Scene from ‘My Girl‘ – when the doctor pricked Joo Yoo Rin’s finger

In the old days mothers knew, from experience, various methods for making one’s suffering less. Such remedies passed down through the generations are called mingan yobeop (민간요법) and Korea has many of them.

For example, it is believed that thinly cutting green onion and place it near your nose helps a cold and that wrapping boiled red beans in cloth and putting it on the shoulder will help relieve shoulder pain.

Scene from ‘Likable or Not‘ – when Nah Dan Poong pricked Kang Baek-Ho’s finger

Other remedies include pricking a person’s finger when he is having stomach pains related to indigestion, eating ginger to relieve nausea, or eating plums to fight diarrhea and stomachaches.

You might want to try a traditional Korean home remedy the next time you aren’t feeling well.

Source From: Arirang TV

PS: especially the remedies on pricking a person’s finger had been seen in most Korean TV dramas.

• Korean TV drama ‘My Girl‘ – when Joo Yoo Rin and Seol Gong Chan spent a night at mountain village. Joo Yoo Rin ate too much and was having stomach aches due to indigestion, Seol Gong Chan brought her to visit a doctor who pricked her finger with needles.

• Korean TV drama ‘Likable or not‘ – when Kang Baek-Ho and Nah Dan Poong were doing a research on the dumplings taste, Kang Baek Ho ate too much dumplings and was having stomach aches due to indigestion. Nah Dan Poong borrowed a needle and thread from the nearby village and wanted to help Kang Baek Ho by pricking his finger with the needle.

These illness are terms that are invented by Korean to describe a person who is over doing something or over extreme of building one ego.

However all these terms is most common use by the younger generation in Korea. If you will to ask an elderly, they may stare at you and wondering what actually are you talking about.

1)왕자병 Wang ja byong (Prince illness) – Describe a man/guy who likes to look at himself  in the mirror most of the times and over extreme of building one ego.

2)궁주병 Gong ju byong (Princess illness) – Describe a lady/girl who likes to look at herself in the mirror most of the times and over extreme of building one ego.

3)명랑병 Myong rang byong (Cheerful illness) – Over cheerful towards most of the people, matters and give others a feeling that he/she is not sure what is going on most of the time.

So may sure you can use these term correctly to the correct person, if not you will have people start staring at you and don’t even understand what you really want to express.