Culture & Etiquette
The unwritten rules of Korean social life — age and titles, etiquette that actually matters, and the handful of mistakes that genuinely land badly.
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Gyeongbokgung Free Admission: What Actually Counts as Hanbok
Free palace entry in hanbok is real, but jeans with a jeogori is not. The garment rules, the age bracket foreigners misread, and which day each palace shuts.
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Attending a Korean Wedding: Gift Money and Etiquette
The invitation is a link and the lobby has an ATM for a reason. 2026 envelope amounts, the reception desk step by step, and the one colour you can't wear.
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Korea's Gift Limit Law: When ₩50,000 Is Actually Zero
The ₩50,000 everyone quotes gets two things wrong. The meal cap moved in 2024, and for your child's homeroom teacher the real ceiling is zero won.
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Korean Funerals: What to Do When a Coworker Loses a Parent
The 부고 message has a bank account number in it, and you have until morning to decide three things. Amounts, envelopes, bowing order and what to say on Monday.
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Korean Age and Titles: Why Birth Year Matters
Koreans ask your birth year within minutes of meeting you. Here's what they're working out, what the titles mean, and why the age system recently changed.
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Korean Etiquette: Mistakes Foreigners Make
Most etiquette guides list rules nobody enforces. These are the ones that actually register — and the handful that genuinely cause offence.