I read a few books on Korean etiquette before I came and they all detailed innumerable little rules for interaction. My experience thus far, limited as it is, pokes a few holes in what were presented as absolute essentials. These are all exceedingly minor things, but it is the minor things that make you look like even more of a gringo, of course.
1. Hand your business card to people with two hands. Accept their business card with two hands. Study it carefully.
Nobody has done this at all, and when I have handed my card over with two hands I am given one in return frisbee style with one hand and fingers raised, every time.
2. Koreans all dress well and will really look down on you if you do not.
Nope. At least not as I was lead to believe. The general range of clothing is as you see in the states, though most woman wear astonishingly high heels. Nobody at the university was dressed unlike people at any university in the states, except for me. I was wearing a tie, which I never do (and was the only prof I saw wearing one, except for the other American on the faculty).
3. There is supposed to be a pervasive smell of garlic, which I was looking forward to, being a lover of it (I am, after all, from a place named for it)
Actually, today at about 6:30 in the subways the pervasive smell, at least around the well-dressed businessmen, of alcohol. It was very prominent.
Then, I get home and find that, lo and behold, already high levels of alcohol consumption are indeed up.
1. Hand your business card to people with two hands. Accept their business card with two hands. Study it carefully.
Nobody has done this at all, and when I have handed my card over with two hands I am given one in return frisbee style with one hand and fingers raised, every time.
2. Koreans all dress well and will really look down on you if you do not.
Nope. At least not as I was lead to believe. The general range of clothing is as you see in the states, though most woman wear astonishingly high heels. Nobody at the university was dressed unlike people at any university in the states, except for me. I was wearing a tie, which I never do (and was the only prof I saw wearing one, except for the other American on the faculty).
3. There is supposed to be a pervasive smell of garlic, which I was looking forward to, being a lover of it (I am, after all, from a place named for it)
Actually, today at about 6:30 in the subways the pervasive smell, at least around the well-dressed businessmen, of alcohol. It was very prominent.
Then, I get home and find that, lo and behold, already high levels of alcohol consumption are indeed up.
Booze sales soar right along with stock market
August 27, 2007Late
Thursday, drunken businessmen emptying countless bottles of whiskey and other
expensive liquors occupied about 30 rooms of an upscale bar in southern Seoul.
“It’s quite unusual for us to have so many customers during the summer vacation
season,” said one bar employee, adding that the customers are always talking
about the rising stock market. “The number of customers we’ve had has risen more
than 20 percent since last year.”Korea’s liquor sales are climbing, too, after
years of stagnation since a boom in 2002 for the World Cup. Sales of beer,
whiskey, soju and other liquors are equally robust. According to data from the
Korea Alcohol and Liquor Association, local sales of beer from January to May
climbed 6.9 percent from the year before, amounting to 2.4 billion bottles.
Korea’s beer market, after reaching a record of 5.1 billion bottles in 2002, had
been stagnant, with sales dipping below 4 billion bottles until last year. But
with the sales now perking up again, industry sources forecast the local beer
sales this year may hit the 4 billion bottle mark again. Sales of whiskey, which
shrank after the government enforced ever-stronger laws on prostitution in 2004,
is also on the rise again and may reach 25.9 million bottles between January and
July of this year, up 7.8 percent from a year earlier. Sales of soju, Korea’s
traditional distilled liquor, also is gradually expanding.Industry watchers
speculated that soju sales, if the current pace continues, will exceed the
record 5.5 billion bottles reached last year.
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