Before talking about the culture in Korea, I want to separately define the differences between “Culture” and “culture”. “Culture”, with a “big C” refers more towards the visible aspects, such as food, literature, architecture, etc. Unlike “culture”, with a “little c”, which is more the invisible type, like communication styles, language symbols, cultural norms, etc. In Korea there are many evident examples of both “Culture” and “culture”.
Linguistic aspects, such as body language, is part of the Korean culture. For example, when the drinking/social culture, the older person will pour the drink into the younger person’s cup, and the younger person receives it with two hands. Then, when the younger person drinks from the cup, they must look away from the elder person. This is the proper and respectful way to drink in Korean culture. As a foreigner, if I were to forget to drink away, the native people wouldn’t mind, but will still tell me the proper way to do so the next time. However, if a native person were to disregard this, they would be heavily scolded by the elder. Here, we see that even though it isn’t a written law or rule, it is a norm in the drinking/social culture.
Another overlooked culture, is removing your shoes before entering a Korean home. In some Korean homes, they eat, sit, and even sleep on their floors, so it is considered extremely rude and disrespectful to wear shoes into their home (unless told otherwise).
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