20 Cultural Mistakes to Avoid in Korea
8. Wearing shoes at someoneβs home
For obvious reasons wearing shoes inside someoneβs home is very unhygienic. Koreans spend a lot of time cleaning their floors because the Korean lifestyle is usually centred around the floor. Usually dining tables are very low to the ground as traditionally dinner is eaten by sitting on the floor. Even today, most people sleep on the floor, so it is important to keep it hygienic and clean. In Korean houses or apartments the entrance is usually lower than the rest of the home. This design allows for all dirty, wet things to be left in the entrance so that the house stays clean.
9. Eating first at the dinner table
Source: worldofstock.com
Do you have times where you are so hungry the only thing you can think of is sitting down and start munching down your food? In Korea, unless you are eating with your closest friends, you should not even pick up your chopsticks unless the oldest person at the table picks up his or hers. The oldest person at the tables must eat first and then you are able to start eating. Respect to elders has always been a very strict and important tradition in Korea. Therefore, if you are extremely hungry, Iβm afraid youβre going to have to be a little patient until the oldest person lift up their chopsticks.
10. Pouring water for yourself only whilst eating with your friends or family
Yes, thatβs right. Pouring water for yourself only will look as though you only care about yourself and think less of others. Before pouring yourself a drink, check everyoneβs cups and if they need refilling pour water for them first. Remember to pour water for the oldest one at the table first before others. If you do that, the Koreans will be very impressed and you would make a very good impression of yourself. If you get enough brownie points from the Koreans Iβm sure they would want to take you out for dinner next time. Their treat of course =D
11. Not setting up utensils
From a very young age, Korean parents teach and discipline their children dinner etiquettes and traditional customs. This includes them preparing the table before dinner which involves setting up chopsticks, spoons, bowls, side dishes, napkins, pouring water in every cup etc. As foreigners, Koreans donβt really expect you to already know all of the traditional customs, but this is again another chance to make a good impression as well as to become more culturally enriched.
Source: visitkorea.or.kr
12. Getting up and leaving the table before elders do
If you finish your food early Iβm afraid you might have to wait until everybody finishes before leaving the table. If you finish early and wait you might give others the impression you are waiting for them to finish, hence they will eat faster. To avoid this misunderstanding try to keep at a similar pace along with other people so that you donβt finish your meal too early. However if you have kept at a steady pace and finished early, place your chopsticks and spoon on the table and wait until the elder gives you permission to leave the table.
13. Touching an elder or someone at a higher rank than you on the head or shoulder
Especially on the head or shoulders! When Koreans touch someoneβs head or shoulders, it is usually to a child or someone younger than them. If you touch a senior on the head or shoulder, it can be very down-grading, impolite and disrespectful. It is as though you are treating them like a child!
For now, I guess you should keep your touchy-feely hands to yourself. Even between friends, touching the opposite sex can be quite an intimate action. Therefore to avoid any misunderstanding avoid free touching in general unless you have the hots for someone. π
81 Comments
Thanks for the best advice about cultural mistakes to avoid in Korea. I like this article to much !
I’m Korean and there are things that I didn’t even know in here. Wow.
I am… stunned, shocked, at just how SIMILAR this is to German culture. I grew up in a very traditional german society in rural pennsylvania, and this is just… wow… for 2 countries that have not traditionally had contact with each other, who would have guessed they would be so similar??? Some other things with german (pennsylvania-dutch) culture: you ALWAYS address those older than you by last name as a sign of respect, NEVER first name. Children do not sit in the front seats of cars, they are just children (lower in status than adults) and thus must sit in the back, even if there is no one else in the car. Is this also true in Korea???
weepingwillow, I have no idea what you are talking about. German culture is not even close to Korean culture. You don’t address elders with their last name, you just address your friends and relatives with their first name. This has nothing to do with age.
Not entirely correct. You address everybody in the professional environment or people that are way older than older than you with the exception of friends and relatives with their last name. If your old then nobody gives a crap. You can do both to everybody. Children are addressed to with their last name in circumstances that require formality for everyone like contracts.
