magic numbers...have a look you might need them

Hi there all you whegugins! (That's "foreigners" for those of you who managed to get your mouth around that word) 

Just in case you are as SPAZ as I am sometimes, and just in case you need help at some point in the land of kimchi and soju, here is a special number that you might find useful. In fact, it may save your life:

  

                                              02-120                                  

This magical number is the information equivalent of 911 and you can dial it for help IN ENGLISH when you find yourself in the Seoul area. You can call this number for practically ANYTHING from finding bus numbers, directions, timetables for transport, finding English doctors, translation... JUST ABOUT ANYTHING!

As an example, here is a tale about my friend Tric-Trac*, my amazingly awesome friend. One weekend, on an epic soju-fuelled bender with friends, Trac somehow found herself alone in the Itaewon subway station bathroom and minus her handbag. Inside the handbag was her wallet with money, bank cards, and the all important Alien Card you are pretty much crippled without when it comes to replacing your life in cards. To this day she still does not remember how she got there or how the handbag left her, but that is a tale for her to tell at another time.

Fortunately she had her cellphone in her pocket and in the phone was saved the magical number. This is where the story takes an amazing turn, especially for us South African peeps. It turns out that a Korean woman had found her handbag and turned it in to the local police station. They then used her details to contact her. Given that this was all in Korean, she recruited the friendly elves at 02-120 and they translated the whole situation between the police and her. After what seemed like millions of moderated phonecalls, the police station COURIERED the handbag back to Trac, who lives a little over an hour away from Seoul, FOR FREE! When she got her handbag back just a few days after losing it, NOTHING had been touched inside the bag... cards, money and identification all intact! 

So this story has two morals, 1) beware of soju, 2) 02-120 can save your life.  (Koreans are so honest its mind boggling!)

For all the other whegugins who are so unfortunate to be living in the sticks somewhere, that's too bad, you're screwed. Just teasing, here is a list of numbers you can use to get yourself some help, all in English of course:

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[Area Codes] Dial your area code followed by 1330

Area	Number
Seoul	(0)2
Gyeonggi	(0)31
Incheon	(0)32
Gangwon	(0)33
Chungnam	(0)41
Daejeon	(0)42
Chungbuk	(0)43
Busan	(0)51
Ulsan	(0)52
Daegu	(0)53
Gyeongbuk	(0)54
Gyeongnam	(0)55
Jeonnam	(0)61
Gwangju	(0)62
Jeonbuk	(0)63
Jeju	(0)64

Of course these numbers do depend on you actually having a phone in the first few months of your stay when you are most likely to need translation! However, in one of the most advanced telecom nations in the world, you can still find good ol fashioned coin phones in subway stations and other public spaces.

Hope this golden information helps cut down on the amount of time you stand staring at maps and lost in translation

*amazingly awesome, fiercely loyal, party-loving-soju-crazed, queen of all skanks (all hail queen Trashy), editorial genius, roll-on-the-floor-clutching-your-belly-laughing-at-things-inappropriate, beautiful, YOUNG lady with infectious smile, friend!