Korean Etiquette for Tourists: Dining, Subway & Tipping

Korean social etiquette is less about hard rules and more about reading who's older, who's hosting, and who's watching. Get the basics of greetings, table manners, subway behavior, and tipping down before your first day, and you'll blend in far more than the average tourist.

Greetings and first impressions

A slight bow, even just a head nod, goes with almost every hello and thank-you in Korea. Handshakes happen too, especially with anyone who has spent time abroad, but the two often combine into a small bow-and-shake.

Age and position matter more than they do in most Western countries. Koreans commonly ask a new acquaintance's age early on, not out of nosiness, but because it decides who speaks more formally and who pours whose drink. If someone hands you a business card, take it with both hands, glance at it before pocketing it, and never stuff it straight into a back pocket.

Calling an older stranger "ajumma" (아줌마) or "ajusshi" (아저씨) is normal and not rude. Calling a Korean friend's parent by their first name would be.

Dining etiquette: chopsticks, elders, and drinking

Wait for the oldest or most senior person at the table to pick up their spoon first. This applies even at a casual barbecue with new friends, not just formal dinners.

Use the spoon for rice and soup, chopsticks for the side dishes (반찬), and never both hands at once. Never leave chopsticks standing upright in a rice bowl. It resembles the incense sticks used at funerals and unsettles people at the table. Rest them flat on the edge of your plate or the chopstick rest instead.

Shared side dishes and stews are normal, so don't be surprised when everyone dips into the same bowl of jjigae. If you're pouring drinks, especially soju, hold the bottle with your right hand and support your forearm with your left when serving someone older. When an elder pours for you, hold your glass with both hands. Traditionally, younger drinkers turn their head slightly away from elders when taking a sip of alcohol; plenty of younger Koreans have dropped this habit, but it still reads as polite around anyone senior.

Cough into your sleeve rather than your hand, particularly near shared dishes; with flu season picking up through autumn, this has become something locals actively notice. Most restaurants use a table buzzer or expect a loud "여기요" (yeogiyo, "over here") to call staff rather than a raised hand or a snapped finger.

For a full rundown on ordering and grilling your own meat, see the Korean BBQ guide for foreigners. Card payment is standard almost everywhere now; our guide on how to pay in Korea covers the details.

Subway and public transport manners

Seats near the doors marked in pale yellow or pink are reserved, in practice if not always by strict law, for elderly, pregnant, injured, or disabled passengers. The pink ones say 임산부 배려석 (pregnancy consideration seat) and are meant to stay empty even when the car is otherwise full, so a healthy adult sitting there while an obviously pregnant passenger stands is one of the fastest ways to draw dirty looks or a phone-camera moment on local news.

Keep calls short and phones on vibrate. Loud speakerphone conversations stand out immediately in an otherwise quiet car.

Line 9 through central Seoul is notorious for packed rush-hour cars; if you're hauling a big suitcase, avoid boarding it (or any line, really) between roughly 8-9am and 6-8pm. Use the elevators marked at most stations instead of fighting a suitcase down an escalator. Officials discourage walking on escalators for safety, but most locals still keep to the right and let people pass on the left, so stand right if you're not walking.

For lines, transfers, and which card to load, the Seoul subway guide and the T-money card guide cover the transactional side. If you'll be relying on Naver Map or Kakao Map to navigate transfers, grab a Korea eSIM before you land so you're not hunting for wifi at the platform gate.

Tipping in Korea: the short answer is no

Tipping is not part of Korean service culture. Service is included in the price everywhere from street stalls to mid-range restaurants, and leaving cash on the table often just confuses staff or gets chased down the street after you.

If a receipt already lists a service charge, that's the tip. Adding more on top isn't expected or necessary.

Quick faux pas checklist

A short list of habits worth breaking before you land:

• Don't write someone's name in red ink; it's traditionally associated with death.
• Take your shoes off wherever you see a raised floor or a shoe rack at the entrance, including some traditional restaurants with floor seating.
• Hand and receive money, cards, or gifts with two hands, or at least support your right forearm with your left hand.
• Don't point with a single finger or with chopsticks; use an open hand.
• If you're invited to someone's home during a holiday like Chuseok (추석), a small gift for the host and a proper bow to the eldest family member present are the baseline, not the extra mile.

None of this is enforced by law or by an angry shopkeeper. Koreans generally extend a wide grace period to visitors who are obviously trying. Getting these five or six habits right just means you spend that grace period on something more interesting than chopstick placement.