This paper uses conversation analysis to explore the opening phase of videotaped acute primary care consultations in Korea to distinguish a closing-implicative practice (eti-ka apha-se-yo? “Where does it hurt?”), which might be grasped as being culturally specific. The findings propose that both the patient and doctor orient to the opening sequence as a path to history-taking by locating the primary problem. Implications for cross-cultural comprehensions of medical encounters are debated.