People wearing face masks walk in front of Yongsan Station in Seoul on April 1, 2022. (Yonhap)
SEOUL, April 7 (Korea Bizwire) — With the coronavirus pandemic continuing for more than two years, Koreans have learned a new habit of washing hands while foreigners are watching more YouTube content, a Seoul-based non-profit organization said Wednesday.
The Corea Image Communication Institute conducted a survey of 214 Koreans and 203 foreigners, in which 71.5 percent of Koreans responded that ‘hand washing’ has become their new habit in the pandemic era and 78.3 percent of foreigners said they had acquired a new habit of ‘watching TV or YouTube.’
For Koreans, ‘watching TV or YouTube’ remained in second place (64.5 percent). For foreigners, ‘hand washing’ ranked third (41.4 percent).
‘Cooking’ ranked second for foreigners (64 percent) and third for Koreans (50.9 percent).
When asked about the newly acquired habits that they wished to keep in the post-pandemic era, 83.7 percent of foreigners and 78.5 percent of Koreans picked ‘handwashing.’
Roughly half of foreigners and 69.2 percent of Koreans then picked ‘regular sterilization’ as the second practice they wanted to keep in the post-pandemic era.
As for their third choice, 25.2 percent of Koreans picked ‘fewer business gatherings,’ while 31.5 percent of foreigners picked ‘working from home.’
“Many Koreans are expressing distaste for the rigid culture of business gatherings and dinners,” an institute said.
H. M. Kang (hmkang@koreabizwire.com)
