(By Moses Yoon) When I was a young boy, I noticed a familiar pattern of a simple gesture that I noticed between Korean adults – when a younger adult gave something to an older adult, the younger would give the object to the elder with two hands instead of one.

I always thought this simple gesture to be quite un-necessary when I was younger. Why give an object to another person with two hands instead of one?

First of all, it’s just way easier to lift one’s hand and give an object to somebody else, right? The act of holding an object with two hands and giving the object to somebody else seemed a little too inconvenient, a waste of energy – not to mention how awkward it is to offer something to somebody with two hands.

Do you know what I’m talking about here or am I the only one who noticed this?

I also determined that giving something to somebody with two hands who is older than you was a sign of respect to the recipient of the object. But for me, I was too Americanized to even want to follow this seemingly Koreanesque gesture. I didn’t really care for it to be honest. When I gave something to somebody, whether younger or older, I’d simply hand it over with one hand. No big deal. [Read more...]