Fan Death

I just thought I 'd write a short note about the most ridiculous belief I have ever heard! I couldn't figure out why the other night my teacher came into my classroom at the end of the day and insisted that I unplug the fan over night. It turns out that the night before I had left it on and when she discovered that in the morning she was shocked and quite afraid. I thought maybe she was concerned about energy consumption, but it turns out she actually believes that it is harmful to leave a fan on in a room with closed door and windows. I really didn't understand, so at dinner on Saturday when talking to some other Canadian teachers, I discovered she was afraid because of the Korean belief of "fan death".

Please read the information posted on Wikipedia for a full explanation of this ridiculous belief: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fan_death

It turns out that they even use fan death as a cause of death for some driving accidents. A car can be demolished from smashing into a wall, and COD will be listed as Fan death because the driver was enclosed in the vehicle and likely had the air on. Now that I think about it, this may also explain why whenever I've been in a car with a Korean they only let the AC run for a few minutes before they open windows and then close them again to let the AC run a bit longer - just to let in some fresh air or oxygen so we don't die! The accidents of course have absolutely nothing to do with the fact that Korean are big drinkers and love to party and then drive home drunk - no! that couldn't be why they crash! ;)

Just a little more Korean craziness for ya!