I’ve written two posts about public spitting, in which I have characterized the offenders as being mostly or all male. It would seem that we can’t blame males entirely for the cancer-spit covered sidewalks that grace this fine nation. Perhaps one of my readers might explain why some smoker/squatter/spitters prefer what I call the “dribbling” method of spitting, whereby they don’t actually projectile-spit, but instead kind of let the spittle dribble from their mouths into a pool on the ground. Is it perhaps to avoid the nasty sound of projectile-spitting? Most dribble-spitters I’ve observed have been middle school or high school children. I’m guessing our female friend in the pictures below (face censored by myself) is dribble-spitting because she doesn’t want to call attention and censure to herself from Korea’s hardline, traditional, ajeossi ruling class who sometimes double as the moral police in matters related to women in public.
I’m curious about all aspects of public spitting. Call me an amateur researcher in the field if you will. If smokers hate the taste of cigarettes so much, why do they smoke? Someone enlighten me. My father has been smoking since he was 12, never once have I seen him spit. My uncle chews tobacco, but never once have I seen him spit it onto a public street, or within view of a stranger. A good many of my Korean friends smoke (actually all of them but one does), but I’ve never seen them spit. Perhaps it’s a regional thing, or a socio-economic thing. Perhaps there is some folk tale floating around that if you spit, the cancer won’t stay in your body, or that phlegm itself is poisonous and must be expelled from the body at all times.
And another thing, if we have public ash-trays for smokers, why not public spittoons for spitters? Why is one segment of society being completely marginalized while the other is being catered to? Furthermore, with the widespread habit of spitting already firmly entrenched, and the rate of male smoking hovering around the 50% mark, why has chewing tobacco not become a popular seller in Korea? It would seem to combine two popular past times into one exciting new hobby. And do female spitters hide this habit from their boyfriends/husbands, or is this a hobby in which they bot engage in together? Is this perhaps a turn-on for some men? These, and other vital, life changing questions are being pondered on this cold Monday afternoon in the office.
Count your blessings that the point-and-grunt Koreans don’t chew betel nut. Imagine all those pools of spit… in vivid blood red.
I used to see that on elevator floors in China.
wtmf?
This one gets the pixels?
I got a model release form from the hostess, but not from the sidewalk spitter.
They did used to have public spittoons… in the States… 200 years ago. Seems most of the world has moved on from public expectoration, but for whatever reason, China and “Sparkling” Korea want to hold on to this long bygone pastime (this and other social practices deemed “backward” by the majority of the civilized world some generations ago).. hilarious as they are the two nations still championing Confucianism with its “collectivism” and “harmony”. Unless the definition of these terms has changed in the last year, collectivist harmony would mean putting the community above the self so as not to upset the balance of social order and productivity.
Korean “culture” claiming to champion anything resembling community-mindedness is as ridiculous as the United States claiming to champion self-determination and “freedom” around the globe.
By and large Koreans are the most selfish people I’ve ever met, comparatively speaking. This is made even more hilarious by the fact that so many of them view westerners as “stupid, fat, lazy and selfish”. Well, Billy-Bob may not be the brightest firefly on the farm, but even he knows not to step out, jaywalking, into the middle of the street on the most dangerous place in the OECD in terms of traffic accidents/fatalities, refusing to look before stepping foot on the street because “if he doesn’t look at the car, the car is not really there”. As for obesity, the younger generation is sure making an effort to catch up with the Americans. To lazy I say that if there were a more realistic welfare state here, Korea would break new records for strain on a safety net, but in the meantime they still get the title of least efficient in the OECD. Finally.. selfish. Maybe I’ve just been living a charmed life, but I’ve never seen gobs of spit in any elevator in any country outside of Korea, and I’ve only occassionally ever had noise complaints with respect to my neighbors, co-diners, etc… but here… oh here…
If I catch someone spitting in my building’s elevator, I swear I’m going to drop them on the floor so I can use them as a human mop to clean it up.
Those public spittoons in the US mostly disappeared thanks to our old friends the germ theory and tuberculosis.
Such newfangled ideas have no place in the land of pig farmer mentality
One night, heading up to the in-laws, waiting for the elevator, as the car was arriving I could hear some teen-aged boys inside spitting and laughing. As the doors opened, I saw one of them spit on the floor. It was a big joke to him and his friends until I grabbed him and shook him, digging my thumb into his shoulder. When I asked him what he thought he was doing, he pleaded ignorance. This, eventhough I had seen him with my own eyes.
Wife and granny were shocked, his friends were shocked. He almost pissed himself. I told him if I caught him again, he would be sorry. Haven’t seen spit on the elevator floor again, but who knows…
Probably the worst example of spitting I’ve seen was on the subway. A guy in his thirties took time from reading his book to lean forward and dribble out a gob between his feet. Which he then rubbed around on the floor with his shoe. The old guy next to him glared but didn’t say anything. The spitter wasn’t farmer or worker either. He wore the uniform of the left-wing intellectual/eternal student; tweed sport coat, turtle neck, baggy pants and had the air of such. In short, this ass-hat should have known better. I can sorta forgive old men hacking out a loggie on the street due to their age, lack of manners and fifty year smoking habits, but university educated intellectuals? No.
I’ve seen similar posture & behaviour on the baboon channel.
I actually LOLed with your comment.
Of all videos of the violence and degradation coming out of Syria in recent months, perhaps the most viscerally unsettling is one showing the torture and execution of a small group of rebel fighters who were captured by Assad’s forces. The video shows them being pilloried into a corner and made to face the wall whereupon they are then stabbed repeatedly about the abdomen and lower body by an assailant who seems to relish the performance of his duty. Again and again, the knife is plunged into their backs and flanks, tearing muscle and piercing organs. Their agony is hideous and prolonged, and when they can stand no longer, a bullet ends their needless suffering.
