The article isn't saying the "prison retreat" thing is common, it's a meta commentary on the stress of Korean corporate life.

I have seen a question on HN about Japanese "Black Companies" before, and I believe patio11 said that they were an actual thing. So I'm not surprised a similar culture of overwork exists in South Korea.

(My only direct experience of South Koreans is that they always kick my ass at online games).

Black Companies [0] are a thing, but the discourse of Black Companies mostly serves to protect the mainline of Japanese work culture from the degree of criticism it deserves.

[0] A company so abusive of workers that it literally disgusts Japanese salarymen. Common elements include withholding pay, withholding pay for large amounts of mandatory overtime, ordering overtime in quantities sufficient to cause death by exhaustion, physical violence against staff, harassment of staff by management in a fashion far surpassing social norms, etc.

Do people actually think they'll die if they sleep with the fan on? Thats pretty weird to me.

Yes, that used to be a common misconception in Korea until recently. It is completely false but such rumors can get viral very quickly. There are also many such misonceptions in the West. For instance, in the West, many people still believe that different areas of the tongues are used for different tastes (sweet, bitter,...). You can find more such things in this famous wikipedia article: https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_common_misconception...

> many people still believe that different areas of the tongues are used for different tastes (sweet, bitter,...)

We actually had that being stated as a fact in one of our elementary school books. Kind of concerning when even the writers of such books do not perform some basic research on the topics that they are trying to cover.

The prevalence of male infant circumcision in South Korea (over 80%) for dubious health benefits is another one of those lingering misconceptions. Even the US, a former bulwark of this custom, is more progressive in the gradual decline of it.

That one in particular is "dubious," as you claim, whereas these others have no factual support. I don't think it's an analog in the discussion.

'Dubious at best' may be a better phrasing, but it seems to be a touchy subject in some countries (partly because of religion). Still, South Korea is an odd statistical outlier here.

Some interesting ones. Fortune cookies originating in Japan, and being seen by the Chinese as an American affectation - they're very rarely seen here in the UK so I can well believe it.

Are they rare in the UK? Common enough in my city for the last couple of decades. I think I first saw them on Friends (USA tv show), or a similar show.

At our regular Chinese takeaway the kids only get them if they come in with us; other places just include a handful.

To me the biscuit is really vile.

Rare enough in my experience, perhaps I shouldn't generalise!

But I've never had them from a takeaway, and only once or twice in a restaurant. My experience is almost entirely from London and the South-East though.

Yes, we did until 5 to 10 years ago. Not anymore. Some incorrect information from TV made people believe like that from maybe 70s.

edit: What really happened was, some very old people died because of hypothermia by fan when the fan was just introduced in South Korean market. At that time, no one knew about hypothermia so people believed it was suffocation. That became the urban myth.

Just remember: in low gravity, always sleep with a fan on or you can die of suffocation. Just in case that ever comes up, you know.

Really? Citation please.

>but warm air does not rise in space so astronauts in badly-ventilated sections end up surrounded by a bubble of their own exhaled carbon dioxide.

Whoa, I didn't think about that.

Cool, thanks for that!

>Do people actually think they'll die if they sleep with the fan on? Thats pretty weird to me.

There are people that legitimately believe Earth is flat.

For something less crazy, people were wearing surgical masks in photos of the California fires the past few weeks. They are wholly ineffective, a proper respirator with the appropriate filter is needed to make any impact on the air quality.

More oft than not people will readily accept something as fact without questioning it at all. There are countless YouTube videos that prey upon this, like the 'DIY drone phone case' and the videos with people alleging 'make diamonds with peanut butter and coal'.

That's a German thing too.