Bring the wrong envelope to the wrong event in Korea, and it’s not a small mistake. A condolence envelope at a wedding, or a celebration envelope at a funeral, reads as a genuine error rather than an innocent mix-up. Korean wedding and funeral money etiquette runs on a specific set of rules — the envelope, … Read more
A business card in Korea is handed over with both hands, angled so the recipient can read it right side up, and — this is the part visitors miss most — it does not go straight into a pocket. Korean business card etiquette treats the exchange as a small sequence with its own rules, and … Read more
Jjimjilbang etiquette confuses most first-time visitors, and the confusion usually starts at the front door — with your shoes. A jjimjilbang (찜질방) is not one room. It is two completely different spaces sold under one ticket, and almost every mistake foreign visitors make comes from not knowing which space they are standing in. One half … Read more
Everyone knows you take your shoes off in a Korean home. Most guides stop there, as though it were an arbitrary custom you simply have to remember. It is not arbitrary. Koreans remove their shoes because of a heating system invented two thousand years ago, and once you understand that connection, a great deal about … Read more
Within minutes of meeting someone new in Korea, one of you will ask what year the other was born. To English speakers this can feel intrusive. It is not — it is the question that determines how the rest of the conversation will be conducted. Korean age and titles are not politeness decorations layered on … Read more
Watch a Korean hand something to someone older and you will notice it: both hands on the object, or one hand giving while the other touches the giving arm. It happens with glasses, money, business cards, documents, phones, anything. Foreign visitors usually learn this as a rule to imitate. It is worth understanding why Koreans … Read more
Korean drinking etiquette has more structure than almost any other social ritual you will encounter here. There are rules about who pours, which hand you use, which direction you face, and when you are allowed to stop. Most guides present this as charming tradition. It is also, for many Koreans, a source of genuine workplace … Read more
Search for Korean table manners and you will find lists of twenty or thirty rules, presented as though breaking any one of them would cause offence. This is not how it works, and following such a list will make you look stranger than not following it. The truth is that a handful of things genuinely … Read more