“Sleeping with a fan on will kill you”

Finally, I heard a folk belief from Timothy that I have heard of before. This is a superstition that I have personally grown up with. Until this project, it didn’t hit me that this statement was in fact just a superstition. Because my grandparents and parents continuously told me this, I really believed that this was true. I was always scared to sleep in a room with a fan on because I thought I would really run out of oxygen and die. However, this is only a statement that was created because in Korea, the humidity made it impossible for people to fall asleep at night so people would keep the fan on and sleep. When I searched online, I found out that this was only a belief in the Korean culture. Because I really believed in this statement, I thought it was a shared belief all over the world.

For another source for this folk belief, click this link : http://www.pri.org/stories/2014-11-04/why-every-korean-kid-knows-not-keep-fan-over-night

Timothy Chong is a 22 year old, senior in college, studying psychology. He is a friend I met through a club on campus. When I asked him to share some type of folklore or story he had heard growing up in a Korean household, he told me several beliefs. These can also be called superstitions. The sayings that he shared with me were told to him mostly by his parents because they are first generation parents that immigrated to the United States from Korea.

Tim told me this piece during break at work. We work together and it was a casual setting when he told me all his stories from his Korean culture.

“You can’t put your purse on the floor or else you’ll run out of money. My mom used to always tell me that.”

I have never heard of this superstition before, but this one seems to make sense. Parents probably told this so that children will be careful of where they put their belongings. These superstitions coming from Janneth were so interesting and new for me that I wanted to keep talking to her about the things she’s heard while she was growing up in her own culture.

Janneth Galeno is my co-worker. She works in an office. She was born in Mexico but moved to the United States and she has been living here ever since. She is married and has one daughter. She told me these traditions and stories during break at work.

This specific folk belief is something Janneth had simply heard from her mother. She does not necessarily believe in it, but as a joke, while she was telling me this superstition, Janneth mentioned that this must be why she’s not rich; because she neglects this and constantly puts her purse on the floor without hanging it on a chair or elsewhere.

G :”If your hand itches a lot, it means you’re going to get money.”

Me : “Oh! My hand itches a lot.”

G : “No, like only your palm. If your palm itches a lot, it means you’re going to get money.”

This specific folk belief is one that I have never heard of before. Griselda does not believe in this, obviously because it is more of a superstition than an actual belief, but she told me that this is what her mother used to tell her as a kid. We both agreed that we wished this were true because.. imagine how rich we would’ve been by now! After telling me this belief, she went on telling me about how she made an inspiration board and she gets inspired through that. In conclusion, I thought it was amazing how one folk belief inspired Griselda to go out and do things on her own.

Griselda Vega is a 41 year old mother of two sons. She also works in the office with me. She was exceptionally excited to share with me her culture’s stories and traditions which made it exciting for me to interview her. Griselda was born in Mexico and lived there until the age of 20, when she moved to the United States. At the age of 21, she was employed, and she works at the same office since then.