How did people know certain things were safe to eat?

Why don't people know the country korea?

• Why do people think such bad things which are completely wrong about south korea? All i hear from the mouths of people is " dog meat" " north korea " " KIM JONG IL is the best!!!" What i find weird is that people find north korea's leader somehow the good guy....-_-. ONCE in my life, i have come across a person who asked me whether i was chinese, i said no, i am korea i told her, then she asked me and i quote " where is that in china" i was well......how would you have replied to what she had said eh??? Why do people also think that south korean people are savages JUST because we eat dog meat, YES, i understand why the british or western cultures are VERY CLOSE to certain species but why do people have to think that we are one of the most revolting people on earth. I shall tell my opinion, i am personally not against eating dog meat although i have never tried it before, the reason is is that they are animals, cows are animals, pigs are animals, and even if you say that dogs are "domesticated" animals, well....lets see....pigs are domesticated, sheeps are domesticated, cows are domesticated and plenty of other animals are domesticated and we eat them dont we? Why dont people know korea and yet they know japan and china and as i have already mentioned, people know more about NORTH korea than the south. Yes i understand that it might be because the north is like the son of satan....but why about japan and china and not south korea. For such a small country, and from SUCH history, we have recovered so fast look at us now, if you dont know what we have had achieved over the past many years from the korean war and Japan colonising in our country and raping our women, look at this vid to explain this in a nutshell http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f6F4neJ5RKM&list=FLo-0S3rn0XtFBTTPIAO7S-Q&index=94&feature=plpp_video many of the achievements that we have achieved starts from 6:57. And just in case, YES, i am fully aware that there are plenty of other countries that are not well known across the world but why to a country that most people dont even know the real facts about must they make such cruel judgements about it. OK , i agree, south korea has not won ANY nobel prizes, south korea has not made like a scientific BREAKTHROUGH, and also, yes, south korea has not built the haddron collider.......o yeah, may i mention again, about science, why must people always think that korea is a foul lying country just because ONE out of lets see.....60 million?? being a respected doctor lied about his success in cloning, yes even im extremely upset but people never moves on and actually realises that there are plenty of other wonderful things in south korea. I am sorry if i am showing off but its true. Why do people also think that japan is like " THE MOST TECHNOLOGICALLY ADVANCED COUNTRY" in the world eh? If you go to korea, trust me, you will get a completely different impression.

• Answer:

  i really enjoyed reading the part about the dog meat ^^ last summer we went on a missionary trip to haiti and it was extremely interesting, i learned a lot about the culture and the things the lower class eat is comparable to dog meat...our ignorance made us cringe, but once we got to know the culture more, we learned to appreciate their survival tactics...(i just came from a trip to s.korea and i did not see any dog meat in my plate...then again i wouldn't recognize it) one of the reasons i think more people know about china and japan is the economical influences that the countries have had in America (i'm not going to vouch for other countries, i've only lived in America)...sure there are products that come from south korea as well, but really the media can influence the viewpoint of the public as well...you said why is it that everyone remembers the bad things and not the good things, but i think everyone will remember the most impacting things, whether good or bad...people react through what they've been exposed to (not saying that everything is negative, just that it is what they've been exposed to) that is why, in my opinion, those people questioning the culture have never truly been exposed to it, and are speaking poorly about other countries out of either: ignorance, poor evidence, lack of experience from diversity (though it's a shame since we live in a diverse country), and/or poor judgement so that is my opinion as to why that person didn't know that s.korea is it's own country and not part of china: she hasn't been exposed to the country...just like some other people in other countries might not really know about lets say...mexico or guatemala...to us, they are our neighbors, and we get yummy mexican/texmex, but i remember when i told someone that my parent were from guatemala, they too asked "so you're mexican"...i didn't even have to travel to the other side of the globe to find an ignorant person