DID YOU KNOW??

• In Korea, you are not served water at a restaurant unless you ask for it, and sometimes, you have to get it yourself. Koreans rarely drink while eating.  They'll eat an entire meal (which is spicy) AND then drink a small cup of water. 
• They use metal water cups that look like the top to a baby bottle (that shape).  They hold about 4 oz., so you have to constantly refill them. 
• Men in Korea are not afraid to wear pink pants, pink shoes, pink shirts, carry pink phones...they are not afraid of the color pink!
• Couples in Korea wear matching clothes...matching shoes, matching shirts, matching pants or shorts.
• The napkins here are the size of a piece of note paper...seriously small and paper thin...no big triple-ply napkins here.  So one must take tons of them instead of using just one. And in some restaurants they will literally just put a roll of toilet paper near the tables - on a toilet paper holder mounted on the wall. 
• Koreans likes to dress up their dogs. and/or dye their hair (I've seen hot pink and purple already).
• Koreans are taught not to talk much while eating.  Socializing begins after the meal, over drinks. And in Korea, being loud in a restaurant is tolerated and may even be a sign that it's a good restaurant.
• It's not uncommon to see Koreans drunk during the weekdays. If the boss invites you out to drink, you CANNOT refuse him...and if he stays out till 1 a.m....you are too. 
• Young Koreans are greatly influenced by their parent's opinions of their boy/girl-friend. If the parents don't approve, more than likely it will end the relationship.
• Koreans often live with their parents until they get married even though it may be when they're in their 30's. 
• Everyone line dries their clothes...fabric softener is key - then you don't get sand paper towels.
•  In Korea, heavily congested traffic conditions often make it difficult to arrive for a meeting on time, so Koreans accept this as normally unavoidable. 
• Seniors and small children get to ride the subway for free.
• When you attend meetings, you almost always get a gift.  Popular gifts are soap, towels, facial tissues, toothpaste, socks, and umbrellas.
• Bath towels are often the size of our hand towels.  The towels you get as gifts from the meetings always have the name and date of the meeting embroidered on them.
• You can buy socks for 500 Won (US equivalent of less than 50 cents).
• Koreans usually only drink 1/2 cups of coffee.  It's strange, but if they make coffee for you, it's never a full cup...usually only a half, maybe two-thirds. And they will assume you want cream and sugar in your coffee.
• No one says "excuse me" or "sorry" when they bump into you or need to get by...they just push by. If they had to say this EVERY time they bumped into someone, they would be saying nothing else all day. Seoul is very congested no matter what time of day it is. 
• Koreans don't really know how to "fix things" - they sort of jerry-rig things to continue working. They will use something until it's last breath and then buy new. So they buy things - run the heck out of it and then buy a new one: cars, appliances, electronics, dressers, shelves...no Home Depot's or Lowe's, no hardware stores...just use the hell out of it and then buy new. 
• Things that we would normally refrigerate - Koreans don't. For instance, things Koreans don't put in their fridge:  pickles, sandwiches, brown raw eggs, many types of leftover food...it's VERY strange - and believe me...we don't eat what they leave out...just to error on the side of caution.