Read the Signs
HANKUKIN Hangul
How to read Korean writing well enough to use it — the letters, the signs on the street, and what each kind of shop calls itself.
All articles
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Seoul Bus Stop Signs: The Five Digits, and the Two Greens
Colour tells you how far a Seoul bus goes, not what it costs — branch buses and village buses are both green, at different fares. The five digits on the pole are the part that settles it.
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Korean Toilet Signs: 남·여, the Door Code, Where the Paper Goes
The code — 비밀번호 (bi-mil-beon-ho) — is printed at the bottom of your receipt or on a card at the counter; inside, 남 is men, 여 is women, the paper goes in the bowl (there is no bin, by decree), and 정지 (jeong-ji) is the bidet's stop button.
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Convenience Store Medicine in Korea: Thirteen Boxes, One of Each
A convenience store registered to sell medicine stocks exactly thirteen government-designated products under four Korean headings — 해열진통제 fever and pain, 소화제 digestion, 감기약 a cold, 파스 patches — and you may take one sealed box of each.
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Seoul Subway Signs: 타는 곳, 방면, and the Name on the Glass
Read the glass: since 2023 Seoul has been fixing the station's name to the platform screen doors, sized to be read from a seat through the train window — the screen inside the car describes two stations, the glass only ever one.
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Korean Shop Door Signs: 준비중 Is a Pause, 휴무 Is a Day Off
Read the sign, not the room: 준비중 (jun-bi jung) and 브레이크 타임 (break time) are pauses — the break-time notice normally carries its own reopening hour in plain digits — while 금일 휴무 (geum-il hyu-mu) means today is simply over.
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Seoul Line 9 Express: The Word 급행 Decides Whether Your Train Stops
On Seoul's Line 9 that is scheduled, not a fault — you are on a 일반 (il-ban) local waiting at a passing station while a 급행 (geup-haeng) express overtakes it on the same track. Getting off is the one bad move: the train you would wait for is the one that just went through.
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How to Read a Korean Address: Every Number Is a Distance in Metres
The number is a distance, not a serial — multiply it by ten for metres from the start of the road, and odd numbers run down the left-hand side as you walk from that start, even down the right.
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Jongno, Not Jongro: The English on Korean Signs Spells the Sound
You spelled the letters. Korean signs spell the sound — 종로 is Jongno, never Jongro, and the map only knows the sound.
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Noraebang, Jjimjilbang, PC Bang: One Korean Word Explains All
방 just means room. Korea names a business after the room you do the thing in — singing room, sauna room, PC room.
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Korean Clinic and Pharmacy Signs: One Formula Reads Every Door
Clinic signs run to a fixed formula — name, specialty, then 의원 or 병원. Korean law bars anyone who is not a licensed medical institution from using those words at all.
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Korean Restaurant Signs: The Last Word Tells You the Menu
The last word on the sign tells you what they cook. Learn six words and you can read the street.
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Read Korean in 90 Minutes: The Alphabet, Starting at ㄱ
Hangul is not Chinese characters. Most people can sound out a sign after about ninety minutes.