Korean Job Discussion Forums

[glimmer]

Dumb question maybe ... I'm in one of Seoul's 'satellite' cities and my apartment building has a name-plate on the front with:

(a) building name
(b) building number
(c) dong name
(d) gil number

I asked my landlord what my postal address is, and he indicated that I only need to include (A) and (C), plus the dong zone number and city postcode.

However, some of my Korean colleagues say the landlord is wrong, I need to include (B) and/or (D) or my mail probably won't get delivered. When I asked what would happen if I included all the various names and numbers my colleagues said that would also confuse the mailman.

Who is right? And what are (B) and (D) actually used for, if not for postal addresses?

In the meantime I'm getting mail sent c/- my hagwon's address - at least everyone agrees how that should be written.

[Underwaterbob]

Depends on where you live. If you apartment building is in a complex and the buildings don't have individual names then you definitely need your building number. I've never heard of anyone using a road (gil) number in their address.

Look at (or casually glance) at people's mail in other mail boxes and see how the mail they get is addressed. If that's possible. The mail in my building is all thrown into these open mailboxes downstairs.

[Atavistic]

How is it written on your ARC?

[glimmer]

I casually glanced at a neighbor's mail - no building number ... which suggests the landlord may be correct. It's a smallish (4-storey) apartment building in a side-street, if that's relevant.

But in that case would the unnecessary inclusion of a building number on an address label cause problems? I am missing a couple of letters that should have arrived from overseas by now. (Mail sent to me c/o my hagwon has arrived very promptly so I know the local post office *can* read English address labels.)

My ARC card doesn't state my home address at all.

[icicle]

I have only had 4 different addresses in Korea (2 home and 2 school) and in each case they have included - Building Name and Building Number - they have never included the gil. I can remember at some stage learning that in Korea generally the building number is usually important - because unlike much of the west they don't generally use street addresses - so the building number is the main way they find addresses (along with the good idea of always including a phone number on parcels so that they can ring if necessary to find the building) ...

But I have also always used my school address for most of my mail ... especially parcels because there is usually someone there ... who can speak Korean and therefore help give directions if necessary to find the place ... I do now know my home address from one of my utility bills ... I asked my school at one stage (I have only been here this time just over a month) and they didn't know the address ... but the utility bill did help ... It wasn't too hard to translate that into romanised form so I could give it to people as required ... But I will stick with the school address for most mail because it works best for me ...

[OiGirl]

In 2000, addresses were overhauled to include street names and numbers. There's a beautiful poster in my local post office explaining the whole system.

NOBODY uses a street address for mail, except for KICE.

I use: city, gu, dong, dong building number (different from street number,) building name (optional), building floor (optional) and apartment number.

[dc'79]

[OiGirl]

[CentralCali]

You're in luck! You can now use the simplified address system.

If you're writing it in Korean:

ZIP Code
Province or Metropolitan City
Guname followed by Dong name
Street Name followed by House Number
Your name

If you're writing it in English:

Your name
Street name followed by house number
Dong name followed by Gu name
Province or Metropolitan City
ZIP Code

[OiGirl]

Has anyone ever received mail with a street name and house number?

I wouldn't be willing to risk it yet for any mail I actually want to get.

[CentralCali]

[icicle]

I can remember hearing last year that some areas in Seoul were starting to use (or at least be given) street addresses ... But this is by no means widespread across the rest of the country ... And it is likely to take quite some time before the traditional way of thinking about addresses is not the main way to use it ...

I live in Seoul and am definitely not in an area which uses Street Addresses ... in any way ... Much less most of the time ...

I would stick to the addres outline as given by previous posters ... The English address alone should be enough to find you ... I had no trouble last year in getting parcels/letters sent to me ... If it is a parcel I would take the added precaution of including a phone number after the address ... I think it would actually probably be more useful than including the address in Hangul ... Because if they have any trouble in locating the building number they will call the number ... Even with the hangul address I would still include the phone number ...

[OiGirl]

My "new" address is, of course, on the plaque stuck on the front of the building. As it should be everywhere, unless your building has been built or renovated in the past eight years and someone thought the plaque was useless and threw it in the trash. (Adding to my collection of Korean address plaques. )

[CentralCali]

All the roads have names. All the buildings have sequential house numbers. Do you see those cutesy little two-color signs on the buildings with a number in the top half and some Hangeul writing in the bottom half? That's the street address for the building.

[Atavistic]