Trends in Korea during Covid-19 Lockdown

Han Joon Lee

Trends in Korea during Covid-19 Lockdown

As the Coronavirus doesn’t seem to go away anytime soon, the Korean government has urged citizens to stay home and take part in the social distancing campaign. In addition, university classes have been transitioned from offline to online, schools have been canceled, and people are told to work from home instead of their offices. Orders for people to stay home has gotten people going crazy and losing their minds from boredom. What’s to do at home for two weeks straight? We all run out of things to do and after time we lose interest in everything. That is why new trends have come to surface on the internet that has got people inflamed trying to recreate and try out these trends. The two most popular trends in Korea are: dalgona coffee and nintendo switch: animal crossing.

Dalgona coffee is not some bizarre coffee, but simply a mixture of instant coffee, sugar, and hot water whipped up and served on top of milk. So how do you make it?

1. For one instant coffee mix, use one spoon of sugar and one spoon of hot water. The ratio is 1:1:1
2. Whip / mix the mixtures till it becomes thicker and lighter in color (legend says it is recommended to whip 400 times)
3. Pour milk into a glass and then gently spoon the mixture on top of the milk
4. Give it a mix before drinking

After making the dalgona coffee, one of your arms will be paralyzed because of non-ending whipping to make the serene foam like mixture. The reason it became a trend is because of the pleasing and satisfying separation between the milk and dalgona. It indulges people to make it themselves and post on social-media using a #dalgonacoffee hashtag as the coffee is so photogenic. It has become the new social-media phenomenon. What does it taste like? After all it just tastes like a sugary frappuccino, just a bit more thicker than usual.

Another trend was the nintendo switch game: Animal Crossing. You would ask wasn’t this a game that came out years ago? The answer is: yes, it is. Why has it become a sensation mid Covid-19? Well the answer lies in the characteristic of the game and how it connects people during social distancing times. The game is peaceful and seemingly boring doing ‘meaningless tasks’. However, the reason for not even being able to buy the game due to endless demand is because it allows for the player to escape everything that’s going on. It is a game where you are dropped on an island and have tasks similar to real life in order to gain money. The game lets one build a world which they have only dreamed about and also lets you visit your friends from the real world inside the game. The game gives ease and is an escape mechanism of all the tragic circumstances of the current world. Such numerous people have turned to this retro game that the price of a nintendo switch which is 300k won has increased to 600k won or nowadays being sold out.