10 minutes into SQ (short for Singapore Airlines) plane touching the Inchon International Airport (Seoul) tarmac, many Koreans will be unbuckling their seat belts, standing up and taking their hand luggage. I am not surprise as this happens everytime I arrive into Seoul.
I would not do it as it is dangerous since the plane is still moving. The heavy overhead hand luaggages could fall and hurt them or worse hurt someone badly.
But I just love the Koreans and the reason my close Korean friend tells me is a Korean word "palli palli" which can be translated as: "Hurry," or "Hurry up!". This very popular phrase seems to originate from when Korea was trying to catch up with more economically-developed nations. Even though Korea has now become the twelfth-largest economy in the world, the habit of being in a perpetual hurry has remained. Even foreigners can get caught up in the frenetic pace of life here. Singaporeans and Koreans have some affinity in this hurry world. Singaporeans call it KIASU(kee-ah-soo) Hokkien adjective literally meaning, "afraid of losing".
A highly pejorative description beloved of Singaporeans. Possibly our defining national characteristic. We love to make fun of ourselves and have a comic character "Mr. Kiasu" created by Johnny Lau.
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