p. 11 | KOREAN MANNERS

Pacific Press Publishing Company · Oakland, California · Sep 26, 1895

FromSigns of the Times, Vol. 21, No. 38.

KOREAN MANNERS.

THE girl in Korea is not thought worth educating. She is welcome to such knowledge of the native script, The Unmun, as she may be able to pick up from her mother.

Before he has attained the age of six, the boy is put into “The Thousand Character,” or A, B, C book. Some never get through their alphabet. The first reader is called “The Smaller Learning,” and the first part of this book is devoted to the duties of children to their parents and elders.

It is good manners, in Korea at least, for the girl to get up first in the morning, sweep the room, roll up the bed (a mattress spread on the floor), and then begin the preparation for breakfast, which is not served until ten o’clock.

It is proper for the boy to rise early enough to go around to his father’s apartment and greet him with, “Have you had peace in your sleep?” The boy is expected to busy himself around the front of the house, putting the parlor (which, by the way, belongs to the male part of the family) in order, sweep the yard or see that it is swept, and then go to

his studies. He goes to school before breakfast.

Children stand in the presence of parents and superiors with eyes cast down, hands folded reverently, and for the rest they are supposed “to be seen and not heard,” unless spoken to. When anything is handed a child, he receives it with both hands. He does not say, “Thanks,” or “Thank you,” but, “I shall enjoy eating this,” or “I shall make good use of what you have given me.”

Insa hao, “making the bow,” is a part of every child’s training. It is the greeting in the morning and farewell at night. I had a servant who thought he could not begin his day’s work until he had made his morning bow to me. As a natural result of all this the children are well behaved. A more orderly school than the one I taught for five years while in Korea I never saw.—Over Sea and Land.