Koreans and Vitamins

I shared this on one of the message boards I frequent. There was some conversation about gifts for foster families in Korea, and the topic of Koreans and vitamins came up ...

In case you don't know, my DH is Korean. He was born in Korea, but his family moved here when he was 2 years old.

We visited Korea back in 2005 with his mom and his brother and his brother's family. DH has lots of extended family in Korea still, and we stayed with some of them while we were there--and some of them traveled around with us during our vacation.

While we were in Korea, we flew to Jeju Island, which is a very popular tourist destination. My MIL apparently set all of this up with help from her family. We had our own bus for our family group and a schedule of stops and things to see, etc. I typically had no idea what was in store for each day but was along for the ride--and enjoyed it!

Anyway, one day we ended up at this orange grove place. There were lots of plants and greenhouses, etc., etc. Then everyone (lots of people, not just our group) was herded into these rooms where you listened to a long presentation about these natural vitamins. It was all in Korean--so I don't know what all was being said--but it was like an infomercial IRL. It seemed to go on forever. Then, when we thought we were free to go, we had to exit through ANOTHER room, where we were supposed to sit down and listen to more sales pitches. In this room is where everyone placed their orders, if applicable. DH and I (as well as my BIL and SIL) were astonished at the sight of all these Korean people whipping out their wallets and ordering up all kinds of vitamins--and they were not cheap! To top it off, I turn around and my MIL was getting some. LOL! She even joked with us, saying that they probably don't even do anything but she wanted to get some anyway. (She is an RN, too.) We just found the whole thing very interesting and kind of amusing.

If I remember correctly, my MIL bought some of these vitamins as gifts for some of her family members, too. It was crazy how fast these things were selling. I also thought it was funny that this was a destination on our tour of the island. It kind of reminded me of one of those time-share things, but we didn't get anything out of it for attending the meeting. hahaha

Since then, I have seen various vitamins and such from Korea at my in-laws' home. They really do LOVE those vitamins.