But yeah, German culture is very different from Korean culture. Almost nothing on this list can be applied to Germany.
WeepingWillow was talking about AMISH culture, also known as Pennsylvania Dutch or Pennsylvania German. AMISH culture has nothing to do with the nation of Germany, but it does have certain peculiar cultural characteristics. I live in Pennsylvania near the heart of Amish Country, and I know that Weeping Willow is correct. Many of the Korean cultural norms do seem to be mirrored in the Amish community.
I grew up around the amish and that is not amish/Pennsylvania dutch culture either
I am 1.5 generation Korean/ American and I have been to Lancaster Penn for Dutch Wonderland with my kids. I thought I was strange to feel like this Penn Dutch land was like my second home. How people do and show respect, I always feel like being home in Lancaster. There are huge population of Amish folks and people who are not Amish also have been somewhat influenced by Amish in terms of respect etc… At least, that was how it looked like. I have been to many places in the US. There was no place like Lancaster. It was like my second home. Also I have been fascinated by the Amish culture for a long time because it reminds of my childhood back in 80s. Yes, Amish culture is extremely similar to Korean culture (especially older days of Korean culture).
The society is getting worse and losing human respect and tradition. In many aspect people may think that we don’t need all that stupid tradition and culture. However, those human culture was developed with reason and it has evolved through human primary instinct. Unfortunately, ideologist and smarty idiots are trying to change all these tradition by book and law. Now divorce rate 50% and rate of happiness nearly on the bottom, and all these social bullshit is happening. It is because people are not happy because their primary instinct is not being satisfied.
Often I hear women even the feminist ones saying, there aren’t enough “men” out there. When they said “men”, they are talking about “men” who can trigger their primary instinct, but now days, most men (movies, dramas) are nothing but giggly fucking pussies, who ends up in their “friend zone”. Men used to take charge, they made decision, and they had ego self esteem and they work outside building things not stuck in the offices with bunch of females and gossip, complain, giggly bitch ass gossiping. Men comes back home from long day of outside work were actually respected by kids and their wives. It is important to see the social problem why women are feeling boring. It is sometime important to get back to the human tradition and act like classic men. You will be surprised how women and people around you will pay respect. As I said, traditional thinking is boring and old ass, but there is reason why they existed through human evolution, and people are now trying hard to ignore them. I believe that most of social fucking bull shit problem will vanish if Amish folks teach our kids in school with 1/10 of their belief. Ofcourse they can’t put 100% Amish belief straight down into the modern kids, but just 10%, our society will change with positive effect. Just look around and try to be warm human to anyone around you 2 times a day, it will be better society than yesterday.
K pop is not popular because of fancy clothes and music dance bullshit. We already have that in hollywood, bill board chart. It is their lyric and their belief that are appealing to their primal instinct. We can try to ignore human tradition, but our primal instinct will attract it whether you like it or not. We are human before all these ideology and new civil law.
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Encountered #1 when I’ve been to Seoul and Busan for first time last year.
Two of my friends sitting at elderly seats in subway, then one of the ahjumma/ahjushi asked them to stand-up while pointing at the sign. γ γ γ γ
It’s really interesting to see how much Iran and Korea have in common in terms of social codes like showing respect for the elders, not wearing shoes at home, not putting your spoon in the the food you eat, using both hands when giving or taking things from someone and …. .
Iran and Korea ? really?
let’s start from the beginning when Iran stop killing people because the gay or women!
Wash your dirty mouth before talking sh….*%*”*t about my country. At least peple in iran aren’t as crazy as koreans to think that someone wants them to die because of red ink
I hope this all helps to grow peace in region.
I’m currently writing a book where the main place is in Seoul,Korea so you really helped me! I still have a few questions about their reporters and I hope I will find the answers soon …
weepingwillow: Not correct. You address everybody in the professional environment or people that are way older than older than you with the exception of friends and relatives with their last name. If your old then nobody gives a crap. You can do both to everybody. Children are addressed to with their last name in circumstances that require formality for everyone like contracts.
