Many Koreans who smokes have this habit of smoking cigarettes really fast and then just throwing them away when they're still only half way burnt. If nobody keeps them busy with conversation, they can easily finish their cycle of smoking in 10 seconds.
I myself don't smoke and am not supportive of cigarettes. But if you are smoking, why waste the quality?
Their answer was in their high school.
Korean schools have relatively more strict rules than most western schools, including the banning of cigarettes. It was very obvious why cigarettes weren't welcomed in the realm of education. But a lot of the students were under a lot of pressure and didn't bother themselves about breaking some of the rules. What schools did for punishing disobedient students were make them to write essays or beat them with sticks dedicated to beating students, but that didn't stopped anything. Smoking is an addiction and was a much more powerful motivation than beat sticks.
They still needed hiding places. If they had clever alleyways in school, that's their refugee until a teacher smelled smoke and found evidence all over the ground that clumsy students left behind. So, Korean high school, or sometimes middle school student's common smoking area was the school bathroom. It may sound stupid, for most of those locations are usually in the center of buildings, but teachers hardly used any bathroom that was not on the floor of their office. And too many students used those bathrooms in school, so it was nearly impossible to track anyone who smoked. Even though everyone knew one third of the students in the school were smokers.
Of course those places were still not practical to linger too long with lit cigarettes while teachers were doing their best to be vigilant. This is where one of the most popular Korean quotes came to be enlightened. 'Ppally ppally', means 'Hurry hurry'. Just be really fast. It's a necessity. They didn't need to enjoy it. It's not pleasant to get caught.
I met a guy who, in his 15 years since he graduated high school, is still with his smoking habit. Ever since he graduated he never needed to smoke like that anymore. But it's a habit. He still smokes the way he feels safest.
Also, probably for the same reason, Koreans hardly have any etiquette for using the ashtray. Go to a pub where half of the customers are Korean and other half are western. Tables and floors where Korean used are more likely to be a mess of ashes.
I myself don't smoke and am not supportive of cigarettes. But if you are smoking, why waste the quality?
Their answer was in their high school.
Korean schools have relatively more strict rules than most western schools, including the banning of cigarettes. It was very obvious why cigarettes weren't welcomed in the realm of education. But a lot of the students were under a lot of pressure and didn't bother themselves about breaking some of the rules. What schools did for punishing disobedient students were make them to write essays or beat them with sticks dedicated to beating students, but that didn't stopped anything. Smoking is an addiction and was a much more powerful motivation than beat sticks.
They still needed hiding places. If they had clever alleyways in school, that's their refugee until a teacher smelled smoke and found evidence all over the ground that clumsy students left behind. So, Korean high school, or sometimes middle school student's common smoking area was the school bathroom. It may sound stupid, for most of those locations are usually in the center of buildings, but teachers hardly used any bathroom that was not on the floor of their office. And too many students used those bathrooms in school, so it was nearly impossible to track anyone who smoked. Even though everyone knew one third of the students in the school were smokers.
Of course those places were still not practical to linger too long with lit cigarettes while teachers were doing their best to be vigilant. This is where one of the most popular Korean quotes came to be enlightened. 'Ppally ppally', means 'Hurry hurry'. Just be really fast. It's a necessity. They didn't need to enjoy it. It's not pleasant to get caught.
I met a guy who, in his 15 years since he graduated high school, is still with his smoking habit. Ever since he graduated he never needed to smoke like that anymore. But it's a habit. He still smokes the way he feels safest.
Also, probably for the same reason, Koreans hardly have any etiquette for using the ashtray. Go to a pub where half of the customers are Korean and other half are western. Tables and floors where Korean used are more likely to be a mess of ashes.
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| Image : Smoke by JessicaRunkel on deviantART |
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