culture in korea

After two months in South Korea I am by no means an expert on Korean language or culture.  However, I definitely have learned a lot about Korea and Koreans.  These are some of the culture differences I have noticed between Koreans and Americans:

Men and Women
When you have dinner with Korean families, the men sit on one side, the women and children sit on the other.  They will talk amongst each other, but conversation is more kept within the groups than I am used to.
Most Koreans live with their parents until they are married.  Usually the women live by pretty strict rules, whereas the men are pretty free to do what they want.  The only example of this that I can think of is that women living with their parents usually have a curfew, whereas the men usually do not.  Even 30 year old wome still living with their parents have a curfew. 
Men are the breadwinners in Korean families.  Women do often work, but usually get paid much less, as I have come to understand it.  This isn't completely different from America as men do get paid more than women, but there are definitely a fair few families where the wife makes more than the husband.

Drinking
Drinking is part of their culture, and it is looked upon well if a man can drink a lot.  The earliest I've seen a bar here close is 6 am, though I'm sure there are some that close earlier (they probably close if they have no one in there).  I don't think their alcohol is taxed very much, because I can get imported beer for near the price I get it in the states, and soju (a local rice based liquor that has about half the alcohol content as vodka and tastes pretty much like half vodka) is plentiful and very cheap.

Education
Koreans are a very education oriented people, just about all families that can afford it send their children to private schools, even after their kids go to public school.  So kids may be going to two or three different schools a day.  There are children that are learning English and Chinese on top of their Korean studies, and many spend all day at school or studying all the way through Highschool.  This is a bit extreme compared to America, however I have talked to Koreans about it and they say that once they get to college school is a breeze.  Though they don't know what to do with having free time for the first time.
My take on this: it is a bit extreme, children need to have some free time to figure out what they like to do, play sports, even just relax.  Training your brain is like training your muscles, it's good to work out a lot, but you need to rest as well.  I have read that playing a sport is good for healthy brain development, which America is a lot more sport oriented that Korea, and is a good thing, but I think that too many Americans don't place enough emphasis on education for their children and their country as a whole.  What is one of the first things to get cut when funding is low? Education.  What is the number one factor to increasing future economic growth? Education.  Education should be one of our top economical concerns, and I'm not just saying that because I'm a teacher, I've always thought that!  But in conclusion I believe that in general Koreans put too much emphasis on formal education and Americans put too little emphasis on it.  If we could meet somewhere in the middle we'd be great.

Gifts
It is common to receive gifts from Koreans and Korean families, especially food.  There aren't many weeks that I don't come home from work with at least one gift from one of my students' families, or sometimes even Korean coworkers.  On thanksgiving I brought home about 4 bags of food, part of it leftovers from our festivities, but a lot of it was gifts from parents.

Service in Korea. 
In Korea you don't tip waiters, taxis, bartenders, anyone.  I have seen some foreign bars that leave tip jars out, but that is it.  In fact, not only do they not expect tips, but sometimes they give what is called 'service'.  Which is where they give you a few free beers, or some extra time at the noraebong (private karaoke rooms), free friesor something of the sort.  They usually do this when you are with a big group.  How I reasoned it is that when you bring a big group of people they make more money.  When they give you stuff, it makes your experience more enjoyable, which makes you want to come back.
That and the fact that they charge enough for their food and services (still less than America in my city, though comparable, Seoul and bigger / international cities are more expensive) to pay their employees without having tips a necessity.  Tips in America are expected, which in my mind undermines the whole idea of tipping.  You are supposed to tip when you feel service was especially good, not because it is required.  It should be the responsibility of the company that employs the workers to pay them an appropriate amount, not the customers.  If customers feel that the person serving them did an exceptional job and want to give them extra money because of it, THAT is what tipping is about.  If you need to raise your prices in order to make enough money off your product and still pay your employees an agreeable amount, so be it.  Service in Korea is usually better than what I'm used to in the states anyway, and they don't even accept tips.

Trust
Koreans are much more trusting, and.... trustworthy.  In general..  I've seen trucks filled with boxes of fruit sitting on the side of the street over night.  At least some, if not all, of the inventory would be gone in the morning in most parts of America.  I've seen mini marts with fridges of beer sitting outside them, no one looking after them.  Beer would definitely get stolen back home.  I'm not sure if it being such a small country, somewhat cut off from the world has anything to do with it. 
I only say somewhat cut off because it is surrounded by ocean, and North Korea which no visitors come from that direction.  It has a fair amount of foreigners in it, many more than I expected.  Also a much more western society feeling than I expected (except all the fried squid being sold everywhere, ha).

Language
The language is simpler than English, it is more methodical.  I read somewhere that Korean is ranked by many linguists as the most scientific or mathematical language... something to that extent.  Which I could see that.  Writing Korean only consists of straight lines and circles.  They don't seem to have as many tenses and times where you need to change a word.  You can use (phonetically spelled) 'ee eh yoh' which translates to "am" after your heritage, after your name, after your employment, after another person's heritage or name or a group of people's heritage, and many other instances without any changes.  In comparison in English we say, I am, or she is, or they are etc. 

This is all I the differences and a bit of analysis on the differences that I can think of at the moment.  I'm sure I know of more, but am not bringing any to mind.  I may come back and edit this post and add what I think of later if I come up with something good in the near future.  I expect I will do another analysis of this sort around the time I am leaving, when I know more about Korean culture, and hopefully the language also (I've been putting a decent amount of time into studying Korean recently, and am improving slowly.. the hardest part is the pronounciation).  Oh and one last little note... Koreans in general seem nicer than Americans.  At least where I live, most people are very kind.  I don't know if that is true of all Koreans (obviously not ALL Koreans or we wouldn't be having this conflict with the North having bombed one of the South's islands right now) but it does seem significant enough for me to take note of.