Korean Job Discussion Forums

[wylies99]

Expats bring changes to Seoul buses

http://joongangdaily.joins.com/article/view.asp?aid=2917417

March 05, 2010
When it comes to public transportation in Seoul, many expatriates who are not confident in their Korean-language skills opt to take subways instead of buses.

Although buses do contain English-language route maps, and broadcast the station stops in English, many commuters can�t locate the maps and if they don�t catch the broadcast, they have no idea whether they�ve passed their destination or not.

To address this matter, the Seoul city government will form groups of expat monitors recommended by the Seoul Global Center and foreign embassies here to evaluate the quality of buses which run in run expat-heavy areas: Hannam, Ichon, Itaewon, Seorae and Yeonnam.

Each group will be comprised of about 20 expats whose mission it will be to check the friendliness of the bus drivers and how well the English broadcast service works. The monitors will be �mystery passengers,� like mystery shoppers who visit a store pretending to be customers in order to evaluate the quality of the service.

Comments, suggestions and criticisms from the monitor groups will be reflected in Seoul�s bus policies, the city government announced yesterday.

Seoul city will make the first changes to its bus system based on the feedback from expats in June. Another round of changes will be made in October ahead of the G-20 Summit in November.

The city is also mulling over providing additional foreign-language broadcasts on buses in areas such as Seorae and Yeonnam, where English is not the predominant foreign language. Many French and Chinese expatriates live in Seorae and Yeonnam, respectively.


By Kim Mi-ju [[email protected]]

[Bucky]

Before anything else, they need to be consistent with the English services before taking the next step. Example: in my area, the bus to my place has NO English. The several bus routes to my area with English only has it HALF of the time.

They need to fix that before taking the next step. They're trying to go from A to C while bypassing B.

[nosmallplans]

1. Broadcast the stop in English for the upcoming and following stop like they do in Korean.

2. Keep the broadcast volume high. On some buses the drivers like to turn it down and turn up the radio and you simply cannot hear the bus stops being called out in Korean or in English.

3. The new buses all have those flashy LED display screens at the head of the bus. How hard can it be to flash the stop name across it?

[fustiancorduroy]

In Ichon, the buses already include announcements in Japanese.

Buses in Seoul may not be ideal for non-Korean speakers to ride, but they have gotten better even since I came here less than four years ago. Back then there were no English maps or announcements at all. I'm actually surprised by how much English there is on the buses these days.

But really, I think the city should encourage people to, you know, learn more Korean. Learning how to read the Korean bus maps, understand the Korean announcements, and talk to the bus drivers would take, like, literally a few days of dedicated study. If you are living in a foreign country, I would think that you would be compelled to learn a bit of the local language to help you get around and such, wouldn't you?

[Illysook]

Place names don't really sound different. Most of us are smart enough to figure out what the announcer is saying. I would be happy if buses consistently had the place names along the route in English as well as Hangul. A lot of people use this sort of thing to help learn the language.

[wylies99]

[jvalmer]

[toonchoon]

most expats will not even try to take the first step in learning Hangeul, which is easy to read.

given that fact of such lazy, complacent attitude, they should not be allowed to take the bus where signs are not posted in English.

[wylies99]

This is an article about how the Seoul City government is taking a positive step towards making public transportation more accessibile for foreigners in Seoul. Some of you are just so hung up on "I hate waygookins because..." that you can't see that this is a positive step and COULD lead to better public transportation facilities for everyone in Seoul.

There are so many issues involved with this but "Everyone should learn Korean or just die" is NOT the attitude a SMART city government can take, especially with MILLIONS of tourists who visit the city every year. Plus, even many Koreans come from out-of-town to visit Seoul and they may have problems understanding the bus announcements and they may have to deal with surly drivers. Plus, maybe this will help some Koreans become more comfortable with learning English- especially when they get to hear, read, and use it in a public setting.

Yeah, it's a GOOD THING that the Seoul City government wants to get feedback to IMPROVE things for foreigners and visitors to the city. Why criticize them for doing this?

[Gaber]

I've always found the signs on buses fine. I stick to the subway 'cause traffic in this city is crazy and you can never be quite sure of trip times unless it's along a bus lane route.

[enerjohn]

[fustiancorduroy]

[djsmnc]

I've always felt you have to earn the privilege to ride the bus here. Like "You have mastered a certain subset of the Korean language and therefore you can freely threaten your personal safety by riding on our buses"

Buses aren't meant to be figured out easily. They are the second step wherever you go. Subways are for tourists and urban folk looking for an easy and convenient way to get from point A to B. Buses are for people who can't afford cars, people who have lost their right to drive cars, people who are not old enough to drive cars and don't live near a subway, mentally unstable individuals, the elderly, drug addicts, and some completely random people with highly questionable situations. They are what abstract independent film is to the subway of Hollywood, for lack of a better comparison.

Subways give you time to plan your excursion. You can look at carefully planned colorful maps, figure out pricing, purchase cards that give you unlimited travel. Buses give you a matter of seconds to pay for the ride, a "map" that consists of straight lines or a circular figure, and the likelihood that you will be hurt in case of any slight emergency.

Anyone can ride the subway. You learn to ride the bus. And it should stay that way.

[crossmr]

the problem is the bus maps are useless unless you're going to a subway station.
They're just a list of stop names not overlayed on an actual map. without looking on the internet if you were looking at route 143 and the stop labeled "hyundai apartments" would you have any idea where that was? not unless you'd been there.

[nautilus]