Korean Culture

There are a few random afternoons that I spend talking with one of my co-teachers when neither one of us have work to do (which hasn't been recently because we have been very busy).  But when we do she often shares about Korean culture with me.  So here are some parts of Korean culture I have learned from her.

• Koreans believe you should eat chicken 3 times during the summer.  They usually eat it as sumgaetang which is kind of like a soup that uses a whole chicken.  There are certain days you should eat this chicken.  The first one this year was on July 18th and she said it was like marking the beginning of summer.  The third one seemed to come up very quickly but I didn't take note of when that day was.
• Related to that she also told me that their thoughts are that in the summer time your outside body is hot but the inside is cold and so you should eat hot food.  The reverse is true for the winer time.  You should eat ice or cold food because your inside is hot.  Which makes sense for eating sumgaetang in the summer time but they also each cold noodle (noodles served with icy broth) in the summer time.  And they eat hot soup all year round.  But this is what she told me is their reasoning and thoughts.
• My co-teacher is in her mid-thirites and told me that when she began teaching, they worked 6 days a week.  Then it changed to only working on Saturdays twice a week.  About 4 years ago she said they changed so that school was only 5-days a week.  But because of this they had to change the schedule so that some Korean holidays are no longer taken off like July 17th Institution Day.  Previously, it would have been a vacation day and now it is not.  
• Finally, one day we talked about dating.  In Korea, most people use blind dates as ways to meet someone.  Friends and family members often set up single friends or family members on blind dates with people they know.  If you are set up on a blind date, and you end up marrying that person, according to culture and custom, you should pay money to the people that set up or get them a gift.  Usually this is seen as giving money so that they can get new clothes for your wedding.  And other friends typically ask, did you receive new clothes instead of asking if you received money.  My co-teacher told me that she paid her friend that set her up with her husband $500 and her husband did not pay money to the friend that set them up but instead helped him get a new well paying job.  However, my co-teacher and her husband set up this one couple and did not receive the money.  She said that not giving money is considered very rude because the money is like a thank you gift and recognizing the person who helped start your relationship. 

Like I said, a few random facts about Korean culture but I do love it when we can have conversations like those.  Life will be a lot less busy in about another month so maybe I'll have new tidbits then.