Reading and writing a Korean address

Right now

1. 1Use the road-name address in apps and paperwork. The lot-number address is the old way, so if it gets confusing, stick to road-name.
2. 2Add the 5-digit postal code and most input forms will fill in the rest for you.
3. 3If the building has a unit number and shared-entrance info, add it in the delivery notes.

What to have ready

• Road-name address: Made of a road name and a building number.
• 5-digit postal code
• Unit number and shared-entrance info

Phrases you can copy and paste

Step by step

1. 1

   Learn the shape of a road-name address

   It usually goes city and district, road name, building number, then the detail like unit number. Think of it as narrowing from the big unit to the small one.

2. 2

   Search by postal code to fill it in exactly

   Where:

   A map app, or the address search in a delivery app

   Enter the road name or building name and the standard address and postal code come up. Copy that as it is and use it.

3. 3

   Add the unit detail and the shared entrance

   After the standard address, write your unit number, and for delivery put the shared-entrance code in the notes.

4. 4

   Read one real address, piece by piece

   Take 서울특별시 강남구 테헤란로 152. It is Seoul, then Gangnam-gu, then Teheran-ro, then building number 152. The ending of the road name tells you its size: daero is a main boulevard, ro is a mid-size road, gil is a small side street. Building numbers rise as you move along the road, odd on one side and even on the other, so the number alone tells you roughly how far down you are.

5. 5

   Flip the order when you write it in English

   In Korean the address runs from the largest unit to the smallest. Romanized for international mail it runs the other way: 152, Teheran-ro, Gangnam-gu, Seoul, then the five-digit postal code, then Republic of Korea. Same address, opposite order. Put the postal code just before the country.

6. 6

   Reuse the same address everywhere

   Build it accurately once and you can enter it in the same format for delivery, parcels, banking and government offices.

Watch it happen

Videos other people made, picked because they show a part of this guide that words cannot. They are not our sources: the rules and figures above come from the official pages listed at the end.

• 

  How Korean Addresses Work

  Channel: Talk To Me In Korean, English narration, auto-generated English subtitles

  Takes apart one address piece by piece and shows why the road name system and the older district system are both still in use, which is the reason the same place can be written two ways.

  Open on YouTube

• 

  How to use Naver Map (Best map app in Korea) | Guide, tips, English settings | Korea Travel Tips

  Channel: Your Korea Friend, English narration, auto-generated English subtitles

  Shows where the English setting is in Naver Map and what an address looks like once you paste it in, which is what you will actually do with the address you just learned to read.

  Open on YouTube

The Korean words

도로명 주소doro-myeong juso, street-name address

Korea's standard address format. Use this form in apps and paperwork.

지번 주소jibeon juso, lot-number address

The old address style. Stick to one form so it does not get confused with road-name.

우편번호upyeon-beonho, postal code

A five-digit number. Entering it often auto-fills the rest.

동dong, building within an apartment complex

In a complex, the building number. Delivery cannot finish without it.

호ho, unit number

Your door. Usually written together with the dong, like 101동 1503호.

대로daero, boulevard

The largest road class. A road ending in ro is mid-size, and gil is a small side street.

공동현관gongdong-hyeongwan, shared building entrance

The courier may need a code to get in.

Easy to miss

• ·Mixing a road-name address with a lot-number address confuses couriers and systems. Stick to one.
• ·Leaving out the unit detail can mean it reaches the building but not your door.
• ·In an apartment complex, an address without the dong and ho is not deliverable. The courier reaches the complex and stops there.
• ·Writing the romanized address in Korean order. English forms expect building number first and the country last, so an address that looks right in Korean can be rejected by an international shipping form.
• ·Using an old six-digit postal code. Korea moved to five digits, and the old ones no longer resolve.

You can skip this if

• If you are just given a hotel or office address to use as is, you do not need to learn the format.

Where this comes from

• Road Name Address system, Ministry of the Interior and Safety
• South Korea address format for international mail (element order, postal code position)