What NOT to do when traveling to Korea 😡💢

Common mistakes to avoid on your next trip! 🙊

2023. 2. 10.

Teugether Today

Common mistakes to avoid in Korea~!
Idiom of the week
AMA! <3

❤️ Hello Everyone~! ❤️

Hope you’re all having a great week so far. Is it just me or is time going so fast? I feel like I mentioned this before but, it is already February 2023! Are you guys sticking with your new year's resolutions?! If one of them was to learn Korean~ you guys are using Teuida everyday right?! I’ve seen some of the streaks y’all have and it is so impressive! If you haven’t been keeping up your streak or are losing motivation, THIS is your sign to keep going!!! You got this and I believe in you!!!!!

A lot of you (in the AMA) mentioned wanting to know more about traveling to Korea. Last time, I went into some things that a lot of people don’t know about Korea and I’ll be doing something similar this week! This week’s topic is what NOT to do in Korea! In other words, the no-nos that you should avoid when traveling here!

Hope it’s helpful and hope you enjoy this week's newsletter guys <3

have an amazing rest of your week + weekend!

1. Handing things with one hand ✋

Okay this one is definitely not the WORST thing you could do but it could come off as a little off-putting or rude. When handing things to people in Korea, we hand it to them with our right hand and usually hold our right wrist with our left hand OR hand things with both hands. This is the most polite way to hand things to anyone! I can’t count the number of times I've seen tourists hand their card to cashiers with the card in-between their two fingers and cRINGED. But yes, that is so rude so please hand things to people politely! 🤩

P.S. if you accidentally hand someone something with one hand they’ll probably understand that you don’t realize it’s rude but this is just for some ~cultural awareness~ so don’t worry they’re not going to kick you out of the store or whatever! ❤️

2. Writing or signing something with red pen 🖋️🔴

Alright we’ve talked about this before so I hope this is just a review for most of you but writing names in red is considered bad luck and represents death... If you write someone’s name in red it is almost like you’re telling them you want them to die + it is said to bring bad luck. When you travel to Korea and are filling out forms, you’ll see that most of the pens are either black or blue and this is for that very reason! But just in case, never use a red pen to write your own name or anyone else's!

I heard about a first time English teacher who, when introducing themselves to the class, wrote their name in Red 😬 and was met with all the children screaming.

So yeah, don’t!!!

3. Don’t pour your own alcohol 🍹

I feel like this is one that some of you K-drama or show addicts might know already but you shouldn’t pour your own alcohol! This is why you’ll see drama characters trying to pour it themselves and their friends taking it away from them and pouring instead. This isn’t considered super rude or anything but it is slightly impolite. Not just that, Gen Z says that if you pour your own drink, you’re going to be “solo” (or single) forever. 💔 So unless you want that bad luck on your dating life or want to seem impolite, wait for someone else to pour your drink for you! And be considerate enough to pour for others when their glass is empty too! 🍻

4. Don’t call people by their first names ❌

This is a bit of an obvious one but we RARELY call people by their first names right off the bat. Unless you’re super close to the person or comfortable with them, avoid calling them by their first name! This, of course, DOESN’T mean you can go around calling everyone oppa or unnie or noona guys! 🤮 The safest thing for you to do is to ask the person what they’d like to be called or just say their name and add 씨! TBH if you’re not close or not going to see the person again, avoid saying their name all together! I know it might sound weird but it might help you avoid any awkward first encounters.

Of course, when you get closer to people it will get a lot easier and there is less pressure on this! 😁❤️

5. Be mindful of where you sit 🚌

As in a lot of other countries, there are specific seats meant for the elderly and for pregnant women. A lack of awareness of your space and nearby signs might cause you (as a first time traveler) to accidentally sit in these seats, but be careful! 😬 The seats that are reserved for disabled people and for the elderly are usually at the end of subway cars and will be a different color. These seats are usually at the front of the bus and have a sign on them. As for seats for pregnant women, they are on the edge of the subway seats and will have a clear pink sign, this goes the same for buses! Best advice: be aware of your surroundings! 😊

✨ Korea Idiom of the Week ✨

김칫국 마시지 마라 (Gim-chit-guk masi-ji ma-ra)

This phrase literally translates to: Don’t drink Kimchi soup 🍲 But it actually means: “Don’t get ahead of yourself!” This phrase is most commonly used when your friend is making an assumption about something and you want to tell them not to jump to conclusions. For example, say your friend is like “I think Christina has a thing for me” and you don’t agree, you could tell them “김칫국 마시지 마라!”

P.S. You should only use this phrase with friends haha it is not formal!

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