This is a random fact I learned today while practicing my Hangul: Japan has no word for ‘love’ in Japanese.

Affection? Care? Yes. But, love there is no such word for such a strong emotion. Instead, they use the English word with a Japanese accent to display the emotion, however, this only occurred after exposure to English. So, for centuries the culture progressed without verbally displaying this emotion.

This fact just baffles to me. How can you not have a word, for the only word, that really matters?

As a part of my effort to immerse myself in this drastically different country – I have signed up for Hangul (Korean). My goal is to be able to read the random signs written in what looks like gibberish by Jan.

Aside from being able to read basic phrases, the class is good for random facts such as the one I learned last week.

Koreans have a certain superstition for the number 4. Similar to our 13, it is considered a dark and deathly number. Unlike our unlucky superstition, however, they do not have any floors that are at level 4. It simply skips the level. 1,2,3,5,6!I assume the tradition translates to other areas too…4 kids, bad. 4 eggs, bad. Group of 4, bad. Nov 4th…bad.

Yet another random fact of about Korea. Good for cocktail parties or just something random to start off the conversation.