Korean Job Discussion Forums

[thiophene]

Is there anything they don't know? I ask them the most obscure of things and they find a way for me. I love them. Just had to share that.

[Otherside]

It depends...My friend has only positive things to say about tourist information, I on the other hand have been thoroughly disappointed;

A couple of weeks ago, I decided to go to the 7 luck Casino near Seoul station. In my eagerness, I forgot to print the map, so was unsure of the directions to get there. (I read them previously, and it mentioned something about being 700m from Seoul station). I head off to tourist information, the first lady doesn't speak a word of English. Get passed off to another guy. He has no idea where the "7 luck casino" is. I try and ask him to type the web address into his browser...he won't, he won't even google it. Finally he decides to use Naver...and after 5mins of browsing..he shows me a subway map and points to a station near Gangnam about 50minutes away. I say this can't be right...there is 1 right here! He calls that casino, and the lady explains the directions to me...I then ask her about the casino by Seoul station, and she explains...I pass the phone back to the tourist guy, and she explains the location. He then points to exit 1 and says "take a taxi, and ask for Millenium Hilton...too far to walk". I walk outside and can see the sign for the Hilton, decide to walk it... 5mins tops.
Tourist Information Sparkling!

[Underwaterbob]

Since I only use it in Seoul and I'm only in Seoul on Saturday or Sunday I can hardly ever get through to them, but when I do they are usually somewhat helpful anyway.

[ttompatz]

In my personal experience the service from 1330 has always been excellent. If they don't know the answer they tell me to hang up and wait a few minutes then they call me back when they have found it.

I have always been disappointed at the quality of service from the information booths / offices scattered around the country.

.

[jkelly80]

Correction--
Ditka is God.

[Jandar]

Clapton is God!

[Ethan Allen Hawley]

I've lived in different parts of the country and have used the 1330 service in all of them.

Seoul was average.

Daegu was consistently excellent. Whoever the nice woman is who answers the phones there, she should be given a raise and extra recognition. Every time: unfailingly polite, chirpy, and helpful to a fault. She's a good listener and speaks English exceptionally well.

Busan was fairly dismal. They needed to be either cajoled or directed to provide basic information. Simply unhelpful and obviously didn't like their job.

Gwangju is barely any better.
I'm getting pretty sick of phoning through only to get told: "Sorry, the English speaker is on vacation today."

Having said that, when there IS someone there, they do tend to be very helpful and will call back to my cellphone when they have the answer, as described by someone above.

To add to that, however, sometimes they almost seem too keen to help. I was trying to ask about taking a bicycle on a bus or train, but as soon I mentioned where I wanted to go and that I wanted to know about going on bus or train she immediately swamped me with her advice to take the bus. It took another few minutes to calm her down enough so that she could hear me say that I wanted to know about the possibility of actually also transporting a bicycle, not just myself.

(In the end, it WAS still the bus.)

As for the 'Information Desk' help, I completely agree with the poster above who mentioned them being worse than useless. Last time I travelled through there the one at the Express Bus Terminal in Seoul was staffed by some overdressed teenager who barely spoke Korean adequately, let alone English.

The one in Gwangju seems to provide only for Koreans. I dropped by there the other day to ask (in Korean) if they had any Gwangju News available. There were two men seated, talking to a Korean woman standing on my side. As soon as the nearer man said: "No" to me I saw them just beyond his shoulder on the other side of the circular counter. I happily walked on in, helped myself to a copy and left them to it.

Sugo hassaeyoh.

[ruffie]

A friend and I once got off the KTX, went straight to tourist information and asked if there anything going on in Seoul that a tourist might appreciate. She said there was nothing happening at the moment.

It was the middle of the Hi Seoul Festival.

Sparkle on, Korea. Sparkle on.

[seoulteacher]