But yeah, German culture is very different from Korean culture. Almost nothing on this list can be applied to Germany.
She wasn’t talking about Germany at all.
Well, for Brazil, we have many cultural traces that can vary with the region. Mostly, the Brazilian greeting is a hug or a kiss on the cheek for girls( girls+ girls or boys+girls) and a handshake for boys(boys+boys) unless they are close( hugs are common). Brazilians are really intimate with everything, so it’s common to have a lot of physical contact, even with strangers. There isn’t much difference in the treatment of older people and the younger ones in general, except the fact that they have priority on the things. The families are more united as in affection and caring. People are always late for meetings and, when you are punctual, there is a possibility to receive bad glares, even though for work that doesn’t count. Football is a important matter to Brazilians, so, if you are a stranger, it’s better for you to get used to get invited to pubs just to watch a match and choose your time wisely. It’s like a life or death decision. Seriously. A lunch meeting can turn into a day meal. Usually they are long, especially the ones with sea food and barbecue. You can go to your friend’s house for lunch and only get out past midnight with JUST one meal. Talk with people looking in their eyes. It’s a sign of respect and trust. Lastly, it’s important to warn you about the slums, especially the Rio’s, because they have their own rules. It’s better to you to stay out of them as much as possible. One tip is to, if you ever step in there by car, to open your windows for them to see than you are not from there or with the policy. If you don’t do this, you are as much as dead, considering they didn’t shoot you when you entered. People who live there have a system that condemn whoever commits a crime in the region, so they are pretty much safe. They kill all the criminals when they step out of the jail.
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I sit in the elderly seats al the time and I as soon as I see an old people, pregnant woman or somebody that n eds the seat I stand up, never had a problem or somebody told me to stand up. You can refuse to drink no problem, blowing your nose at the table… BS! Some Koreans are experts in the art of spitting is really disgusting to eat and the guy right in front of you is giving you de runny nose sound over and over. So DO BLOW YOUR NOSE PLEASE. Sticking you por chopsticks in the rice is no problem, that is more Japanese I guess , can’t tell you how much disgusting things I’ve seen that old Koreans and young Koreans as well they do at the table. Please stop picturing the Koran people as hermetic non tolerable closed people, they are quite the contrary, they are open, fun and very curious.
They are aggressive and rude.
How come?
What about waiting to order or for your food in the restaurant? I had a strange experience during my stay in Seoul when one Lady after inviting us to the table she ignore us for more then 20min. She surpose to take the order and bring us the food, but instead she evoid just our table and we had to wait for a second Lady. The Restaurant was not full and the next customers finished eating before we make the order. What it’s custom to do in this case in Corea? Go …no go?
Situation 2: We have order but our Boy forgot completely our order. We had our drinks but no food. After 30min. ( romanian & german patience limits) I get the Boy attention with an questioning look! He start apologizing and bowing so many times that we instantly start smiling and forgot the incident. We forgive him right away … but we made a bet too. Sorry, we couldn’t help it. I bet that he will not come to our table or around it till the end of the evening. I won off course. Custom in Europe is that after a service mistake like this, the Service Personal and expecialy the person how made the mistake should give full attention to his customers trying to recover the mistake. In same european countries after having the drinks and 15-20 min. waiting for the food, I might be entitle to leave the place and don’t pay for anything. How is in Corea? What should I expect in this situation? Advises welcome!
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I didn’t even understand completely obviously I am not Korean but still I am a huge fan of korean people and there ritual afterall I only understand some of it. But I am definitely going to use that red to write a letter to my ex who cheated on meπ€
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but no 14 about sharing. is nice but really is it very bad? second is it everytime cos let me be honest i can get extremely peckish and choose not to share and not even look at those glaring eyesπ eat my snack and trash and get back to work. it ain’t bad right?
i see that 14 as people being greedy…except is a friend and i will love to share occasionly. I could get stingy sometimes…π
There are Korean Amish????
That sounds strange. I would love to get a pic, but I HIGHLY doubt one even exists.
Amish don’t like thier pictures taken, correct?