Superstitions

Everyone has superstitions and urban legends. In the US, we have the number 13, black cats and, giant alligators in the sewers. Korea, on the other hand, has the number four, names written in red, and fan death.

Koreans are superstitions about the number four. The reason is that the word for four, 사, (sa) is pronounced the same as the word for death. As a result, many people associate the two. So, some Koreans will refuse apartments and hotel rooms on the fourth floor. This often leads to them being cheaper. Also, some people will not sit in seat #4 in a row at a theater.

Some buildings do not label the fourth floor. In the elevator, the fourth floor will be represented with an “F” on the elevator button. Also, some buildings skip the floor entirely. The numbers will just go from three to five.

Many people here do not like it if you write their name in red ink. The reason for this is that red ink is only used for names of the dead. This is done when recording deaths in a family registry or when printing things for a funeral. It upsets living people because they are getting treated like they are dead.

Names written in red is definitely a superstition that teachers need to be aware of. Once, I was at school and wrote some kids names on the board in red markers. I didn’t know that this would be an issue for them. I just wrote their names in red because they were being loud and I happened to be using a red marker. Well, that was a BIG mistake. The kids went absolutely nuts. One kid looked close to tears. I finally got the kids to calm down by convincing them that it didn’t count because I had just written their English nicknames in red, not their actual Korean names. Thankfully, children are easily swayed.

Now, I only know of one Korean urban legend. It is Fan Death.

Fan Death is when someone dies because they fell asleep close to a fan in a hot room with closed windows and a closed door. There are a ton of theories as to why this is thought to happen: suffocation, dehydration, hypothermia, hyperthermia, etc. The people whose deaths tend to be attributed to this the most are the elderly, young children, and the intoxicated.

Many people will defend this as legitimate science. Personally, I am skeptical. Living in South Florida, with its super hot temperature year round, it seems that if this were true, it would happen a lot in South Florida. Also, it seems like sleeping in a shut up, very hot room could kill someone with or without a fan. Plus, the people who are most susceptible to fan death (the elderly, young children, and the intoxicated) are also the most susceptible people to die in their sleep anyway. I guess it doesn’t matter either way. If it’s true, people are taking the necessary precautions. It it’s not true, it doesn’t matter what you believe.

So, if you come to Korea, don’t take that hotel room on the fourth floor, don’t write anyone’s name in red, and don’t use a fan.