Korean for cafés

The iced americano is the default Korean coffee all year round, winter included, and is shortened to 아아 (aa) in casual speech. 잔 (jan) is the counter for cups and glasses, used with the native numbers from day 9: 한 잔, 두 잔. Many cafés now take orders at a touchscreen kiosk, 키오스크, which usually has an English button; pay there and wait for your number.

Staff speak to customers in honorific forms, so the questions sound more elaborate than your answers need to be. 드시고 가세요? (deusigo gaseyo?) literally asks 'will you eat and go?', using 드시다, the honorific verb for eating and drinking, and it decides whether you get a mug or a takeaway cup. The 진동벨 (jindongbel) is a buzzer that vibrates when your order is ready; you collect the drink from the counter yourself.

먹고 갈게요 (meokgo galgeyo), 'I'll eat and go', is what most people say for drinks as well as food; 마시고 갈게요 is also fine. The -(으)ㄹ게요 ending (day 45) announces what you are about to do, which is why it turns up in all three of these answers. Size names depend on the chain, some using tall and grande and others regular and large, so pointing at the cup on display is perfectly normal.

빼 주세요 (ppae juseyo), 'take it out for me', removes anything, and works as well for onions in a restaurant as for syrup here. 연하게 'weaker' and 진하게 'stronger' adjust the coffee itself, and staff hear both often. 추가 means 'addition', and 추가해 주세요 is how you add a shot, cream or a flavour, usually for a small charge.

Staying for hours with a laptop or a textbook is normal, and has its own word, 카공, short for studying at a café. People often leave a phone or a bag on a table to reserve it while they queue, and it is left untouched. Café toilets in larger buildings are often shared and locked with a code, printed on the receipt or posted by the till. Korean sockets take the two round pins of the European type, so British plugs need an adapter.