“Jinx” is something that is considered to bring bad luck. There are some general jinxes in Korea. For example, you shouldn’t have seaweed soup before an important exam or interview if you don’t want to slip (fail). Crows are thought to bring bad luck, as well as the number four, and that’s why there is no fourth floor in some buildings in Korea.

There are more personal ones, too. In my case, I stay up all night before a midterm or final exam if I want to get a good grade. I feel like I’m going to forget what I studied while I sleep. Do you have any jinx and particular way to avoid bad luck? I asked random Hongik University students this question. Here are there answers.

1) When it’s the day before an important exam, I don’t listen to the song “Rain Drop” by IU. I once listened to it and then it “rained on my exam paper” (This refers to an expression in Korean that means a person got a lot of questions wrong). I screwed that exam up and it was on one of my high school records.

2) When I was a high school senior, I always crammed for exams, and I didn’t want to wash my hair in the morning. I felt as if the knowledge would get washed away, too.

3) Before an exam, I don’t clip my nails, and I also say to myself, “I can do this” three times.

4) There are several colors of chopsticks at my home and when I have meal before an important event, I have to use the blue ones if I want to do well.

Not surprisingly, all the answers I got from the students were related to exams or interviews, since those events are regarded as so crucial in Korean society. I could surely agree with them and at the same time, I felt a little sad for us. A jinx can sometimes encourage someone but it could also put one into severe anxiety and depression. I hope that we all try to break our jinxes a little, and have more confidence in ourselves.