Ride or die apps when living in Korea

Hey guys !

Something a bit more different this time. Korea, like rest of the world, is obsessed with smartphones. Koreans are all about making their lives more and more easier and comfortable and having everything you need easily accessible behind few simple clicks of your smartphone. After almost two years of living here I have slowly molded into this Korean society and become obsessed with some certain apps that make your life here soo much more comfortable and easier. So Today I wanted to share these apps with you !  

1. KAKAOTALK

 

I don't think there are many people who wouldn't know what kakaotalk is, but even though it's a pretty basic app it sure deserves its place on this list. Kakaotalk is basically Korea's version of Whatsapp, only ten times more popular. Everyone uses it, from young kids who own a phone to old korean ladies and gentlemen. It is the number one way to contact people here in Korea and completely 100% free. Koreans hardly ever text, and the reason to that is pretty clear. Also as a university student all the information between students and amongst our major's people moves through kakaotalk. We have our own kakao groups for pretty much everything and all important info you need to know is shared through this app. Even when booking an appointment with a real estate agent or a nail salon they provide you with their Kakao ID, not with their phone number.

2.KAKAOMETRO

 

Kakaometro is a relatively new subway app and let me tell you. It is THE BEST subway app I've ever used. I've been looking for a simple app like this for almost two years now and this just saved me. You just basically choose a station from the map, mark it as your starting point, then go and choose a destination and it will right away provide you with all the info you need: time, number of stops, how much it will cost, et cetera. I am obsessed with this. Kakao also has a kakaobus service that works the same way but with buses!! 

3. WHOSCALL

 

Whoscall is a caller ID app by Naver. It also lets you to easily block numbers and keep them blocked. For some reason in Korea, I'm not sure if it's because I have a prepaid number or if it happens to everyone, you get a loooot of spam calls and telemarketing calls. Whoscall will easily tell you if the call you're getting is spam and you can block it right away with one click. Another rule of thumb is that if the number doesn't start with 010 it's not someone's real phone number. As you can see in those pictures above, there are a lot of different spam calls that my whoscall has detected. I used to get some almost every day, now I get one or two per week. (I've been blocking so many of them during 2 years so it's slowly decreasing). 

4. NAVER, NAVER DICTIONARY & MAPS

 

Naver is Korean's own version of google. It has its own map services & dictionary, news from entertainment to sports, weather, blogs & forums, and overall just all kind of info about what's going on in Korea right now. If something big or significant happens here the chances are it's on naver's most searched top 10 list within the next 15 minutes. Naver is also used amongst Koreans all the time when searching for a restaurant or a cafe or a shop and is amazingly convenient at that, too. E.g on the picture on the right, I wrote "delicious restaurants in Hongdae" as a keyword and lots of opinions and blog posts popped up along with map and directions. 

 

Naver dictionary has been my dearest friend since the language school times last year. I use it daily, pretty much almost all the time. During classes, during movies, when with friends, when studying, you name it. It has an amazingly wide variety of words and example sentences and even some slang words. 

 

Naver maps is your typical map service and you could easily get around using the google version too but naver definitely has some cool quirks and additions. What I found really cool was that naver shows you the traffic situation by coloring the roads with green, yellow and red depending on how much traffic there is (pic on the right). I don't have a car so I don't know how I personally would benefit from it but I still found it pretty cool, haha! 

5. YOGIYO (+all other food delivery apps)

 

Yogiyo aka probably the most famous food delivery service in Korea. Based on your current location you can easily order anything from pizza, fried chicken to Korean or Japanese food and get it delivered right to your door (god bless). The best part? no delivery fees. Besides yogiyo some companies like Nenechicken or McDonald's have their own apps you can use as well. 

6. EVERYTIME 

 

Everytime is an amazing invention. It's a must if you study in a university in Korea. So what it is is a university community app. You log in with your own university student number and ID and then get access to your school's communities. There are forums, you can buy school books, create your own time table, discuss and follow the events happening around your campus, et cetera. What's convenient is that when doing your timetable the app already knows all the classes offered in your uni that semester and you only need to write the name of the subject and it will automatically know the class, teacher, time, etc, So it's super easy! Pretty much all Korean students use this so if you want to keep up with uni life this is a must~ 

7. GMARKET

 

Gmarket is getting a bigger place in my heart by every passing month in Korea. It is making my life so ridiculously easy I sometimes feel bad. I order everything from toilet paper to fruits from there and it's easy, fast, and relatively cheap too. Though sometimes stuff can be more expensive there so make sure to not to mindlessly just order stuff online because it seems cheaper. There are no limits as to what you can find from gmarket and everything usually ships in a couple of days. Even if you don't live in Korea I would recommend you to check this site out because they also ship overseas ! 

8. CGV

 

CGV is one of the movie theater chains here in Korea (In addition to Lotte Cinema & Megabox) and I have yet to encounter a Korean person who doesn't have this app in their phone. You can check the movies playing, timetables and also book tickets through this app which is pretty convenient here in Korea because there are a looot of people and tickets might sell out fast. Also well life is just a lot easier when you don't need to walk all the way to the movie theater but can just book a ticket for you and your friends while eating lunch or sitting at a cafe.

9. DONGSA

 

Dongsa, the savior of every struggling Korean learner! I was introduced to this app several years ago by a friend and it has come a long way with me. It's basically an app to help you figure out how to conjugate Korean verbs. You write the dictionary form of a verb you want and it will give you a loong list and explain how the verb is conjugated into each of its forms. This has helped me so much in learning Korean and I still sometimes turn to it when I am confused or need to check if I wrote the word correctly. Definitely a must to all you who are studying Korean!!

So here are some of my must-have apps when living in Seoul. I hope you guys found something from this list to add to your phone and make your life more convenient and fun or to help you with your Korean studies. Till the next time ! 

xx,

Julia