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LIFE IN KOREAPosted by Ryan 🇮🇪 Ireland · 1 month ago
Can you actually function in Seoul with zero Korean at first?
arriving with maybe 30 words of korean. i'll be learning but the first month is going to be rough.
is daily stuff doable? banks, phone shops, doctors, that kind of thing. or do you need a korean friend for everything
is daily stuff doable? banks, phone shops, doctors, that kind of thing. or do you need a korean friend for everything
9 comments
OFFICIAL ANSWER
LiamALLO TEAM
English desk · Seoul
Yes. Seoul is one of the easiest big cities in the world to arrive in with no local language. It is not effortless, but nothing on your list is blocked.
What genuinely works with zero Korean:
1. Transport, food delivery, taxis, and shopping. Subway signage is in English and Chinese, Naver Map and Kakao T have English interfaces, and pointing at a photo menu is normal and unremarkable.
2. Banks. KEB Hana, Woori and Shinhan have foreigner desks with English-speaking staff — Hana's Itaewon and Gangnam branches are used to students. Bring your ARC or passport, and go on a weekday morning.
3. Hospitals. Severance, Asan and Samsung Medical Center have international clinics with English-speaking doctors. Costs are low even before insurance. For small things, pharmacies handle a lot and pharmacists often read English.
4. Phone shops. Bigger branches in Hongdae, Itaewon and Gangnam handle foreigners daily.
Where it is actually hard: government offices, landlords, and anything involving a contract. That is where a Korean speaker matters, and it is exactly the part where students who came alone struggle.
Also worth saying plainly — Papago handles Korean far better than Google Translate does, and the camera translation on signs and documents is genuinely good now.
Our Seoul team goes to the bank, the phone shop and immigration with our students in the first week, because those three are the ones where being alone costs you days.
What genuinely works with zero Korean:
1. Transport, food delivery, taxis, and shopping. Subway signage is in English and Chinese, Naver Map and Kakao T have English interfaces, and pointing at a photo menu is normal and unremarkable.
2. Banks. KEB Hana, Woori and Shinhan have foreigner desks with English-speaking staff — Hana's Itaewon and Gangnam branches are used to students. Bring your ARC or passport, and go on a weekday morning.
3. Hospitals. Severance, Asan and Samsung Medical Center have international clinics with English-speaking doctors. Costs are low even before insurance. For small things, pharmacies handle a lot and pharmacists often read English.
4. Phone shops. Bigger branches in Hongdae, Itaewon and Gangnam handle foreigners daily.
Where it is actually hard: government offices, landlords, and anything involving a contract. That is where a Korean speaker matters, and it is exactly the part where students who came alone struggle.
Also worth saying plainly — Papago handles Korean far better than Google Translate does, and the camera translation on signs and documents is genuinely good now.
Our Seoul team goes to the bank, the phone shop and immigration with our students in the first week, because those three are the ones where being alone costs you days.
Was this helpful?Updated 1 month ago
9 comments
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You can still post anonymously after signing in.arrived with zero korean. the only thing that actually defeated me was the bank, took three visits. everything else was fine within a week
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the bank is a rite of passage. mine sent me away twice for documents nobody mentioned the first time
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noted, budget three bank visits mentally
4
honestly the harder part isn't logistics it's that you can't make small talk for the first two months and it gets lonely. logistics are solved, social is the real curve
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this. i could order food fine but i couldn't have a conversation with my neighbour for ages
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level 2 is roughly when this flips for most people i think
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papago >>> google translate for korean, it's not even close. download offline mode before you land
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learn 저기요 and 이거 주세요 on the flight and you're 80% of the way to functional lol
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the airport to your accommodation trip on day one is the single hardest moment. after that it's downhill. arrange that in advance.
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