Essential Korean phrases

The Alien Registration Card. Its 13-digit number is what every Korean system knows you by. Register within 90 days of arrival.

The rental deposit — refundable, and far larger than most countries expect. Even a monthly-rent flat in Gwangju wants ₩5-15 million of it.

The two lease types. Jeonse is a lump sum worth most of the property's value with no monthly rent, returned at the end; wolse is a smaller deposit plus rent. Take wolse first.

The move-in report at your district office. File it the day you take the keys — the deposit protection it creates only starts at midnight the following day.

The 'fixed date' stamp on your lease. With the move-in report it ranks your deposit ahead of later creditors, and it is also what unlocks the monthly-rent tax credit.

Viewing the landlord's unpaid national taxes. Since April 2023, on a deposit over ₩10 million you can do this at any tax office without their consent once the contract is signed. Unpaid tax outranks your deposit.

The Jeolla region's universal placeholder — 'thingy', 'whatsit', 'you know the one'. It can stand in for any noun, verb or person, and fluency in it is a running local joke.

The soft sentence-final particle that marks Jeolla speech, roughly 'you know?' or 'right?'. Warm rather than emphatic — 'that's right, ing'. Standard Korean has no equivalent.

Literally 'May'. In Gwangju it means the May 1980 uprising and everything that followed. Used on its own, without explanation, in ordinary conversation.

Duck soup with perilla leaves — Gwangju's signature dish, with a whole restaurant street devoted to it in Yudong.

Fritters wrapped in a lettuce leaf with garlic and soy — a Gwangju invention, sold at Chungjang-ro and nowhere else in Korea by that name.

Help me! — 112 for police, 119 for fire and ambulance, free from any phone.