Korean Job Discussion Forums

[jkelly80]

I've noticed from working in the public schools in Seoul that theres's around 11 or so "bu"s in the city--Seobu, Bukbu, etc. My initial impression was that this was some sort of educational administrative district, but I've also seen hospitals and police stations divided by "Bu". (I'm assuming the fire dept too). From what I can tell Seobu where I live is Seodamun-gu, Mapo-gu and Eunpyeong-gu, at least when it comes to schools, but I'm not sure about the other divisions.

I was wondering if anyone knew exactly what services/offices were covered by the "bu" system and what kind of overlap they had over the 'gus' in Seoul.

[Ut videam]

It's not a system at all. -부 (-bu) just means "area" or "part." So Seobu is the western area, Bukbu is the northern area, Jungbu is the central area, etc. It applies equally to other countries: the northern United States would be 미국 북부 (miguk bukbu) in Korean.

The overlap you notice is because a lot of the 구 (gu), which are administrative divisions, also use geographic designations in their names�Jung-gu, etc.

[jkelly80]

[Ut videam]

Like I said, the bu's are geographic. So... the northern gus are considered Bukbu, southern are Nambu, western are Seobu, central are Jungbu, etc... it's not a system, it's just a way of grouping by general geographic location. Other cities and even provinces have bu's... Suwon is the capital of Gyeonggi province, for instance, but there's a secondary administrative office in Uijeongbu that serves Gyeonggi-do buk-bu (northern Gyeonggi province).

Tell you what, smart guy... show me a bu that's NOT a geographic/directional designation. Show me the error of my ways.

[jkelly80]

[jvalmer]

부 means part or division or assistant. It isn't always reserved for only geography. example, instead of saying 교감 for vice-principal, you could rarely say 부교장. But almost nobody says that, but people will know what you mean

[Ut videam]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Administrative_divisions_of_South_Korea

The administrative divisions of cities are gu and dong. Bu is not one of them.

Different agencies may group several gu together under one office. For simplicity's sake, this is often done geographically. So, the "Seobu Education Office" would serve the western gu's of the city. But there is no system�each agency does it differently.

http://www.police.go.kr/KNPA/about/ab_offices_01.jsp

Lot of police stations there. Just to take one example, Jongno-gu would be considered to be Seoul jungbu (central Seoul). Yet there's a Jongno Police Station AND a Jungbu Police Station. If the bu's were a system as you claim, there would seemingly be only one Jungbu Police Station in Seoul Jungbu. But this is not the case.

Also, most hospitals in Korea are not government-operated, so their designation as "Seobu," etc. merely indicates their�wait for it�geographic location. Nor is there only one hospital in Seobu, Jungbu, etc.

Care to keep going?

[Ut videam]

[jkelly80]

[Ut videam]

[bangbayed]

[jkelly80]

[Ut videam]

Well, if each agency organizes their offices differently, I wouldn't say there's anything systematic about it.

The point stands: Seoul is subdivided into gus, which are further subdivided into dongs. Some agencies may choose to serve multiple gus in a given area (southern, northern, etc.) from a single office.

Your original question was "I was wondering if anyone knew exactly what services/offices were covered by the "bu" system and what kind of overlap they had over the 'gus' in Seoul."

Since there is no single system, there is no single answer to your question. Each office/agency organizes their offices in a different way. SMOE has their way. The Seoul Metropolitan Police Agency has another. Korean Immigration in Seoul has yet another.

It's not a system. It's just a general geographic designator. Each individual agency determines which particular gus/dongs are served by their particular offices.

[JERGENIUS]

it is a system look it up in the dictionary

[Ut videam]