Easy Korean Phrases You Need To Know To Travel Korea

So, you’re planning a trip to South Korea? But you do not speak Korean? No problem! Here are 20 easy Korean phrases for travelers you need to know and words you might need during your trip to make it a little easier!

Although most Koreans (especially in Seoul) know basic English, not everyone speaks English fluently in Korea. However, in touristy areas, the locals are accustomed to foreigners and will speak English. Move outside the city, though, and you won’t be so lucky! Knowing a few easy Korean phrases will go a long way when traveling to Korea.

Let’s dive into these 20 easy Korean phrases for travelers!

Easy Korean Phrases You Need to Know When You Visit

First things first – let’s start with some short words that are extremely useful when traveling to South Korea.

안녕하세요

Hello!

감사합니다

Thank you

안녕히 계세요

Goodbye (when you are leaving)

안녕히 가세요

Goodbye (when the other person is leaving)

실례합니다

Excuse me

여기요

Excuse me (when ordering in a restaurant)

네

Yes

아니요

No

See? This isn’t so bad, is it?

Now it’s time to move on to my next bit. Now that you have a few basic words that will be useful during your trip to South Korea, let’s move on to some more complete phrases to add to your survival Korean phrases guide.

영어를 할 줄 아세요?

Do you speak English?

이해가 잘 안 돼요.

I don’t understand.

저는 한국어를 할 줄 모릅니다.

I don’t speak Korean.

실례지만 저를 도와줄수 있나요?

Excuse me, can you help me?

X  어디있나요?

Where is X?

X에 어떻게 가나요?

How do I get to X?

버스/열차는 언제 출발합니까?

When does the bus/train leave?

표 1/2 장 주세요.

One/two tickets, please.

계산할게요.

The bill/check, please.

얼마예요?

How much is it?

지금 몇 시에요?

What time is it, please?

The Best Translation App for South Korea

Even though English is a mandatory language in schools in Korea and many Koreans attend English language schools (hence the many English teaching jobs in South Korea), many people do not speak English fluently.

The best translation app to use when traveling in Korea is Papago.  Papago is a multilingual machine translation service provided by Naver. Unlike many other translators, Papago uses a neural machine translation to learn from its mistakes and improve itself. 

The best feature of the Papago app is its image recognition. This means you can take a photo of a Korean restaurant menu or street sign and it will translate it into your desired language.

Combine these easy Korean phrases with the Papago App and you’re good to go! If you’d like to learn more about recommended apps to use in Korea, here are the best Korea travel apps to plan the perfect trip.

More Korean Language Tips

I know Korean pronunciation can be a little tricky – it certainly has been for me! While it’s not always an option to learn a language before taking a trip, I still want to recommend some pretty useful resources to learn Korean.

Top 3 Korean Language Resources

To summarize, I have listed my top 3 Korean language resources below. This post may contain affiliate links, which means that I may receive a commission if you make a purchase using these links.

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