I go to Korea every years , never have major issues. if you expect service serving you like a queen, sorry, this won\'t happen except staying in a 5 stars hotel. the most excellent service I had with is jw Marriot. but you have to pay few thousands dollars for this. this happens in HK too! loads of poor service in old restaurants and snob service in high end fashion shops.
the only time I encountered poor experience with Korean is at airport arex station. besides places like Lotte duty free shops are serving too many tourists, their service quality are declining , but I won\'t expect much from these busy shops. service in myeongdong is very fine. even the small local restaurants I went to they were friendly and helpful.
me too. actually their English proficiency is much better than Japan. I experienced with university students who can talk to me in good English to find the place I want. even 阿豬媽talked to me with very simple, they are so willing to talk in English. in fact, korea is a much open society compared to Japan. so I can surely see their citizens are more receptive to speaking English and mandarin to foreigners since the last few years.