieing or there is a major epidemic going on.

  • mystic

    I want one! There adorable!  to bad your looked at really weird if you wear one in canada unless your like dieing or there is a major epidemic going on.

  • Tenzin

    its so cute. sad we dont have cute masks over here in india.
     

  • Jake

    Simon you can’t count! 

  • AJ

    I thought Martina quit her job? You haz new job?

  • http://www.facebook.com/people/Hank-Clark/100001932164738 Hank Clark

     the piece of plastic is for pinching around your nose

  • Kay

    Geek alert: Just to let you guys know it isn’t “yellow sand”, it is “yellow dust”. Sand sized particles can only reach 1 meter in height, dust sized particles are the ones that can reach the atmosphere and travel the globe :).

    Also, at least the people I have ever met, consider those masks dispossable…particularly the ones used for colds. A one use sort of deal from what I’ve experienced :)

  • yong!

    hello. usually, If air mask become dirty, korean wash the fabric(get off plastic, white fabric)
    안녕하세요! 마스크가 더러워지면, 플라스틱을 떼어내서 하얀천만 씻어 말려서 다시쓰면 돼요! 너무 더러워져서 씻어도 더러우면, 다시 새로 사서써요. 

  • http://pulse.yahoo.com/_DWVPT2TV7QGB7D2GJOLHAXYGXE Sabrina Bui

    That mask is absolutely adorable! Whenever someone in my house gets sick, everyone gets sick within days. Hehe, so I really need one of those. Do you know where I can get a cute one like yours online or something? (: 

  • http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=1374816926 Desarae Elizabeth Anderson

    i thought the korean word for kisses is kiseu

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