A South African YouTuber’s reaction to anesthesia has gone viral in Korea.

The YouTuber named “Lindie Botes” had uploaded a video of herself waking up from anesthesia at a hospital. As soon as she opened her eyes, she started to speak in fluent Korean.

She asked her friend questions such as “What time is it?” and she continued conversations in Korean. She also expressed pain and swore in Korean. Botes said she has never lived in Korea before, though she has been studying Korean for nine years.

“I cannot explain why, but for some reason each time I wake up from anesthesia, I speak Korean until I regain my consciousness completely,” Botes said in the caption of the video. She had shared the footage as she thought it might have a significant meaning for linguistics.

The video has spread rapidly in Korea, gaining more than 153,000 hits in 10 days. YouTube users wrote comments such as “This is unbelievable” and “She must have studied Korean very hard.” Local media reports also covered the reaction of Botes, making the video even more popular in the country.

By Park Ju-young (jupark@heraldcorp.com)