FAN DEATH-a

Hello, hello!

I know it's been forever but there's nothing new under the sun!

Today I am writing to tell you about a Korean belief called. . . FAN DEATH. or in Korean fan death-a, you have to say the a at the end!

So it's summer and of course the heat is stifling here. I mean,well. . . stifling. So speaking with my students about using the fan to keep cool and they all say

"oh,teache-er you can no fan on when sleeping. You die! Very bad!"

That's right people. The Koreans believe that if you sleep, in a room, with all windows and doors closed, you will die. FAN DEATH-a.

Now, my students couldn't explain why this is, but they fully believe this to be true. They've seen the deaths on tv and in the newspaper, so it must be true!

I found some grown ups to ask, thinking, of course, they would blow it off and tell me the origin of the superstition. Guess what I found out? Not a superstition folks! Many, many adults told me FAN DEATH-a is TRUE!!!! If you sleep with the fan on, with all windows and doors closed, you will indeed die. FACT.

How can this possibly happen? Well, let me tell you. There are two schools of thought that I have heard on FAN DEATH-a. One is that leaving the fan on makes your body so cold, that eventually your heart stops and you die. Presumably from hypothermia.

Now, I looked up hypothermia and there are 3 stages to progress through until death. And this all takes longer than 24 hours if you are not submerged in water.

I tried to tell my Korean colleagues this amazing fact but, alas, to no avail. They say FAN DEATH-a is FACT and that's that.

The second way to die via FAN DEATH-a, and I believe this is a more common belief, is through lack of air. That's right, having the windows and doors closed does not allow fresh air into the room. The fan therefore circulates old, stale air and this, indeed, leads to death.

Hard to believe I know, but hey, facts are facts. And for those of you that have a heard time believing in FAN DEATH-a, I have attached a video that proves, this can happen. . . to you. So boys and girls, don't sleep with the fan on!

A note of advice from Korea!