Korean Customs

Yesterday our landlady fed me a banana. What I mean by that is that she actually brought over a peeled banana and held it out while I took bites. I don't remember the last time someone did that for me. She had two friends over, one of which spoke English and could explain to me that she wanted me to have it because it was so delicious.

Dane warned me that there would be huge cultural differences here. He uses the example that when we see blue, Europeans see red, whereas when we see blue, Koreans smell cheese. Honestly, the language barrier is such a big thing for me that I have not noticed much about different customs, but they are starting to become more apparent.

There is definitely a different culture with old people. Yesterday, I saw a hunched over women stop a school girl to have her help her and walk with her. Before the banana incident, our landlady was sharing watermelon with me and her two (young) friends, and anytime she pointed at the plate of watermelon, they would nod/bow and take a piece. I tried to follow suit. It seems it is never appropriate to say no to an old person.