Korean Table Manners

I gave my High Beginner Adult Class a homework assignment. Write a six point "How to" guide. This is what one of my student's turned in on Korean Dinner Etiquette. Enjoy.

How to Improve Your Interpersonal Skills

Have you been invited for Korean dinner?

Koreans valve good house manners.

If you are polite to the host you will be invited again.

So, do you know about Korean table manners?

Here is some information to help you receive a warm welcome from your Korean hosts.

1. Don’t Make Sounds When You Eat.

   We used to not talk during meals in the old days, but not anymore. Just don’t talk with your mouth full and don’t make sounds when you eat.

2. Don’t Put Your Elbows on the Table.

   This action toward your elders is rude.

3. Seniors Usually Start.

   You want to wait until seniors start to eat first. Also don’t leave the table until the elders finish their meals.

4. Don’t Hold Your Plate or Bowl While Eating.

   If someone holds their rice bowl while eating, people think that he looks like a beggar. But in China and Japan, they have a different culture. They hold rice bowls while eating.

5. Don’t Stick Your Spoon or Chopsticks in Your Rice Bowl.

   That’s for a dead person.You see this only at memorial services.

6. Don’t Blow Your Nose at the Table.

 It also wasn't rude to break-wind during mealtimes in the old days, but it’s rude now.

7. Put the Soup on the Right Side of the Rice Bowl, and Put the Spoon and Chopsticks on the Right Side of the Soup.

   Most Koreans are right-handed and the rice bowl is higher than the soup bowl. Sleeves of the traditional clothes are wide and this prevented dirtying them.

 by Sun~☺