Two Interesting Cultural Observations

We had an interesting/funny conversation with our co-teachers this week. One day at lunch the girls were giggling. When we asked why, they said, "You are matching today". We were both wearing jeans. I wouldn't necessarily call that matching given that the majority of Canadians live in blue jeans.

Anyway, I told them I was glad they didn't notice our shirts the day before. Before we left for school I realized that we had both picked a navy and white striped shirt. They told us that they had noticed and they thought it was super cute. Apparently, matching is the thing to do in Korea when you are in a relationship. They even sell matching his/hers swimsuits. No jokes. We haven't seen these in stores yet, but when we do...

Later in the week, we went out for coffee with a friend that we met through church. She filled us in on another interesting aspect of Korean culture. Apparently (we haven't experienced this one personally yet), after your age and your marital status, Koreans will ask for your blood type. This has nothing to do with wanting to donate blood to you if you need major surgery. The idea is that you can understand a person's personality and whether your relationship with that person will work out well by whether their blood type is compatible with yours. Similar to the placemats that they have at Chinese food restaurants in Canada with the animal symbols on them. When we asked our co-teachers about this one, they laughed and told us that this is mostly popular with teenagers. I found out that I m destined to be good friends with one of my co-teachers based on our blood types.

Anyway, we hope that you enjoyed these cultural observations! We did!