This paper deals with a sphere, which may be considered as one of the principle ones in terms of forming a Korean studies specialist competence, i.e. a difference between the mental pictures of the world of representatives of Korean and Russian cultures. The examples, which are not obvious and which, at the same time, potentially may cause a serious misunderstanding between the counterparts, will be analyzed in the context of the ‘literal translation’ problem. Adequacy of different translation variants depending on a communicative situation as well as relation of the examples with specifics of Korean culture, including business culture, are the main objects of examination in the body of the paper.