Korean directions arrive as exit numbers: how to read one before you board

Ask someone in Seoul where to meet and the answer is rarely a street. It is a number — exit 6 at Hapjeong, exit 2 at Seongsu — an address made of the staircase you come up through.

Why the number and not the street

Road-name addresses became Korea's official standard in 2014, and they work as intended on envelopes and delivery forms. On the ground, people kept the older habit: a shop describes itself by station and 출구 (chulgu, exit), and that is what goes on the café's profile, the hair salon's sign, the message from the friend already sitting down.

The number is not decoration. At a station like Gangnam the exits run past ten and open onto opposite sides of a road wide enough that the nearest crossing is a decision, not a formality. Surfacing at 11 instead of 10 can cost you eight minutes and a mild argument with your own map.

An exit number is a promise about which side of the road you will be standing on.

Pick the exit before the train stops

Naver Map and Kakao Map both name the exit as part of the route, and they go further: they give a car and door number, written like 5-3, for the fastest transfer or the closest staircase. Board that car at the start and the walk at the other end shortens by whole platform lengths. The floor decals and the 빠른 환승 (ppareun hwanseung, quick transfer) signs say the same thing in the station's own language.

What the platform assumes you know

On Line 9 and several suburban lines, 급행 (geuphaeng, express) trains use the same platform as the local ones and skip stations without apology. Read the display before the doors open rather than after. Last trains leave the terminals around midnight, which means the last one through a central station may pass considerably earlier than you have planned for.

약속 장소를 정할 때 한국인은 역 이름보다 출구 번호를 먼저 말한다.

One more thing the numbers hide: at Euljiro, Gangnam and Express Bus Terminal, underground arcades connect exits that sit blocks apart above ground. In heat or rain, the right move is often to stay down there and walk to the exit you actually want.