Korea's Number Two Obsession

Poop or 똥 ddong is a fascination in Korea. I'm unsure why or how this cultural obsession began but what I do know is my students love poop.

Last week we learned the letter D.

Me: "What starts with D?"
Students: "Dog", "Desk", "Duck", "Ddong! (insert laughter)"

They draw ddong on their homework. They have ddong stickers. They call each other ddong.

Perhaps they are just products of their environment?


I mean, I saw this at the store:

This on a restaurant:

This is a restaurant:

And learned this at the Toilet Museum (a REAL museum that deals with all things toilet related):

quoted from the museum wall itself,
"A poop dog is one kind of native dogs in Korea. Most homes raised poop dogs.
Even though most babies are in diapers these days, in the past most babies didn't wear diapers. When a baby pooped in the yard, a dog ate the poop. When a baby pooped in the house, an adult called the dog by saying, "warri warri". The dog would enter the room and eat the poop. Also, dogs would lick the baby's butt until clean. Therefore, the name of this dog became poop Dog. However, most of these dogs disappeared."


Feeling queasy yet?

I don't know about you, but I don't enjoy being subjected to this on a daily basis. Being surrounded by 10-year old's who tell me their English name is D-D-O-N-G gets a little old. But every country has their weird quirks, right? You just have to shrug your shoulders and say "Oh, Korea...".

Well, there ya have it. The crappy Korean obsession I will be happy to leave behind.