한국 소개 · About Korea
A peninsulabetween mountains and sea.
South Korea is small enough to drive end-to-end in five hours, dense enough to host the world's most extensive subway system, and old enough to count its dynasties in millennia. Here's the orientation you'll wish you had on day one.
The land
Roughly the size of Portugal, with 52 million people.
About 70% of the country is mountainous, which is why most people live tightly packed in the coastal plains and river valleys. The Han River cuts through Seoul; the Nakdong runs through Busan. You are never far from either water or hills.
The peninsula has four distinct seasons — a bright cold winter, a short fragrant spring, a humid sub-tropical summer, and a long, spectacular autumn that locals consider the country's best month (October especially). Plan accordingly.
The cities
Where you'll actually land.
Seoul 서울
9.5M (metro: 26M)The unambiguous center — finance, fashion, government, K-pop, every embassy, and roughly half the country's foreign residents. Dense, deeply walkable, and built around a subway system that runs to 24+ lines.
Busan 부산
3.3MKorea's second city and largest port, on the southeast coast. Beaches, seafood, the country's biggest film festival, and a milder winter than anywhere up north. Slower-paced than Seoul, and noticeably cheaper to live in.
Jeju Island 제주
700kVolcanic island 80 km south of the peninsula. UNESCO geological heritage site, famous for its women free-divers (haenyeo), citrus groves, and the only place in Korea most domestic flights actually fly to. The honeymoon and retiree destination.
And beyond
Daegu, Incheon, Daejeon, Gwangju, Suwon
Korea's other six metropolitan cities each have populations over a million, their own subway systems, and distinct identities — Daegu for textiles and conservatism, Daejeon for science research, Gwangju for art and democracy movement history, Incheon for the airport and the Chinatown, Suwon for the Joseon fortress and Samsung's headquarters.
The food
Built around sharing.
Every meal arrives with banchan — small free side dishes you share with everyone at the table, refilled without asking. Kimchi is always there. Bigger dishes (stews, grilled meats) sit in the middle and you take from them with your own spoon or chopsticks.
You'll eat very well for very little. A full meal in a neighborhood restaurant runs ₩8,000–₩15,000. Convenience stores have surprisingly competent ready-meals. And delivery in Korea is arguably the best in the world — see Everyday Apps for how to use it.
Culture & rhythm
Fast, polite, and tightly woven.
빨리빨리 — pali-pali, "hurry hurry"
Korea moves fast. Deliveries arrive in hours, not days; subway transfers are measured in steps; coffee orders are ready before you've sat down. Visitors often find it exhilarating and a little exhausting. It softens with time.
눈치 — nunchi, social radar
A near-untranslatable concept: the ability to read a room instantly — who's senior, who's annoyed, when to speak, when to pour someone's drink. Foreigners are forgiven for missing it, but the effort is noticed and appreciated.
Age and hierarchy
Confucian roots still shape daily life. Age determines speech level, who pours, who pays, and even who walks through the door first. Don't pour your own drink at a table; pour for others with two hands; receive things from elders with two hands. You don't need to memorize a code — the gestures matter more than precision.
Work, and what's changing
Korea has long had some of the OECD's longest working hours, tied to the post-war development drive. That's shifting — the 52-hour workweek cap is law, younger employees increasingly decline drinks with the boss, and remote work has stuck in parts of tech and finance. Expect different norms depending on your industry and your company's age.
The language
Hangul was designed — not evolved.
The Korean alphabet was commissioned by King Sejong the Great in 1443 specifically because the existing Chinese-derived script was too hard for ordinary Koreans to learn. The letters' shapes are based on the position of the mouth and tongue when making each sound. A literate adult can learn to sound out Hangul in an afternoon.
The grammar is harder. Subject-object-verb order, particles tagged onto every noun, and several layers of formality. You'll get a lot of mileage out of just a few words while you learn — start there, then build.
Day-one phrases
Small things that matter
A few etiquette notes.
- 01Take your shoes off in homes, traditional restaurants, temples, and most clinics. Look for the shoe shelf at the entrance.
- 02Don't stick your chopsticks vertically into rice — that's funeral imagery. Rest them across the bowl instead.
- 03Tipping is not a thing. Servers and taxi drivers don't expect it; offering can occasionally be awkward.
- 04On the subway and bus, the priority seats are for the elderly, pregnant, disabled, and parents with small children. Don't sit in them even if they're empty.
- 05Two-handed everything when interacting with someone older or in a senior role: receiving cards, passing drinks, signing documents.
- 06Public bathhouses (jjimjilbang) are nude and gender-segregated. They are also one of Korea's great pleasures. Try one.
One last thing
Most foreigners arrive expecting a tightly homogenous country and find one that's quietly changing fast — younger generations, immigration, a new openness. Come with patience and curiosity. The rest figures itself out.