[Korean Culture & Language] Poopy hand

Hello, this is Uptempo Marketers!

Midas touch (마이더스의 손) refers to having the ability to be successful, especially in terms of making money. It is named after a legendary king, Midas, whose touch made everything gold. 

Instead of the ‘Midas touch,’ which transforms everything you touch into gold, the ‘마이너스의 손(minus touch)’ transforms everything you touch into the garbage. 

Koreans refer to someone who has the ability to turn everything they touch into garbage ‘똥손 (poopy hand)’. 

https://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=%EB%98%A5%EC%86%90


Title of the first video reads ‘최고의 똥손을 찾아라,’ which means ‘Who’s the biggest poopy hand?’

At the beginning part of the video, someone sent her a picture with a caption ‘분명 맛있게 구우려고 했는데 지옥에서 온불고기가 돼 버렸어요 (I expected it to be perfectly grilled, but it turned out to be a bulgogi from hell)’.

The second video is a scene from the Korean TV series Ghost Doctor, in which Rain, Kim BumUee, and Son Na-Eun feature. The plot revolves around two doctors with opposing personalities and medical talents, with vastly different backgrounds. Cha Young Min is a brilliant surgeon with exceptional surgical talents, yet he is arrogant and self-centered. On the other hand, Seong Tak is not interested in becoming a doctor despite being the grandson of the famed Myungshin Hopslital’s founder

Cha Young Min yells in the video, “하고 많은 의사들 중에 왜 하필 이 똥 손이냐고! (Why is this poopy hand my surgeon, out of all the surgeons?)”

If you are bad at making things with your hands, you may call yourself ‘똥손’. For example, if you are bad at make-ups, hairdos, or arts and crafts, you are unmistakably a ‘똥손’. 

I am definitely a 똥손. What about you?

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