Katiekin asks: What's the Korean mentality on ghosts and the supernatural?
As you can see, we're wearing wigs not just because we feel like it
but because it's almost Halloween
This is perfect!
I've actually saved this question in our TL;DR folder for over a year now
and it's finally time to talk about it.
We kept being like, "We should answer this question,"
then we were like, "No, let's wait--let's wait."
Alright, let's start with the basics here.
So 'gui sheen' is the Korean word for ghost
and there are two kinds of ghosts
There's the unmarried female virgin ghost
and then there's the bachelor ghost.
Noticing a kind of theme with the ghosts here.
[Horror movie music]
'Cheon yo gui sheen' is the female ghost
and those are the ones that you see in the movies like Ring
where they have the long black hair and white outfits on
and they show up in your house and haunt you and crawl up in TV screens and stuff like that.
I don't know what is up with the whole unmarried thing
but supposedly if you have a female ghost in your house
you could actually try to hook them up with a bachelor ghost.
Yeah, they've got a match.com for ghosts and you can like set up your own profile
to see how long you've been undead for and all that kinds of stuff
'cheon gak' is actually a Korean kimchi but that's the name of the bachelor ghost as well.
and so apparently you can set them up if you have a problem in your house.
Other than that, I don't really think there are many other ghost stories that I can talk about.
Although...
There is that one story that I heard about when I was teaching at a high school.
Supposedly there were two girls competing to be the first and most smartest girl in class
But this one girl kept coming in second place.
Constantly 2nd place
2nd place girl couldn't take it anymore.
She saw 1st place girl standing near the window
She walked from behind and she pushed her out the window
and she fell to her death.
From that point onward, 2nd place girl became the best in school
But then one day, when she was studying late in school
She heard this noise
-How do I make the noise? -What did the noise sound like?
It's like a--
*Simon and Martina make crow and owl noises*
It sounds like a thumping sound.
She heard this thumping sound coming down the hallway
*THUMP THUMP THUMP*
It wasn't like somebody walking it was like something hopping.
She knew something was wrong so she ran down the hallway
and she went to the washroom and she crawled up on top of the toilet and tried to hide herself
but then suddenly, everything went quiet
At the bottom of her stall...
#1 girl's face shot up from the bottom upside down and yelled,
"I FOUND YOU!!!!!!"
The girl screamed wildly and kicked open the stall to try to escape her.
But it turns out the girl's head was on upside down
and the thumping was her jumping on her upside down distorted head
from having fallen out the window
Moral of the story is--
Don't push people out a window
No seriously. Pushing someone out the window because of grades?
I'm pretty sure that the moral of the story isn't to push people out the window
-I'm pretty sure it's about the fierce-- -Not being competitive?
competition in school
and to not get too wrapped up in that or else you might
be haunted by something something afterwards.
There are so many stories based on high schools
and high school people haunting each other because
they push each other out windows or kill each other because of grades.
[Horror movie music again]
And you don't even want to go into toilets when you're in a high school in Korea because
there's all these horrible ghost hauntings that happen in toilet stalls.
In fact, after researching these stories
I'm a little bit concerned now about going to the washroom because
ours is on the top and the lights don't actually work on top, it's a little bit dark and creepy.
And there's one ghost story...
about if you make a poo on the toilet
then a hand will come up, somebody's hand, I don't know who's exactly,
but it will grab you and pull you in
I'm not exactly sure what they could grab you by
unless you're a dude; they grab you by the balls and pull you in
But like--
What are the physics behind it?
Somebody's hand....
grabbing you...
No seriously, there are a million ghost stories about hands coming up in toilets.
It's supposed to be a lot freakier because of outhouses
if you also have the squatting toilets as opposed to the regular toilets
then it's a lot more creepy that way.
And have you seen the squatting toilets?
They themselves-- you don't even need a story behind them
-It could be daylight!
That's a setting of a horror movie right there.
