A lot of you seemed to like last week's newsletter so I decided to keep this format and teach you about current news in Korea along with some slang and useful tips! Letโs get right into it. ๐
There were subway strikes happening in seoul for the past couple of weeks. Long story short, Seoul Metro wanted to cut around 10% of its staff in the next 2-3 years and the workers were on a strike to prevent this from happening. ๐ชง The strike lasted a couple of weeks and delayed the train schedules which caused an inconvenience for a lot of people here in Seoul :(( ๐
I was really annoyed about my daily life getting inconvenienced (as a lot of people were) but this Tiktok made me laugh โฌ๏ธ
Living in Korea all my life, I never realized that weโre so peaceful with our strikes LOL. This video made me realize that a little inconvenience never hurt anybody! ๐
Anyways, that wraps it up for the current news in Korea, now letโs learn something useful!Now that Covid restrictions are easing up, are you guys looking forward to traveling to Korea?! โ๏ธ
Whether you're coming soon or planning to come later in the future, I thought learning about Korean public transportation would be helpful for you guys so I've put together a little guide ๐ โค๏ธ
โจ Korean Transportation Guide for Dummies โจ
For an overview we have three basic modes of transportation for everyday:
๋ฒ์ค and ์งํ์ฒ are probably the most affordable ways to get around in Seoul, most people will go to work with these two methods!
There are two major apps that you can use to see the timings/figure out what method is the fastest and that would be Kakaomap or Naver map! PSA: We do not use Google maps in Korea, it is so inaccurate!
To ride the bus or subway you will need a T-money card or a Korean bank card that doubles as a transportation card! (they're even customizable) โฌ๏ธโฌ๏ธโฌ๏ธ
2. ํ์ ๐
(Taxi)
As for ํ์ you can just hail one off of the street or you can call one! There are so many apps but the one that seems to be the most popular (especially for travelers) seems to be Kakao Taxi! This app doesnโt require you to register your card (usually has to be a Korean card) so it works for people who are traveling!
Of course Uber works here too but itโs not the same system as in the US where people use their own cars to drive you, uber taxis are the same as other taxis! But as always Kakao is the best!
*do I have to mention that this newsletter is not sponsored lol I wish it was though pls sponsor me kakao*
Now we only have two transportation methods left! These are used for further distances and not used on the daily (for most people). If you want to travel to another city like Busan or Sokcho you could take either the ๊ณ ์๋ฒ์ค or ๊ธฐ์ฐจ!
3. ๊ณ ์๋ฒ์ค ๐
(Express Bus)
If you want to ride an express bus you canโt use the same card as the one used for regular buses/subways, you need to purchase a separate ticket! Prices are still SUPER affordable compared to the US though! If you want to reserve a ticket you can search your location with โ๊ณ ์๋ฒ์ค" on Naver! The website I personally use is bustago though :) they have english, japanese, chinese too!
The express bus is super comfortable but not as fast as riding a train (๊ธฐ์ฐจ) ! Take a look at this picture to see what the bus looks like! โฌ๏ธ โฌ๏ธ โฌ๏ธ
4. ๊ธฐ์ฐจ (KTX, SRT) ๐
(Train)
Last but definitely not least, is the ๊ธฐ์ฐจ! These are the long distance trains that we ride in Korea and among these is the famous KTX or bullet train! This train is super fast and you can get from one end of Korea to the other in only 2-ish hours! It is the most expensive out of the lot but is still usually less than 50$!
There are other options that arenโt KTX but they are a bit slower! To reserve or learn more, you can download the Korail app! (also available in english hehe)
Okay, phew! That got way longer than I meant for it to! I didnโt want to leave out important information for you guys though :) Letโs end this newsletter with a new Korean slang word!
So! As we talked about before, there is a transportation card which is the T-money card! People call it ๋ฒ์ค์นด๋ as well which is โbus cardโ Soooo when someone talks about charging their bus card in Korean that would be "๋ฒ์ค ์นด๋ ์ถฉ์ " (buh-seuh ka-deuh choong-jeon). ๋ฒ์ค is bus, ์นด๋ is card, and ์ถฉ์ is charge.
Since it is kind of a mouthful, the sentence has been shortened into a slang word:
โ๋ฒ์นด์ถฉโ which is a combination of the first character of each word!
There you go! You're one step closer to being a native speaker :)
Hope you guys enjoyed this weekโs newsletter and look forward to the next one as well! Have a good day!!! <3
What do you want to hear about? ๐
Before ending this newsletter, I'd like to hear from you guys what you'd like to read about in these weekly newsletters! Since everyone has different requests for the newsletter, I've decided to create this form to keep track of them all ๐ Please fill this out if you'd like to hear about something specific โค๏ธ
