๐Ÿ‡ฐ๐Ÿ‡ท

South Korea ยท Korean Travel Phrases

The most useful local expressions, ordered by importance. Pronunciations are approximate.

Greetings

  1. 1
    ์•ˆ๋…•ํ•˜์„ธ์š”
    Hello “annyeonghaseyo”
  2. 2
    ๊ฐ์‚ฌํ•ฉ๋‹ˆ๋‹ค
    Thank you “gamsahamnida”
  3. 3
    ์ฃ„์†กํ•ฉ๋‹ˆ๋‹ค
    Sorry “joesonghamnida”
  4. 4
    ์ €๊ธฐ์š”
    Excuse me (to get a server's attention) “jeogiyo”
  5. 5
    ๋„ค / ์•„๋‹ˆ์š”
    Yes / No “ne / aniyo”
  6. 6
    ๊ดœ์ฐฎ์•„์š”
    It's okay / No thank you (polite decline) “gwaenchanayo”
  7. 7
    ์•ˆ๋…•ํžˆ ๊ฐ€์„ธ์š”
    Goodbye (to someone leaving) “annyeonghi gaseyo”
Local etiquette
  • Add "-yo" politeness and a slight nod; Koreans bow lightly rather than shake hands with strangers.
  • To call a server, it's normal to say "jeogiyo" or press the table call button โ€” not rude here.

Basics

  1. 1
    ์ž˜ ๋ชจ๋ฅด๊ฒ ์–ด์š”
    I don't understand “jal moreugesseoyo”
  2. 2
    ํ•œ๊ตญ์–ด ๋ชปํ•ด์š”
    I don't speak Korean “hangugeo mothaeyo”
  3. 3
    ์˜์–ด ํ•˜์„ธ์š”?
    Do you speak English? “yeongeo haseyo?”
  4. 4
    ์ฒœ์ฒœํžˆ ๋งํ•ด ์ฃผ์„ธ์š”
    Please speak slowly “cheoncheonhi malhae juseyo”
  5. 5
    ์ด๊ฑฐ ๋ญ์˜ˆ์š”?
    What is this? “igeo mwoyeyo?”
  6. 6
    ์‚ฌ์ง„ ์ฐ์–ด๋„ ๋ผ์š”?
    May I take a photo? “sajin jjigeodo dwaeyo?”
  7. 7
    ๋„์™€์ฃผ์„ธ์š”
    Please help me “dowajuseyo”
  8. 8
    ํ™”์žฅ์‹ค ์–ด๋””์˜ˆ์š”?
    Where is the restroom? “hwajangsil eodiyeyo?”
Local etiquette
  • Give and receive things โ€” especially to elders โ€” with both hands, or your right hand supported by the left.
  • Age and seniority matter; let elders go first and sit after they do.

Shopping

  1. 1
    ์–ผ๋งˆ์˜ˆ์š”?
    How much is it? “eolmayeyo?”
  2. 2
    ์นด๋“œ ๋ผ์š”?
    Can I pay by card? (cards work almost everywhere) “kadeu dwaeyo?”
  3. 3
    ์ด๊ฑฐ ์ฃผ์„ธ์š”
    I'll take this “igeo juseyo”
  4. 4
    ์ž…์–ด๋ด๋„ ๋ผ์š”?
    Can I try this on? “ibeobwado dwaeyo?”
  5. 5
    ๋ด‰ํˆฌ ์ฃผ์„ธ์š”
    A bag, please (bags are usually paid) “bongtu juseyo”
  6. 6
    ํƒ์Šค ๋ฆฌํŽ€๋“œ ๋ผ์š”?
    Do you offer tax refund? (bring your passport) “taekseu ripeondeu dwaeyo?”
Local etiquette
  • Cards and mobile pay work almost everywhere, even at street stalls โ€” you rarely need much cash.
  • Foreigners can claim a tax refund on larger purchases at 'Tax Free' stores; carry your passport.
  • Shopping bags usually cost extra at convenience and grocery stores; a reusable bag helps.