Why do I mention it?
Because that’s what I’d like to do to people who spit on the street.
me so angly!! my the sister fuck a white man and black man. why you yankee touch anothers woman?
좃나 쫄았구나, don’t get fucking scared… 하하 ^^
sashimi나 같이 먹자. 내가 cut해줄께
I proud the Corean, but I leave corea to live usa but i hate yankee scum and usa, you should know
In an attempt to cope with spitters and all other issues here, i simply refer to the manneristically uneducated Koreans as farmers and have a giggle.
Trying to understand half the problems or discuss them only results in avoidance, and headaches on my part.
Do Koreans spit everywhere abroad? Or do they leave it at home?
Public saunas and showers in Canada are full of Chinese and Koreans violently hawking up phlegm from the deepest reaches of their lungs and, as loudly as humanly possible, expectorating it on the floor of said sauna or shower.
My best guesses are that this is either (a) a way of expelling the evil “Sticky Spit-Spit Demon” in a throwback to superstitions best left abandoned 500 years ago in a manner similar to rest of the civilized world or (b) some kind of territorial or mating display more commonly seen in lesser animals.
I cannot imagine any health benefit to this abuse of the lungs… though, perhaps, considering the disgusting filth that the skies above an average Asian metropolis are enshrouded in, and the incredibly high rate of smoking (of low-quality cigarettes), their lungs may be so polluted that attempting to rend the delicate flesh inside off and out is a preferable alternative to the cancerous mess inside.
To me, it just looks like a bunch of cats hacking up hairballs… disgusting and attributable to a low level of evolutionary development.
Hi, speaking from abroad here, in a country overrun with goose stepping pointers and grunters. Indeed they do spit everywhere. It’s called planting the taegukgi. Pride.
In my town I haven’t seen the local Koreans spit in public. Probably living in the US makes them aware that public spitting isn’t acceptable here. How can you guys put up with that crap over there day in and day out? I’m afraid if it were me I might go crazy and just pepper spray the damn spitters to teach them a lesson!
Hmmm… lisa, you may be onto something here…
Hmm, my cat finds your metaphor insulting and will have you know she is at a higher level of evolutionary development than said K-hicks.
Apologies to your cat.
Apology accepted. She is busy licking herself right now.
If only some of the line 1 riders could/would do the same, the stench might become bearable.
Now if, in addition to keeping those incontinent miscreants warm and mobile in the winter, the Seoul Transit Authority could supply them with dental hygeine gear and a bar of soap…or simply find a better way to subsidize the elderly besides imposing their stench on the rest of society.
Some sort of mandatory sheep-dip sequentially adjacent to the ticket barriers at the further-outlying line one stations might help matters.
I’ve made a high school girl get down and clean her dribble spit off the classroom floor.
Good for you! I wish you could’ve captured her cleaning the spit on a video and put it on Youtube. I’ve seen Mike Aronson’s video about spitting in Korea, talking about the same disgusting culture. One funny comment to his video was: “i went to MSU as a non trad (old guy) i lived on campus in the grad dorm/creepy old guy dorm. but apart from these two michigan state packked 100 or so korean exchange students spit spit spit spit spit spit spit spit, these guys were from very rich families spit spit spit spit spit. they only talked to hung out with other koreans spit spit spit psit.” LOL…
There was one Korean girl on there claiming that she’d never seen someone spit in Korea before. Nuts!
I went through a phase where I forced my high school students to clean up their spit. After a while I realized one Canadian teacher won’t change a society. Took too much time and energy.
Late to the game. I understand spitting and smoking a little. Sometimes when I smoke my cigars, things build up. That is why when you smoke you should have something to drink! Whiskey preferably. If you need to spit, show some manners or class. Try to to it quietly, even better out of site.
The problem that drives me nuts is why do they have to make a fucking production of the process. The few times I spit, I generally to the ground (outside of course) away from people and if possible out of sight, while walking. Mainly just to clear out excess saliva or get rid a bad taste.
Yet here in Korea, it has to be stop walking, Hork as loudly as possible, spit. Making sure to start from the bottom of the lungs. Does not matter if the extra saliva is in the mouth. You have to get everything. Once done clearing all passages, they have to “pause”! Why? To enjoy the taste, double check the consistency. Or is it more of a statement of “Look Babe, I’m spitting”. Then get rid of the evidence on the ground, of course to make sure right in the middle of the sidewalk or in plain sight for people to enjoy or drop, dribble spit into an ash tray. Bonus points if someone sees you. What the fuck happened to discretion.
But of course it does not work the first time, repeat it multiple times. Sorry buddy if after the first time and things are not cleared, give up smoking. or at least go brush your teeth and gargle.
Every time I walk home, I hear the spitting of Korea. Really every time. Maybe it is the area I live.
Nearly got into a fight with a kid who looked about 20 and his fat f$%king girlfriend. She spit in front of me as I walked by. I let her have it with both barrels in Korean about what a low-class country girl she was and…(cole-eh)…I can’t translate that. Junior looked like he wanted to fight, but it was just for show. I am built like a high school linbacker. He was angry, but she didn’t really look embarrassed. She said….she said…”But I have blood in my mouth.” I looked down and she had spit blood in front of me. I hope he gets her pregnant. She’ll be a wonderful mother.
Maybe the BF slapped her around a bit, hence the blood spitting.