Korean Job Discussion Forums

[michaelambling]

Just when I think Korea couldn't get any more ridiculous, I learn something new. Today I noticed that Korean addresses start with the city first, then you write the gu, then the dong, then the building name and apartment number.

Why can't they organize addresses the right way around, like any developed advanced country?

Sparkling.

[CentralCali]

Well, the interesting thing for addresses in, at least, the US is that the machines reading and sorting the envelopes read ZIP first. It's pretty logical to go from larger to smaller.

And let's not forget that Korea's using (or supposed to be using) their new addressing system:

ZIP
Province/Metropolitan City
Gu
Street Name, House number
Name of addressee.

[bluelake]

That's the way it's been as long as I remember and I see nothing wrong with it. It's just going from major entity to minor entity, but that's when you write the address in Korean; when you address something in romanized form, it is done the same way as in the West.

[climber159]

I'm no Korean apologist. But, if you look at other types of classification (biological taxonomy's binomial nomenclature) you will see that the larger, more general, categories come first. It takes some getting used to, but it makes sense.

[TheUrbanMyth]

[cdninkorea]

I have to agree with others and say it's absurd to say Korea is doing this wrong- why not say British people drive on the "wrong" side of the road? Or that Arabic is written in the wrong direction? Things like these are completely amoral.

[Pojogae]

Sorry Mike, but your amused disdain for this Korean quirk baffles me too.

When you think about it, the address is only written for the benefit of the mail deliverer, so it is more natural to have the larger units first. The mailman obviously couldn't care less what your name is, so this feature should come last; and the poor drone who has to stand in some warehouse sorting envelopes by zip codes and cities is going to prefer having these units appear at the front of the address where the eye most naturally gravitates. Maybe we could all learn a little something from this exciting and brilliant innovation of theirs!

Sparkling.

[Binch Lover]

In the same way, their dating system makes more sense. If you are talking about a historical date, it seems more intuitive to say the year first, then the month, then the day.

The American system makes no sense to me. First the month, then the day, then the year? How is that logical??

[tiger fancini]

Just when I think Michaelambling couldn't get any more ridiculous, he posts this gem.

"Why can't they organize addresses the right way around, like any developed advanced country?"

Quality. Either a troll, or a shining example of the idiots teaching here recently reported in the media.

[CentralCali]

Isn't Japan an advanced country? I seem to recall that the addressing system the OP is condemning was introduced by the Japanese colonial government.

[mayorgc]

has this always been the case?

I gave my address to family over seas but i gave them the address with my apt name first and i did it the north american wayy. will my mail get to me?

[The Grumpy Senator]

[Robot_Teacher]

I would say it's OK to do it either way just the same as some countries drive on the left and others the rigth with both achieving the same thing. As with sequential ordering, no one way is right or wrong unless inconsistencies occur in one single system. I might say, "I'm going to Seoul," while a Korean says, "Seoul, I go." Both work as I understand almost any way of speaking English unlike where Hangulmal has to be perfect or you'll cause minor offense and confuse the locals.

Now in Korea, a place where the streets have no names, it must be confusing to deliver things as almost every time I order off of Gmarket, they can't find my elementary school yet I live in a small town. Even with GPS, taxi drivers can't find a place unless you're in a big city and it's a major landmark like Dong Seoul Bus Terminal or COEX or City Hall or Gyeongpo beach and Emart in Gangnueng. In my town, I can get off the bus after a shopping trip to Seoul or Gangnueng, take a taxi, and the cabbie doesn't know where my -ri neighborhood is in a town of 2000 people nor can navigate when I show him my address printed in Korean so I have to tell him which way to go in korean and he gets confused with my minor minor mistakes due to my non-Korean accent.

I get the gist that driving is one of the most unskilled trades when it comes to anything, but driving the vehicle itself as drivers often seem slow in the head and lacking hygiene. Korean speech has to be perfect to the local dialect or they're lost, dazed, confused, and sometimes offended.

I find it strange a newbie foreigner knows more about how to get around a small rural town than the local Koreans taxi and bongo truck drivers do. Is something wrong with the address system or is a lack signage? Well, I don't see any street names or labeled neighborhoods, we just know places by memory of what it looks like and it's always changing to blur into all seeming so same same.

I still haven't received any mail from relatives after nearly 4 months, but my post cards get home inside a week.

[CentralCali]

[crescent]

Hey genius, you should start another thread about the insane 'last name first' name system here.