And that's apparently where the evil hand will come up from the toilet
Only the squatting toilets, not the modern toilets
You're okay in the modern toilets, ghosts do not haunt those toilets.
But how are they going to fit through a toilet bowl?
-You just keep on pulling! -The physics this-- AHHH!!
Now besides stories about angry vengeful schoolgirls
or ones about those unmarried virgins ghosts with the long hair,
- the bachelor ghosts -and also about terrible poos as well
I think there was that one story?
About plastic surgery gone wrong!
There's that one story about the lady in the red mask
that will walk up to you on the streets and ask you,
"Am I pretty?"
And if you say no, she will pull off her mask
and you will see this giant mouth,
kinda like the Joker but a little bit scarier than that--
and then she will rip your mouth open and make you look like her.
What happens if you say that she is pretty?
Then she will say, "Okay, let me make you as pretty as I am,"
and then rip your face so that they kinda look like her.
so even if you say yes or no, you're kinda dead.
Is there any defense form against this scary woman??
-Yes, in fact there is! -Oh!
Supposedly, she's very scared of dogs.
So if you write the Chinese symbol for dog on your hand
and you Hadouken her with it, then she will kind of run away scared.
-That's very specific isn't it? -Yes
So you're like, "Wait a second"
She's like, "Am I pretty?"
You're like, "Hold on---" SHABA!!
She's scared of the word pomade
because supposedly her crazy plastic surgeon wore a lot of hair pomade.
So if you say pomade three times, then she's gonna run away.
If you say it twice, then she might kind of turn around and be unsure.
If you say it once, she might be like,
"Uhhhh"
So you gotta say it three times.
Pomade...Pomade...Pomade
What if you're like, "Dell!Dell!Dell!"
-She's like, "Wait a second" -"Wait a second"
So the crazy lady with the red mask will ask you and then you'll die.
And when we say red mask, we should say that it's like--
the breathing-- you know those ones they give when you're sick or--
-you're a celebrity -Yeah, they're little face masks.
So it's very scary for Korea I think and Japan.
Although... I don't really see red masks, do you?
We're gonna talk about some more Korean ghost stories in our blogpost
including bun shin sabo,
which is a game that kids play to bring ghosts into the house,
So make sure you click on the link here if you want to be freaked out a little bit more.
That sounds like a terrible game.
My question for you is:
What are some of the superstitions and ghost stories that you have in your part of the world?
Do you have anything like the single, unmarried, vengeful ghost who will come after you?
Let us know in the comment section below
For last weeks TL;DR, we were talking about Korean gangs and gangsters
and we got a really interesting comment from aerycrow who wound up saying that
a lot of the Korean gangs are not actually naming themselves,
but they're named by the police crime unit that's responsible for them,
which is why some of the gangs had some weird names that we found a little bit off
like strawberry flavored seaweed
which doesn't really seem that gangster but--
Hey, if I was a Korean police officer and I had to name a gang
I'd name them something like The Farting Bunnies or something along those lines.
Or like The Whining Sissy Sniveling Cows and like--
something like--Texas.
KonRean had a great comment on Youtube, they said
Double Dragon-- which was the name of one of the gangs we were talking about--
LOLLL~
Where I'm from, double dragon is when you vomit and have diarrhea at the same time.
Comes out so it looks like a dragon
I guess. I call that doing the Egyptian.
-because it looks like-- -That's how you describe the movement.
You're like, "How were you last night?" and you're like, "Not good"
-Do the Egyptian -Not good!
-Double dragon or Egyptian? -Double dragon sounds luxurious though
What do you call vomiting and shitting at the same time in your country?
Leave your answer in the comment section be--
Have a safe and happy Halloween if you celebrate and if you live in Korea,
come to You are Cafe on Friday,
where we'll be giving out Halloween candy!
We're doing trick-or-treating so make sure you come by.
No, super cereal. Come by with your family and we have a little pumpkin basket
and we will give you your candy in your pillowcase.