That's the thing: you travel the world, you see different places and people, but when you sit back and think about it, you realize that everyone's pretty much just as smart and stupid as everybody else. No certain culture that I've encountered (all five or six of them) seems to have too much of an upper hand on the others.
That being said, here is something that I found out about a couple months ago that blew me away. It's something that is almost unheard of outside of Korea, which is one of the reasons that I enjoy it so much.
Please peruse this link: Fan Death
Have you read it all? You don't have to read all of it, just the first couple sentences.
Ok, finished?
I'll admit, it's ___________(crazy/absurd/strange/weird/incredible/not too ridiculous compared to some of the stupid things I've heard people say back in America). The first time I'd heard about it was from my friend's Korean-American girlfriend who'd said that when she stayed at her grandparent's house, they would come in her room at night during the summer and shut off the fan, and she would turn it back on because it was hot, and they would come and turn it off again, etc....
Then my co-worker back at my old job showed me that Wikipedia article, and I'd talked to a couple friends and my girlfriend about it, and there's no doubt about it: death lurks in the blades (of a fan).
In case you didn't read the article, I'll explain it very simply here: A vast majority of Koreans believe that if you leave a fan on at night in a closed room, there is a likelihood that it will kill you for any number of reasons.
I'm now going to cite some of my favorite pieces of the article here:
First - Beliefs
"...an electric fan creates a vortex, which sucks the oxygen from the enclosed and sealed room and creates a partial vacuum inside."
"...an electric fan chops up all the oxygen particles in the air leaving none to breathe."
"...if the fan is put directly in front of the face of the sleeping person, it will suck all the air away, preventing one from breathing."
Secondly - South Korean Government Position
"If bodies are exposed to electric fans or air conditioners for too long, it causes [the] bodies to lose water and [causes] hypothermia. If directly in contact with [air current from] a fan, this could lead to death from [an] increase of carbon dioxide saturation concentration..."
(This is just a random quote from an agency that's funded by the government, so it's not like the government itself has a key part in spreading the rumor.)
Lastly - Media Coverage
"According to The Straight Dope website, when informed that the phenomenon is virtually unheard of outside of their country, "some locals claim Koreans are uniquely vulnerable due to a peculiarity either of their own physiology or of Korean fans.""
(This is my favorite part of the article.)
The doctor at the end of the article says that he blames the Korean media for perpetuating the myth. I think my own country's media is ridiculously worthless, so it's not too much of a long shot to figure that media in other countries is absurd as well.
To sum it up, I think it's hilarious. I really do. But not exactly how you might think. Maybe a long time ago I would've thought "Wow, Koreans are so stupid" but now, I think it's just as hilarious as any number of stupid beliefs I've encountered in America (for example: you shouldn't put metal spoons in microwaves).
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