Kiss, Bow, or Shake Hands, Sales and Marketing: The Essential Cultural Guide—From Presentations and Promotions to Communicating and Closing

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BRILLIANT!

1. Korean is considered an extremely difficult language for Westerners to learn. Foreigners are not expected to master it, but Koreans will appreciate your attempt to learn a few simple phrases. A list of general phrases is at the end of this chapter.

Korean uses a unique alphabet, called Hangeul (or Hangul), which was created in 1443 C.E. Koreans consider Hangeul “the most scientific writing system in the world.” It has only 24 letters, compared with the thousands of characters in Chinese and Japanese writing systems. (The limited number of letters makes Hangeul well adapted to computer keyboards.) Furthermore, unlike the letters in other alphabets, some Hangeul letters represent the position of the tongue and mouth when ...