There are 4 major types of religion in South Korea, namely Christianity (Protestantism & Catholicism), Buddhism, Confucianism and Shamanism.
II. Language
Korean, also known as Hangeul, is the official language written and converse in South Korea. It has 24 characters, consist of 14 consonants and 3 vowels. Syllabuses are formed by combining chosen consonants and vowels to form words. It is the improvised version of Japanese and Chinese because in the past, Korean was written with the fusion of Chinese ideogram and Hangul, a native Korean. It is also similar to Japanese because the language is used in different level of form such as honorific, normal and inferior form when conversing with people of different rank. Turkish and Mongolian are also influential to what the Korean language is now.
III. Traditional culture
Bowing is to show basic respect when you greet someone and send them off.
Korean needs to comply with the Five Relationships which is between the ruler and subject, father and son, husband and wife, old and young, and between friends. Hence, introductions need to take place in order for recognition and respect as Koreans will rank the relationships into category. Koreans take pride in their unique culture; hence, controversial issues about their country should not be questioned as it might seem rude and disrespectful to them.
IV. Social hierarchy
Relationship of Koreans will be automatically ranked according to the status. For example, who is more elder, who has a better income and who had a better education.
V. Family Oriented
According to Confucian say of ‘five generations under one roof’, it is common for parents, children and grandchildren to live together. Confucianism also stress on filial piety and respect for elder and seniority. Thus, the thought of putting elder parents in homes is undesirable and parents will usually live with the eldest son.
VI. Food
Something Korean cuisine cannot miss is the Kimchi, or spicy preserved cabbage. It serves as a staple dish in every meal, even breakfast for Koreans besides rice. A meal in Korea would usually consist of a soup, rice and a few dishes, ranging from three to twelve.
Different kinds of Korean food will be bak and juk (steamed rice and porridge), guk (soup) which is mainly made from soybean paste, jjigae (stew), jjim and jorim (simmered meat or fish), namul (vegetables), jeotal (seafood fermented in salt), gui (broiled or barbeque food), jeon(pan fried food) and mandu (dumplings).
Some of the best dish known are pibimbap (rice served in heated iron bowl, with kimchi, meat and vegetables topped with chilli), pulgogi or called “fire beef” (strips of roasted beef marinated in soy sauce, sesame oil and seeds, garlic, green onions and sugar), kalbi (broiled short ribs which is similar to pulgogi), shinsollo( a combination of meat with mushrooms, seafood, chestnuts, pine nuts and other vegetables in a brass pot), mandu (consist of meat and vegetables wrapped in thin dough crust, steamed or fried like dumplings), yakkwa (a cake made with rice flour and honey), tashik (a cake made of green bean, soya beans, flower pollen, honey and inner bark of pine trees) and also the famous p’atbingsu, a red bean parfait.
In Korea, not only the food must taste nice, the presentation of the food also does their part in evaluating whether the food is good or not. Spoons and chopsticks are also commonly used when dinning.
Pibimbap
Different regions of Korea are famous of different kinds of food. Under Seoul, the presentation of food will be flamboyant and consist of grand dishes such as inseollo (food of the mountain god-basically meatballs in chicken soup), gujeolpan (platter of nine delicacies-consist of a variety of meats and vegetables wrapped in thin crepes) and tangpyeongchae (green bean jelly mixed with vegetables and beef). They also enjoy side dishes such as pickled vegetables and salted fish. Having rice with bisque such as seolleongtang (ox bone soup) and gomtang (thick beef bone soup), is also very popular in Seoul.
· Food for festive and season:
Different seasons of the years: spring, summer, fall and winter and festive days such as New Years Day are celebrated with different kind of delicacy in Korea. Even odd number dates that fall into the same numbered month are considered as festive days. Eg. 1st of January, 5thof May and 9thof September. Some special food to be eaten on New Year’s Day will be tteokguk (sliced rice cake soup) for breakfast, which is to wish for happiness, good luck and health, and also eat ogokbap (boiled rice mixed with five grains), dried vegetables and nuts and wish for a thriving year full with energy and robustness.
VII. Costume
The traditional clothes that Koreans wear are called Hanbok. They are usually worn during weddings, funerals or other religious services, and also their 60th birthday. However, some of the people living in rural villages still wear the Hanbok daily.
For men, they need to wear long wide trousers that fit tightly at the waist and coloured bands are worn at the ankles. Short and loose jackets are also worn with a single bow tie. Additional coat could be worn overlapping the jacket and tie on the right side.
For ladies, they used to wear two pair of trousers, one long and the other shorter, but now they wear slips, which was due to the westerners influence. The female dress is always home-made and they need to wear high-pleated full length skirt just under their arms. The skirt is called ch’ima and a jacket is worn called chogori with long sleeves which fastens on a side with a bow.
VIII. Arts
· Martial Arts
One of the world’s famous martial arts, Taekwondo originated from Korea.
· Architecture
In the past, infrastructures in Korea were built by notches by setting wooden beams on stone foundations.
· Pottery
· Sculpture
Shamanists are popular with their wood and stone carvings all over Korea. It compromises of mostly Buddha statues, bells and pagodas. · Dance
Traditional dance in Korea is categorised into two types namely the court dance and folk dance. Folk dance mostly originated from Shamanistic rituals.
There were two areas of music: court music which was influenced by Confusian ceremonial music and another one is native music, enjoyed by the locals. There were also three genres of music that is Sanjo, Pansori and the Nongak.
Written in either Chinese or Hangeul and is most easily found in museums, temples and art galleries.
· Painting
Korean paintings include painting on landscapes, flora and fauna and the environment on mulberry paper silk. 
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