When to Look Down at Your Phone in Korea

Something I notice a LOT in Korea is the amount of people staring down at their phones while on transit or sometimes even when walking down the street! In this blog, I will highlight when you should be looking down at your phone, namely during transit. The views presented to you on the train in Korea are magnificent and should not be missed!

When navigating, even in the States, there are a couple of prevalent apps that are necessary to not get lost. Many of you are familiar with the battle between Apple Maps and Google Maps, however, that debate is not relevant the second you step foot into Korea. The South Korean market is dominated by 재벌 (Chaebol), the same way the Korean software market is dominated by 2 Major companies, Naver and Kakao. For each company, there are 2 apps each that I suggest downloading when you go to Korea. But there is an app that I use almost daily, saving me a LOT on transit costs!

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Naver:

Naver is like Google of Korea, you can make an email account, set up an online business, or even do general browsing and search on Naver. And as so, there is also a translation app and a navigation app from Naver! The first app I suggest you download is Papago, the translation app by Naver. Papago is like Google Translate, however, caters to the Korean market. The app boasts many language translations with very accurate solutions in Korean, but also many other features. One feature I use the most is the image feature, where I can take a picture that contains any text and have it translated into English for me. This feature has saved me so many times at restaurants and stores.

To navigate to these stores, the main application I use is Naver Maps. The reason why I wouldn’t use Google Maps or Apple Maps in Korea is that those apps are not quite as integrated with the Korean transit system as Naver Maps or Kakao Maps are. Naver Maps on the phone is quite intuitive as it defaults to the main language on your phone for its interface, allowing you to find things a lot easier, this however is not the same case for Kakao Maps.

Kakao:

Speaking of Kakao, Kakao is both a social media company and a data company. The reason I say this is not only because of their app offerings, Kakao Talk, Kakao Maps, and Kakao T, but because of their integration with the current transit system in Korea physically. Kakao Talk is the main messaging app that is used in Korea, equivalent to WeChat, Line, or WhatsApp. I use Kakao Talk most of the time when connecting with native Korean students in my classes! Kakao Maps is their navigation app, and Kakao T is the Taxi service provider, like Uber. Not only are there Kakao Taxi drivers, but Kakao also offers a series of prepaid transit cards under T-money, the main prepaid transit card provider.

Swing!

If you are interested in these applications and their specific usage and why one would be better than the other, there is a lot of information available on the web. However, one underrated application that I found to use here in Korea is Swing. Swing is a bicycle rental service that offers rentals of bikes, E-bikes, scooters, and even mopeds! On the swing app, upon paying for a monthly membership (of around $3.50) you are given access to free unlocks and even discounted taxi services! Swing bicycles are all over the place, allowing users to pick up bicycles from high-usage areas (typically around campus) and go anywhere with them! I typically have a couple of bicycles outside of my off-campus housing that I can use by simply unlocking them. Utilizing my monthly membership, I can bike to school in the morning saving me not only the cost of transit but also a lot of time! The Swing application brings lots of value to students close to campus with the only caveat that the user must have the confidence to ride bikes on the streets of Seoul!

Let’s play a little game! In the pictures below, count how many are on their phone and leave a comment! Just a kind reminder to make sure to know when the appropriate time is to use your phone, please do not cross the streets without looking up!!

Bonus! Korean words of the week:

재벌 (Chae boul)= Extremely Large Companies in Korea owned through generations 재 meaning Wealth, and 벌 meaning Clan.

잠시만요! (Cham Si Mm-an yo!) = This literally translates to “Oh wait!” But colloquially this is how people typically say “Excuse me” opposed to 실례합니다 taught in Korean 101

Note: When walking past people or trying to get their attention, you can typically say 잠시만요.