Krazy Korea and Dental Hygiene

Yesterday I was doing some investigation into a rumour that Korean toothpaste has sugar in it. I couldn't find conclusive evidence either way but I did come across some interesting information about 2080, the most common brand of toothpaste on the peninsula. I hadn't noticed it before, but sure enough the slogan for 2080 is "Keep the 20 healthy teeth till 80 years old."



I sure do hope it's the front 20 teeth we're keeping healthy, I don't care as much about the back 12. What happens if I live past 80 though? I guess nothing really matters once you're that old.

Next up:

Grade Five, Lesson 4: What a Nice Day!

In this unit students will learn how to use exclamatory sentences to describe events in their daily lives. This lesson will be taught by emphasizing cultural differences and will use value judgements to subtly promote superiority. Vocabulary words for this lesson include: city, elephant, elevator, bird, rock and tall.

The following is an exact transcription of a section of the teacher guide.

The culture of exclamation

Western people show exclamation even over trifles. This phenomenon isn't found an oriental culture that appreciates people who control their feeling and taciturn. We can usually see Americans who are moved so easily by things that Koreans aren't effected by. This means they are accustomed to expressing feeling freely and frankly.

In western culture, they start a conversation about the weather when they meet someone for the first time: 'It's a lovely day, isn't it?'. This is referenced to the inclement weather in England.

The people who live in an area with nice weather like Korea aren't touched by this kind of thing but Englishmen can be impressed.

Suck on that England. Maybe if your weather wasn't so shitty you wouldn't be moved so easily by trifles and you could taciturn a little more. In Korea 'taciturn' is a verb, but 'offend' is not.