Korean Job Discussion Forums

gregoryallen · Joined: 26 Mar 2006 Location: atlanta ga

I want information about mailing things to my apartment in South Korea. My apartment has a mail slot and all but I want to know about the address...Should I type in the Hangal script? Translate it to English, what? I want stuff mailed from the U.S. and amazon.com too. Advice anyone?

Thanks

Satin · Joined: 26 Oct 2006 Location: Texas

You can use English. If you want to have packages sent to you though, it's probably better to have them sent to the school. Unless you read Korean, it will be hard for you to read the notice card of a package delivery.

oneofthesarahs · Joined: 05 Nov 2006 Location: Sacheon City

In my experience, things addressed in English will take slightly longer to arrive than those addressed in hangul (but not really so much longer that it's a huge problem). But that might be the case for me because I live in a smaller area with very little English spoken anywhere.

Qinella · Joined: 25 Feb 2005 Location: the crib

I never had any problems having things sent in English. I even have items addressed following US format. Doesn't matter. Here is what post offices look at, in order of importance:

zip code
building name / address
room number

Those are about all that are important, I think. Also, people sorting international mail can presumably at least read English, so they can figure it out. I've seen some stuff sent with funky spelling and it gets thru.

jay-shi · Joined: 09 May 2004 Location: On tour

Slightly off topic, I'd like to add something about having valuable goods shipped here.

Get someone at home to open the items and repackage them and be sure to write "used goods" somewhere on the package, before shipping them over.

I've known 2 people who had their parents ship them brand spanking new laptops in their original packaging. They got a nasty surprise from the customs people. Their computers were held at the post office until they settled the customs tariff tax. One of them ended up being, after some haggling, 180k won!

Definitely have things sent to your school address as there is usually someone there to receive them and the postal people, at least locally, might be more aware of the exact location of the premises.

Hope that helps