Restaurant

  1. 1
    ๋ฉ”๋‰ด ์ฃผ์„ธ์š”
    The menu, please “menyu juseyo”
  2. 2
    ์ด๊ฑฐ ์ฃผ์„ธ์š”
    This one, please “igeo juseyo”
  3. 3
    ๋ฌผ ์ฃผ์„ธ์š”
    Water, please (usually self-serve and free) “mul juseyo”
  4. 4
    ๋ฐ˜์ฐฌ ๋” ์ฃผ์„ธ์š”
    More side dishes, please (refills are free) “banchan deo juseyo”
  5. 5
    ์•ˆ ๋งต๊ฒŒ ํ•ด์ฃผ์„ธ์š”
    Not spicy, please “an maepge haejuseyo”
  6. 6
    ์ด๊ฑฐ ์–ด๋–ป๊ฒŒ ๋จน์–ด์š”?
    How do I eat this? “igeo eotteoke meogeoyo?”
  7. 7
    ๊ณ„์‚ฐํ•ด ์ฃผ์„ธ์š”
    Check, please (pay at the counter) “gyesanhae juseyo”
  8. 8
    ์ž˜ ๋จน์—ˆ์Šต๋‹ˆ๋‹ค
    Thank you for the meal (said after eating) “jal meogeotseumnida”
Local etiquette
  • No tipping โ€” the price on the menu is what you pay, and tips can confuse staff.
  • Side dishes (banchan) are free and refillable; just ask for more.
  • Water, cups and utensils are often self-service at a station by the door.
  • When drinking with elders, hold your glass with both hands and turn slightly away to sip.

Getting around

  1. 1
    ์ง€ํ•˜์ฒ ์—ญ ์–ด๋””์˜ˆ์š”?
    Where is the subway station? “jihacheollyeok eodiyeyo?”
  2. 2
    ํ‹ฐ๋จธ๋‹ˆ ์นด๋“œ ์ฃผ์„ธ์š”
    A T-money card, please (rechargeable transit card) “timeoni kadeu juseyo”
  3. 3
    ์ด ์ฃผ์†Œ๋กœ ๊ฐ€ ์ฃผ์„ธ์š”
    To this address, please (taxi) “i jusoro ga juseyo”
  4. 4
    ์—ฌ๊ธฐ์„œ ์„ธ์›Œ ์ฃผ์„ธ์š”
    Please stop here “yeogiseo sewo juseyo”
  5. 5
    ๋ช‡ ๋ฒˆ ์ถœ๊ตฌ์˜ˆ์š”?
    Which exit number? “myeot beon chulguyeyo?”
  6. 6
    ์นด์นด์˜คํƒ์‹œ ๋ถˆ๋Ÿฌ ์ฃผ์„ธ์š”
    Please call a Kakao Taxi “kakaotaeksi bulleo juseyo”
  7. 7
    ๊ธธ์„ ์žƒ์—ˆ์–ด์š”
    I'm lost “gireul ireosseoyo”
Local etiquette
  • Buy a rechargeable T-money card at any convenience store; tap it on subways, buses and even taxis.
  • Leave the priority seats (for the elderly, pregnant and disabled) empty even if the car is crowded.
  • For taxis, the Kakao T app is easiest โ€” it books, routes and pays without language barriers.

Hotel

  1. 1
    ์˜ˆ์•ฝํ–ˆ์–ด์š”
    I have a reservation “yeyakaesseoyo”
  2. 2
    ์ฒดํฌ์ธ ํ• ๊ฒŒ์š”
    Check-in, please “chekeuin halgeyo”
  3. 3
    ์ฒดํฌ์•„์›ƒ ๋ช‡ ์‹œ์˜ˆ์š”?
    What time is check-out? “chekeuaut myeot siyeyo?”
  4. 4
    ์ง ์ข€ ๋งก์•„ ์ฃผ์„ธ์š”
    Could you hold my luggage? “jim jom mata juseyo”
  5. 5
    ์™€์ดํŒŒ์ด ๋น„๋ฐ€๋ฒˆํ˜ธ ๋ญ์˜ˆ์š”?
    What's the Wi-Fi password? “waipai bimilbeonho mwoyeyo?”
Local etiquette
  • Take off your shoes when entering guesthouses, hanok stays and many traditional rooms.
  • Many budget stays and jjimjilbang provide floor mats instead of beds โ€” that's normal, not a downgrade.

Emergency

  1. 1
    ๋„์™€์ฃผ์„ธ์š”!
    Help! “dowajuseyo!”
  2. 2
    ๊ฒฝ์ฐฐ ๋ถˆ๋Ÿฌ ์ฃผ์„ธ์š”
    Please call the police “gyeongchal bulleo juseyo”
  3. 3
    119 ๋ถˆ๋Ÿฌ ์ฃผ์„ธ์š”
    Please call 119 (fire/ambulance) “il-il-gu bulleo juseyo”
  4. 4
    ๋ณ‘์› ์–ด๋””์˜ˆ์š”?
    Where is a hospital? “byeongwon eodiyeyo?”
  5. 5
    ์—ฌ๊ถŒ์„ ์žƒ์–ด๋ฒ„๋ ธ์–ด์š”
    I lost my passport “yeogwoneul ireobeoryeosseoyo”
Local etiquette
  • Police 112, fire/ambulance 119. The 1330 tourist hotline offers 24/7 free interpretation.
  • Pharmacies (์•ฝ๊ตญ, yakguk) handle minor issues; look for the green cross sign.
  • If you lose your passport, contact your embassy โ€” most are in central Seoul.