Being Sick in Korea

January 5, 2009

Being sick in Korea both sucks and is the most awesome thing ever. It’s pretty awesome because it’s really cheap to go to the doctor here, It sucks because if you have a cold they just give you a bunch of vitamins and Tylenol. No cough syrup, nothing, just vitamins. I went to the doctors the other day because I had been really sick for a couple of days. I have every symptom from not being able to breathe through my nose much, to coughing all the time, to being able to taste absolutely nothing. So, I go to the doctor because I was afraid I was really sick. The doctor asks for all my symptoms and he goes on to tell me that I am seriously sick and I would not have gotten better without medicine. He then tells me I have nasopharyngitis, which at the time made me freak out and go, oh, I must be REALLY sick! I went home to take my medicines and see what kind of illness I had. I was almost shocked to see that all I had was a severe common cold. It really shouldn’t surprise me though, even Koreans who are really good at speaking English tend to use the wrong words or use the more complicated words a lot.