Korean Manners

Hey everyone! Today I’ll go over some of the dos and don’ts in Korea. It’s very important to be respectful to others, even though they might not always give you the same respect back. It’ll give us foreigners a better image and you can impress Koreans with how much you know about their culture.

1. Age. Respect your elders. Some of them may be really pushy in the streets and on public transportation, but try to just let it go.
2. Age. It isn’t necessarily rude to ask someone their age, however, you don’t really need to ask if the other person is obviously older or obviously younger than you are. Usually people ask how old you are in order to figure out how they should treat you.
3. Greetings. Koreans usually bow when they meet people, but I think they are starting to get more used to handshakes too. If you bow, you’re probably not expected to do like a 90 degree formal bow. A 45 degree bow will probably suffice. If you do a handshake, it is more polite to place your left hand below your right elbow, or at the right side of your body almost below your right armpit.
4. Receiving/Giving Something. If someone hands you something (i.e. a business card) or you are giving something (i.e. cash/card when shopping), it is polite to do so with both hands or something similar to the gesture I mentioned in the greetings section.
5. Tips. You don’t need to tip in Korea! Places that are more used to dealing with foreigners may welcome tips, but I heard that some people consider it rude. I think they seem to appreciate people coming back multiple times instead.
6. Restaurants. Don’t get upset if your waiter/waitress doesn’t come to your table to check on you or ask if you need anything (remember, they’re not working for tips). If you want a someone to come to you, you have to call them over. Look for a little doorbell-like button on your table and push that. If there’s no button, then you’re gonna have to call them over. Yell (and I mean YELL) “yo-gi-o”, which means “over here”. If you’re uncomfortable with yelling, then you can wait for someone to make eye contact and then kinda raise your hand (but getting eye contact may take a long time).
7. Doors. It isn’t expected for you to hold doors open for strangers. In fact, it actually seems kinda weird if you do.
8. Recycling. Korea is very good about separating their recycling. Unfortunately, if you cannot read Korean, this can be especially confusing sometimes. Just try to follow what everyone else is doing.
9. Escalators. If you’re gonna just stand on the escalator, stay on the right side and let people pass on the left side.
10. Subways. At either end of each cart, there is a space for elderly, disabled, and pregnant women (you can tell because of the little picture signs). DO NOT sit there, you will get dirty looks and some people may yell at you!!
11. Subways. When waiting for the subway to arrive, you’ll see triangles on the ground in front of each door. You’ll notice that the triangle in the middle will point away from the subway because people getting off will usually exit in the middle. On the sides, the triangles will face towards the subway. So, you should line up on the sides where these triangles are and enter through those sides.
12. Public Transportation. While riding subways and buses, try not to talk too loud. This can be difficult when traveling in large groups, but try to resist if possible. Again, you will probably get dirty looks and there is a chance that someone may yell at you.
13. Hailing a Taxi. When trying to flag a taxi down, don’t do the ‘come here’ motion with your palms facing up (sorry…I’m not too sure how to describe that gesture, but I think you can kinda understand what I mean). Stick your hand out, palm facing down, and call them over that way (kinda like a wave to the ground I guess). This also goes for calling people over in general. I heard that calling someone over with your palm facing up is very rude and is a gesture that is more reserved for animals.
14. Drinking. Drinking is a major part of Korean culture. Koreans drink with friends, classmates, colleagues, bosses, etc. First off, you should never pour your own drink. If someone pours you a drink, then it might be good to also offer to pour him or her a drink. If the person is older or a higher ranking person, then you should receive a drink with both hands as well as pour his or her drink with both hands (or similar to the handshake gesture I tried to describe above).
15. Drinking. The eldest or highest ranking person usually drinks first. If this isn’t you, then wait your turn and when you do drink, you should turn away from them and drink (you don’t have to move your whole body, just kinda shift your upper body away). If you clink glasses (or conbae, in Korean), then make sure your glass isn’t above the other person’s glass. So, if they outrank you, the bottom of your glass shouldn’t clink with the top of their glass. Try to make it level or a little below their glass, just to be safe.

I’m sure there’s a lot more that I’m forgetting, but I just went over some of the more common things. Hope this was helpful!