3 Free Halloween Korean Stories: Why No 4th Floor?

🎃 3 Spooky Korean Short Stories for Halloween

A floor that disappears from elevators. A ghost that won’t leave you alone. A letter that warns you something bad will happen. This Halloween, we’re unlocking 3 spooky Korean stories in TTMIK Stories, and you can read all of them for free until October 31.

Each one is short, written for learners, and comes with a little piece of Korean culture inside. Let’s start with the easiest one.

😱 Why Is There No 4th Floor? 엘리베이터에 4층이 없어요 (Level 1)

한국 엘리베이터에 가끔 4층이 없어요. 옛날에 한국 사람은 ‘4’를 좋아하지 않았어요. 왜요? 4는 '사망'의 '사'랑 발음이 같아요. '사망'은 뭐예요? '죽다'예요. 그래서 ‘4’를 쓰지 않아요. ‘F’를 써요. F층이 4층이에요.

Korean elevators sometimes don’t have a 4th floor. In the past, Korean people didn’t like the number 4. Why? Because 4 sounds the same as 사 in 사망. What does 사망 mean? It means “to die.” So people don’t use 4. They use F instead. The F floor is the 4th floor.