Discover the Intriguing World of South Korea: 14 Amazing Fun Facts You Didn't Know

1. Clocks: A Taboo Gift

If you're cuckoo for clocks or simply have some time on your hands, you might want to hold off on sharing your love of timely trinkets with your elderly South Korean friends: In South Korea, giving a clock as a gift is considered bad luck, particularly to the older generation, due to the similarity between the Korean words for clock and funeral. Opt for more auspicious tokens like fruit or flowers instead!
Source => secret-retreats.com

2. Age Crisis: New Year's Edition

Ever felt an inexplicable bout of existential crisis every New Year's Eve? South Koreans might relate more than most: In their homeland, everyone turns a year older on January 1st, regardless of when they were actually born! The hilarious surprise: This fascinating custom, called "Korean age," counts people as one year old at birth, and adds another year to their age on each New Year's Day – but President Seok-Yeol Yoon has pledged to unify age-counting systems to avoid confusion and reduce social and economic costs, even though some statutes are still sticking to the old calendar ways.
Source => blogs.loc.gov

Discover why Tokyo's cleanliness goes beyond Marie Kondo tidying techniques, and the surprising reason behind the scarcity of public trash cans in the city. 🗑️🇯🇵

=> Fun Facts about Japan

3. Poseidon's Seaweed Chips

As tasty as it is tempting, Seaweed Chips in South Korea must've been crafted by Poseidon himself as he shared his secret snack recipe with his Korean buddies at an underwater potluck: Gim Bugak, a delicious treat made from roasted seaweed and rice paper, deep-fried to crunchy perfection and flavored with savory salt and sesame seeds, is a popular South Korean snack praised for its addictive umami essence, and a shining example of how seaweed holds a special place in the heart of Korean cuisine.
Source => christieathome.com

4. Lunar New Year: Cash For Kids

Who says money can't buy happiness?: In South Korea, during the Lunar New Year, kids get showered with "seh bae don" – cold hard cash annually handed out by their elders, guaranteeing them a year filled with good fortune and mouthfuls of mandu and dduk-guk.
Source => travelandleisure.com

5. Kimchi Billionaire Club

Move over, pickle aficionados: South Korea is giving you a run for your money with their kimchi game on point. Feast your eyes on this spicy fact: they cranked out over $3 billion worth of kimchi in 2018-2019 alone, as companies like Daesang, CJ CheilJedang, and Pulmuone are laughing all the way to the fermented bank. And it's not just South Korea that's getting in on this tasty trend – China and Japan are puckering their lips and opening their wallets for some scrumptious kimchi too.
Source => statista.com

6. Teen Gaming Curfew

Gaming marathons galore and "wangkeu tabang" on the side: South Korea's PC bangs are LAN gaming centers blending social gatherings and intense MMORPG sessions, but to combat game addiction among teens, the government enacted a law restricting under 17's from playing between midnight and 6 a.m.
Source => en.wikipedia.org

7. Mother’s Birthday Seaweed Soup

Pamper your taste buds in the name of momma: In South Korea, people honor their mothers on their birthdays by eating miyeok-guk, a seaweed soup that symbolizes and honors the goddess of pregnancy and childbirth, Samsin Halmoni.
Source => en.wikipedia.org

8. Sixth Finger: South Korea's 5G Revolution

In a land where teenagers need a "bedtime" for gaming and the streets are paved with lightning-speed Wi-Fi, Samsung reigns supreme and smartphones are practically a sixth finger: South Korea boasts of a forthcoming 5G mobile internet service capable of downloading an 800-megabyte movie file in just one second, with plans to implement the technology within six years, securing their spot as the leader in the mobile internet realm.
Source => popsci.com

9. Good Luck Beans and Neighborly Love

As they say, you can catch more flies with honey than vinegar, but who needs flies when you can have friends? In South Korea, it's all about sweetening the deal with some _haejangguk_-tinged camaraderie: South Koreans traditionally use red beans and salt to ward off ghosts and bad luck when moving into a new home, and to foster good relationships with neighbors, they often share rice cakes made from red beans after settling in.
Source => sayul.org

10. Battle Royale: Public Transport Edition

In South Korea, the struggle for a seat on public transportation is a battleground that not even Game of Thrones could have imagined: with pregnant warriors fighting for their right to sit against relentless elderly conquerors. The serious reveal: To curb these tensions, the government introduced separate priority seats for pregnant women, but they're often used by others or simply ignored, reflecting the nation's aging population and low fertility rate conundrum.
Source => koreaherald.com

11. School of Hard "Knocks" and Age Hierarchy

In South Korea, you don't have to ask someone's age to know they've graduated from the school of hard "knocks": this fascinating culture deeply values respect for elders, enforcing strict social codes that create a hierarchy based on age. While some younger Koreans are starting to question this system, bowing down to the wisdom of your-older-than-thou relatives remains an integral part of life in this beautiful country.
Source => koreajoongangdaily.joins.com

12. Lotte World: A Korean Wonderland

If Disneyland and the Mall of America had a secret love child raised in a giant Korean shoebox, you'd get: Lotte World, South Korea's pride and joy, and the world's largest indoor amusement park - featuring over 5.5 million square feet of pure entertainment, complete with an outdoor park, shopping mall, department store, folk museum, aquarium, and a luxury hotel.
Source => autoevolution.com

13. North vs. South Korea: Secret Soccer Showdown

In an epic "Battle of the Bros" that even Zeus would've scored a ticket to see: South Korea and North Korea faced off in a FIFA World Cup qualifier in Pyongyang in 2019, their first football match on North Korean soil in 30 years, that ended in a nail-biting yet goalless draw. Sadly, no fans were present, and the match wasn't broadcasted live – it's like the trees in the fabled soundless forest! This legendary game was part of a series of sports diplomacy events, including a joint ice hockey team at the 2018 Winter Olympics and talks about a tag team bid for the 2032 Summer Olympics.
Source => theguardian.com

14. Blazing-Fast Internet and Smartphone Utopia

Are you tired of buffering videos and sluggish internet speed? South Korea has got your back: boasting the world's fastest average internet connection speed at 28.6 Mbit/s, an internet haven that's four times faster than the global average and 79 times quicker than the United States, all while having an impressive 97.6% smartphone ownership rate.
Source => en.wikipedia.org