It's Official: Koreans Don't Understand Mittens on Strings

Dummy on the right doesn't get it

I noticed this a few weeks back; ajummas, young children, and stylish bitties wearing mittens on a string. Trouble is,  they were wearing them all wrong. In fact, none of them were wearing them right. They wear them outside their coat, thrown over their shoulders like a towel, or a weird necklace; just letting them hang alongside their scarves. This morning I saw four more times on the subway home. It's official: Koreans don't know how to wear mittens on strings.

Correct me if I'm wrong, but I believe the proper way to wear string mittens is to feed them through the arm holes of your jacket.
There are many pros: reduced chances of losing one mitten and rendering the pair useless, dropping a mitten on the floor/ground, the ease to which you can whip off your mitts when you don't want them on, discrete perma-mitts you never have to look for,  and not looking like a dummy with your mittens on the outside of your coat.
Cons? Awkward in the bathroom.

As in most places, but Korea especially, it would be quite rude for me to point out this mitten faux-pas to strangers on the subway. So two days ago I pounced when one of my students arrived in class with an outrageously long pair of mitten strings sitting on her shoulders outside her coat. Without a word, I took off her coat, fed the mittens through each arm hole, and helped her put the coat back on. I explained that this was the superior way to wear mittens on a string.

"Laura Teacher, it is perfect"

She tried them on, took them off, then tried them on, then whipped them off.


YOU'RE WELCOME.