There is a belief among superstitious westerners that the number 13 is unlucky. That is why in some buildings, this number is not used. In Korea, the Sino-Korean for the number 4 is pronounced as “sa.” The Sino-Korean for the character 死 is also “sa” meaning “death”. This is the reason why there are some buildings that use “F” in place of the numeral “4″ in elevators, like at TBS building in Chungmuro (photo above).
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Hanggang ngayong panahon na ito umiiral pa rin ang ating mga superstitious beliefs ano?
oo nga, sabagay wala naman mawala kung sundin yung superstitious beliefs na yun. i guess they placed F instead of the number 4, to say its the “Fourth Floor”, to be safe siguro ano? hmm… just a hunch.
Ha – I had forgotten about this! I lived on the F floor in South Korea a bit ago. I thought it was lucky we were so close to ground floor (since the elevator always broke or it smelled so strongly like alcohol/beer), but it turned out that most people did not want to live on that floor!
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This kind of things are a little charming, I cant imagine buildings in west changing floor nr. 13 to floor M. These small things are what I like with Asia, not everything has to be so rational in a ‘correct scientific way’.
If you will visit different countries and check on their elevators, you will find different sets of numbers. Some doesn’t use the 13th floor. Marami pa rin kasing takot sa malas and their beliefs shows on what they build.
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wow!scary! gusto ko pa namang magpunta sa Korea…I changed my mind…hehehe…