South Korea

Many of South Koreans have their names as Kim Jong-un, so don't be freaked out please. It's not the Kim Jong-un and then please don't tell him about the North Korea Kim Jong-un, please. Okay, and then you have to use the formal language to the elderly or like people who are older than you.

So the Korean people are so nice and they will love you no matter what and they will think you are beautiful even if you know you look terrible. And they're so kind and they always want to share food with you so just take it. It's not weird, they're just being sweet. Also grandmas, they're the best. Get to know them. They might slap your butt sometimes but you just go with it. But overall, just be friendly. People love talking to you and they'll be so surprised that you know Korean so just sit down, keep a smile on your face, just be as friendly and cheerful as you can and they'll respond really well.

One of the funnest parts about being in Korea as a foreigner is that they love white people. And so whenever you have to talk to somebody, it's something really special to them. And so you just need to keep in mind that Asian culture and especially Korean culture is very hierarchical, very respectful. For example, whenever you shake someone's hand, you always shake with two hands. If you ever shake with one hand, you're a disgrace to mankind. Lots of bowing. I still bow to people. It's embarrassing. But what do you do about it?

So in order to get a, you know, a good first impression to Korean people, so try to be as much humble as possible. So like, you're going to love this gesture, like bow your head whenever you say hi and like you feel gratitude and then you want to express like thank you and then 감사합니다 is thank you in Korean. So like, hello is 안녕하세요, so 안녕하세요 and thank you, 감사합니다. 감사합니다. Yeah, and then people are going to love you.

There is a part of kind of Korean culture and society called jeong, which is kind of like an emotional connection to people, kind of like the relationships you have with people. And jeong is really really important. It describes like the relationships between parents and children or with friends and people can really sense when you are truly their friend or when you're not being genuine. I think that's a really big thing. Food as well. Food is a really big part of Korean culture. Do not reject any food that people are trying to give you because it can be really kind of offensive. But if you eat their food, they really love you. So it's a great tool there too.

The Korean people have kind of a little bit more of a hierarchy than we do in America. And so it's just important to always make sure to use the correct level of formality of language and to always be more respectful than you think might be necessary.

One thing, just don't be too worried about the language. I mean, the Koreans understand that you're learning it, so don't be too worried about offending someone. But obviously, you want to try to speak the high form to them in Korean. Really important for their culture. Also, age is really important. So if someone's older than you, show that added measure of respect to them. Make sure you're bowing. Also, when you're shaking people's hands, make sure you combine one of your hands to your wrist and shake their hand. That's always respectful. When you try to call for a taxi, don't point. Always do this with your hand and tell them to come to you. It's not respectful. You never point at people with one finger. Always use your hand when you're pointing. Also, when you see new food, don't be super surprised and shocked or make a lot of noise about it. I mean, it's their culture. Their food's really important to them. So always show that added measure of respect. Be very grateful, even if it's different, and just show that measure of respect to their culture and their food that they love so much.

One of the most shocking things when I got there was just how very honest and straightforward they are. Don't throw anything to a Korean, hand it to them just more respectfully. Use two hands if you really want to be respectful.

The best thing I would say is like be super respectful. Memorize everyone's names. They will love you. Make sure that you like you always use like the high form to old people. High form of Korean, you'll learn that later. Yeah, if if you just really pay attention to like the little little stuff, that'd be really good.

First one is to learn to love kimchi. It's a staple of their food. It's like a symbol of their people and I was told that if you learn to love kimchi you will learn the people will love you. Another thing is always take your shoes off before you go into the house. You can put it in the foyer but just know they don't want you walking with your dirty muddy shoes in their house because that's where they live. Another thing is that they're very direct. I mean it's very good because like they tell you right away if they think that you look different today or if they feel like you've gotten gained weight and it's nice. They don't really lie about anything to your face and then always know that the Korean people are very respectful of their elders so they give them respect. Like when you're in line at a store if there's an old person coming up they come up cut in front of you they get taken care of and checked out and then they go. It's a sign of respect for them and it's going to happen a lot so don't worry.

Something that is very important to Koreans is the age system. So the older you are, the more respect you get. The more respect you give to elderly people or someone who's just older than you, that'll be very impressive to them. And whether it be using different honorific forms or bowing or offering food to them first, that'll be very impressive and it'll leave a good impression on them if you really respect them the older they are.

Koreans are some of the kindest people you'll ever meet. They're very generous. They will share with you what they have and, you know, sometimes I would be like on the bus or something and a complete stranger would just give me a little tangerine or something. And also, if you're an American that, you know, doesn't have any Korean heritage, they know pretty instantly that you're not going to know Korean very well, but they're just gonna think you're so cool for trying to learn it. Like, you will literally just say annyeonghaseyo and they're like, wow, you're so good at Korean, which can sometimes be a little bit frustrating because you're like, I'm actually like not very good, but they will always try their best to communicate with you. A lot of Koreans know more English than they let on, and so you will have to figure that out, how to communicate.

Eat all the food. Like, even if it's disgusting, even if it's still moving, even if it's so spicy you're just gonna cry and snot's gonna go everywhere. Eat it all. Um, basically during the Korean War, people didn't have a lot of food. There was barely even rice. And so, um, that culture of not having food, and when people give you food to eat every bit of it, even like the last grain of rice, is still important today.

It's important to bow, it's important to really compliment food if you're given food. It's kind of an expression of them caring for you if they buy you food or make you food and so being able to compliment that. I've heard that in a business setting there's just a lot of different things culturally speaking in the way they run things. Also it's very hierarchical and so respecting your elders or your boss or you know even like an older friend of yours is super important and that's just not something you think of in America.

Be very respectful. We don't necessarily understand everything that they're going through. There's a lot of different things that are going on in their culture that's hard for them that we wouldn't understand. That doesn't mean just let them do anything sort of thing, but we need to be more understanding of the fact that they were raised in a different way than us. And so my biggest tips would be to take time to learn from Koreans about Koreans, because Koreans would like if you ask people on the street about it and different ways that you can treat Koreans better. They will be very quick to help you out. They will absolutely love it. And Koreans on the street, even if you don't ask them, they can feel your appreciation for their culture. And so you loving their culture is more important than how much you can know about it.