19 Things From South Korea You Hardly See Anywhere Else

Places
2 years ago

The popularity of all things Korean, from fashion and film to music and cuisine, hasn’t lost its momentum. Because of this, many people want to find themselves in the Land of Morning Calm and see all of these things with their own eyes.

  • According to statistics, most lost items are returned to their owners in Korea, and every year the percentage of items returned to their owners is growing.
  • In Korea, single-use water bottles don’t have plastic wrapping to allow for easy recycling.
  • A peculiar feature of the Korean metro is that the fare depends on the distance traveled.
  • Tourists can buy a Wi-Fi Egg at the airport or in a shop. They can also rent a telephone.
  • Korea Air has stickers to tell the cabin crew what to do when you’re sleeping in-flight.
  • Apart from ordinary coffee shops, there are interesting venues there. For example, a library café, where you have to pay for the time spent reading a book, a café for photographers, where you can try out different lenses if you have a camera with you, and other similar venues.
  • In pizzerias, they give you special plastic gloves, so you don’t get your hands dirty.
  • In Korea, women are only allowed to stay in a heated room after giving birth, even in summer they are not encouraged to use an air conditioner or a fan after childbirth. And they are told that they should only drink warm water. It’s believed that the mother may develop unexplained joint and body aches after delivery if exposed to cold.
  • Koreans rarely ask other people out, especially strangers. Many people find a match on blind dates organized by their mutual friends and sometimes by their parents. Many couples in Korea celebrate relationship anniversaries more than once a year. These include celebrating their 100th, 200th, or 1,000th day together.
  • In Korea, couples often don’t wear wedding rings after they get married.
  • Puppy kindergartens are becoming more and more popular in Korea. Every morning, owners bring their pets to the kindergarten and hand them to professional trainers who introduce their students to various commands, and also walk them in the fresh air.
  • Korean post offices provide reading glasses in case you forgot yours.
  • Some Korean bakeries include everything you need for your birthday cake: a cake knife, matches, and candles.
  • In South Korea, what others think of you is more important than what you think of yourself, including whether they consider you beautiful and slim.
  • Some Korean barbeque places have bags for customers to put their jackets and purses in, to minimize the smell from absorbing into those items.
  • Any resume should be accompanied by a photo. And the way you look in this photo can be decisive for an employer.
  • Often, Koreans do fat grafting which is transplanting their fat into their forehead and cheeks to make their face appear plump and smooth.
  • They do unusual beauty procedures in Korean clinics, for example, the Snow White whitening injection meant for whitening the skin and removing pigmentation. They also inject fillers in the area of the nasal bridge and cheekbones.
  • Often Korean men and women ask for aegyo-sal — the small fatty deposits underneath the eyes.

Did you know about these peculiar Korean features? Would you want to adopt any of them? Tell us in the comments below.

Please note: This article was updated in October 2022 to correct source material and factual inaccuracies.
Preview photo credit ChinaImages / Depositphotos

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