ContentsView article sectionsFirst Stop: UNDERSTANDING THE HURDLES WITH NAV APPSROMANIZATION v. HANGULNEW AREAS, NEW ADDRESS SYSTEM, NEW ROADSMILITARY BASESYOU DON’T KNOW WHAT YOU DON’T KNOWSecond Stop: FOREIGN MAPS/NAV APPSGoogle MapsWAZE AppThird Stop: KOREAN MAPS/NAV APPS IN ENGLISHTHE GOOD PARTS OF Korean Nav AppsTHE BAD PARTS OF Korean Nav AppsKakao Maps and Naver Maps are true sources of freedom in Korea.Tell me if this is you… You just arrived in Korea, you are so stoked to start your adventure. You are all sassy like, “Hey, let’s open Google and see what’s up”! You pop open your handy smart phone and start searching for things you love! You search and search and search… but nothing is coming up. You find almost no info that really helps and a little seed of panic starts to settle in. You wonder if there is actually anything out there to do or eat at all (don’t worry, there is a ton). The walls start to close in. You leave Google maps in defeat and move on to searching through blogs. There isn’t much out there, but you find a trace of what you are looking for and copy the safe-looking Romanized address they provide into Google. Nothing happens. The address doesn’t work. You feel the rage begin to build. You feel helpless, frustrated, and isolated. For the first time, you have that little thought, “This sucks. Korea sucks”. Don’t worry, Korea doesn’t suck, but your feelings that it does are a completely normal reaction. Nope, you aren’t even a bad person. What you are is a person who moved to a new part of the world, where your carefully crafted coping skills and favorite apps don’t work like you wished they would and it makes things really hard at first. Suddenly, the way you are used to the world works has been turned on its head and what was standard no longer applies. You have entered… wait for it… CULTURE SHOCK! We have all lived it. The important thing is to not listen too closely to that voice that says, “This sucks and Korea sucks.” Instead, listen to that feeling and say to yourself, “This is new and I have a lot to learn”.In short, it’s not Korea’s fault or your fault you don’t understand each other, you have only just met. Give it time. In order to overcome this little voice, you are going to need to download some new apps, learn some new systems, acquire a few skills, and go on some adventures. The feeling won’t go away overnight and it won’t always be easy to push past it, however, it will be REALLY worth it to keep going because living in Korea is actually AWESOME! We are going to help you on the journey by addressing one of the biggest issues you will face… MAPS! Yes, one of the most critical aspects of life in this new place is wrought with challenges. We will be giving you additional information about what hurdles you may face when searching for things in Korea and what maps/navi apps can help you get moving in the right direction. So strap yourself in and get ready for some knowledge bombs. First Stop: UNDERSTANDING THE HURDLES WITH NAV APPS ROMANIZATION v. HANGUL The problem: Using Romanized Korean addresses and business names simply isn’t going to work well with navi apps. Sure, you can get by, but it will never be efficient or consistent. You NEED to use the Hangul address or business name whenever humanly possible. This is going to be one of the most frustrating things you will deal with, especially if you haven’t learned the Korean alphabet or mastered basic reading skills.  However, if you put in a little effort it will really pay off quickly. Make this a priority. Hard work in the short term will pay off during your stay. The reason this happens: The main reason that Romanized addresses and business names don’t work is that there has been at least 4 official ways to Romanize Korean. This results in two things can go wrong: 1) You can’t be sure which is being used to run the algorithm of each map app or nav system; 2) You don’t know if the person who Romanized the address used an official system or just winged it. In short, changing Korean to English is a hot mess. With so many Korean names being one letter different, the only way to be 99% sure you are going to the right place is to use the REAL address. In the South of Seoul app we try to make this as easy as possible, more about that later. What to do: Learn the alphabet and how to read the basics stat. PIEF offers affordable classes near Osan Air Force Base and Camp Humphreys. However, you can quickly pick up the skill using websites and YouTube videos. We highly recommend Talk to Me In Korean as the place to start. Learn the order to read addresses in so that you can identify the beginning and end of a street address. You can learn more about Korean addresses by clicking here.  How South of Seoul Helps You With This: We provide an easy-to-copy accurate Hangul address in each of our all listings. We gather these addresses from either Kakao or Naver maps. This means it’s the MOST accurate information. This address can be copied from the South of Seoul app and dropped into the navigation app of your choice. We encourage every user to use this system instead of WAZE or Google Maps because we have far more faith in Daum/Kakao and Naver’s ability to get you places. Even if you can’t understand it, dropping the address into Kakao Maps or Naver Maps will get you there. NEW AREAS, NEW ADDRESS SYSTEM, NEW ROADS The cities south of Seoul, like Pyeongtaek, have been going through crazy amounts of development and entire areas are being completely remade. In these areas, sometimes none of the map apps work right. Even WAZE sometimes gets blocked and you can’t even drop a pin. It’s frustrating for everyone. Soseobol in Bijeondong has been kicking … Continue reading Nav Apps: Options, Strengths, and Failures