Difference between revisions of "South Korea"

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Earth > Asia > Eastern Asia > South Korea
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=== Hitchhiking for female===
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=== Hitchhiking for females===
  
If you are a girl, you should be careful with hitchiking in South Korea. People may think you are a Russian prostitute. Probably you will have to explain them why actually you are standing on the gate to highway. Because of the shortage of English speakers, it may be extremely hard for you to do this.
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If you are a girl, you should be careful with hitchiking in South Korea. People may think you are a Russian prostitute. You will probably have to explain them why you are standing on the gate to highway. Because of the shortage of English speakers, it may be extremely hard for you to do this.
  
 
== Border Crossing ==
 
== Border Crossing ==

Revision as of 17:03, 14 February 2010

Flag of South Korea South Korea
Information
Language: Korean
Capital: Seoul
Population: 50,062,000 (2009 est.)
Currency: International symbol ₩, pronounced Won (KRW)
Hitchability: ?
More info: AVP Free Encyclopedia (Russian)
Meet fellow hitchhikers on Trustroots
<map lat='35.85' lng='127.5' zoom='6' view='0' height='320px' country='South Korea' />

South Korea is a country in East Asia. It has a land border with North Korea, but travel there is restricted. There are ferry services from Pusan to Japan, and from Seoul to China.

Koreans are generally friendly, honest, and generous people who often drive big cars which are usually empty. Hitch hiking is easy here for foreigners if you are reasonably well dressed and clean shaven. I found I generally waited 15 minutes or less. The motorway service stations (hyu-gye-so) are easy to get lifts from, they often have tourist information centres with free road maps, free internet access and excellent cheap food. Tollgates are also good places to hitch. Technically you shouldn't stand on the motorway side of a tollgate, but cars often pull up here anyway, and the tollgate staff rarely object to you standing on the motorway side of the tollgate. Sometimes tollgate staff may even help you by asking drivers their destination, and asking them to give you lifts if they are going your way!

Write hitchiking signs in Hangul (Korean alphabet); place names on road signs are generally in Hangul and English, so you can copy the Hangul from road signs. A map in Hangul is useful, and one in English if you can't read Korean.

Korean drivers may try to take you to bus or train stations (they mean well). Also many of them are completely incapable of reading paper maps, relying instead on satellite navigation.

Language

Few Koreans speak a lot of English. Many may understand some very basic words.

The Korean language is heavily steeped in formality and politeness. When speaking Korean, it is generally best to end every sentence with -yo. This is the 'polite' level of speaking. If you don't, you may be forgiven as an unknowing foreigner, but a little politeness goes a long way! Most Koreans are thrilled that a foreigner has taken a little time to learn some of their language.

Some important phrases

Hello An-nyong haseyo = Be healthy/peaceful
Good bye! An-nyong-hi ka-seyo! = Go in health/peace --(used if the person you are addressing is leaving)
Good bye! An-nyong-hi gyeh-seyo! = Stay in health/peace --(if the person you are addressing is staying somewhere)
Thank you Kamsa hamnida/Gomup sumnida -- note: this uses the formal -mnida ending, so don't add -yo.
Where are you going? Odi ga-yo? (lit. where go?)
Yes Ne
No Ani-o
here Yogi-eh-yo (lit. here-at (polite ending)) --(use this if you're pointing at a map.)
Please juseyo -- used with verbs, eg. '...-eh ga-juseyo' = take me to ..., please (lit. ...-at go please) or 'Mohm-chu juseyo' = stop please
Motorway service station hyu-gye-so
Gas station ju-yu-so
Interchange IC pronounced "ee shee", most Koreans seem to understand the word "tollgate"

Hitchhiking for females

If you are a girl, you should be careful with hitchiking in South Korea. People may think you are a Russian prostitute. You will probably have to explain them why you are standing on the gate to highway. Because of the shortage of English speakers, it may be extremely hard for you to do this.

Border Crossing

The border to North Korea is closed. The border crossing to Japan is quite easy, as all the border service people speak English.

Cities