“Hello Mr. Derbyshire—I had a roommate in graduate school from South

Korea, and we once went to Koreatown here in Los Angeles for dinner. While

ordering, I inadvertantly held my thumb between my index and middle fingers

and my roommate almost had a seizure. He was so shocked about something that

he couldn’t speak for several seconds, and I noticed many stares in our

direction (The restaurant’s patrons were all Korean except for me, as far as

I could tell). I thought they were concerned for my distressed friend, but

they were staring at me in disgust. My roommate calmed himself and told me

that I should not do this thing with my thumb. Later, he told me it was the

Korean equivalent of an extended middle finger, except even more obscene as

it supposedly simulates a sexual act.”