benhider.com/blog

I have been socialising with a few Koreans recently. Pratt has a very high count of its MFA students as Korean. They are all pretty nice, fairly quiet and perfectly well mannered normally. This article about Samsung countering the suicide rate of its employees by having funeral training doesn’t do them any favors as a race. Apparently they also believe that sleeping with a fan pointing at you while you sleep can lead to death (see this article on wikipedia). Imagine reading this in the Financial Times.

South Korean companies are sending employees on ‘fake funeral’ courses to help prevent suicide.Participants sit at candlelit desks and are told to write their last will and testament.Attendees are prompted by questions such as: “If you died today, what would you tell your family”? Many of those in the room become emotional as they read out their wills.

Before they are “buried”, participants are asked to pose for their funeral portrait. Participants (then) enter a “death experience room” where they choose a coffin and put on a “death robe.” Course members get into their coffins and a flower is laid on each person’s chest. Funeral attendants place a lid on the coffin and dirt is thrown on the casket. Participants are left in the closed casket for five minutes and some start to cry in the darkness. Once the lids are opened the resurrected trainees are asked how they felt.

Thanks Justin