How To....
Eating Etiquette In Korea
by Deirdre Madden
If you’ve been invited out for dinner by your boss
or colleagues there are some basic etiquette rules
you may want to follow so as not to accidentally
offend your hosts. Good manners are universal, but
the actual details of good Korean manners are
sometimes complicated and different from the rules
passed to us by Ms. Manners or Mom.
yourself to the bathroom to blow.
2. Don’t start eating before the senior person at the table.
3. Reaching across the table is fine. You don’t have to “pass the salt” unless it’s beyond your reach.
4. Don’t clear your plate! At home this would bring on lectures of starving children in the world, but here it’s a sign that your host has not
provided enough food for you. This implies stinginess on their part.
5. Sharing food from one bowl makes relationships closer.
6. Only use your right hand for utensils. Put your chopsticks on the table, or across the top of your dish while you use your spoon, and vice
versa.
7. Don’t drink from the soup bowls - use your spoon. Koreans don’t lift their dishes while eating.
8. The best seat, centre table facing the door, should be reserved for the most senior person.
9. Never use your hands to touch the food - always use your utensils. The exception is when eating galbi (ribs) you’re supplied with a cotton glove.
Put the glove on your left hand, leaving your right free for chopsticks. When you are eating meat or ssam bap (wrapped rice) it is fine to
pick up the lettuce or sesame leaves with your free hand and load it with your chopsticks.
10. It is more polite to take the food from the shared dish to your plate before putting it into your mouth.
11. In the old days, people did not talk while eating, so don’t be surprised if people aren’t too talkative until after the meal.
12. Never leave your chopsticks sticking out of your r ice bowl. I t is
disrespectful, as this is a part of a ritual for the dead. On a related note,
never write a Korean person’s name in red, as that colour is used only for
writing the names of the deceased.
13. One person pays for everyone’s meal. Usually a group will take turns, much like we from the West buy rounds at the bar.
14. If you are entering a restaurant with floor seating, you must remove your shoes before standing on the raised floor/seating area.