Pen flipping and imaginary sums

Go to any Korean business meetings here, (I’ve now been to plenty!), and you will see that all of them are Cozy Powell wannabees (for those of you too young to remember good old Cozy, think Phil Collins on the drums!). They can do amazing little flips and twirls with their pens, and without looking at it too. I tried without success to flip my pen, and looked exceedingly embarrassed as I retrieved the thing from under the table. Needless to say, I don’t flip my pen anymore.

Another thing they do, when presented with a mathematical question, such as working out the percentage scrap, is that they use an imaginary pen like their forefinger, and work out the sum on the palm of the other hand. It is really quite a show, even doing the division and multiplying sings. Results usually get signed off with a full stop, I think this must be ingrained in the way they were taught at school, and I think it may have been a chalkboard they used.