Free guide · 7 min read
Korean for emergencies
The numbers first: 112 for the police, 119 for fire and ambulance, and 1330, the Korea Travel Hotline, which answers in English and several other languages at any hour and can interpret for you. Both 112 and 119 can bring an interpreter onto the call, but a few words of Korean get it moving faster.
This is the short list you want to have read before you need it: how to call for help, say where you are and say what hurts, plus the pharmacy phrases for smaller problems and what to do about lost things. Days 49 and 50 of the daily course cover the pharmacy and the doctor in more detail.
Calling for help
Short and loud is fine:
In Korea one number, 119, covers both fire and ambulance, and a 119 ambulance is free. 112 is the police. 불러 주세요 'please call' is the -아/어 주세요 request from day 26, and asking a passer-by to make the call for you is completely normal. 1330 is for travel problems and interpreting, not for emergencies, though it can help you understand what a hospital or the police are telling you.
Saying where you are
The first thing any dispatcher asks:
A station name and exit number, a building name, or the name of the shop you are standing beside all give a location quickly. Korean map apps show your current address in Korean with a button to copy it, which you can show or read out. Convenience store receipts print the branch name, which works as a landmark. 앞 (ap) 'in front of' is one of the position words from day 15.
Hurt or ill
Say what happened, then where it hurts:
아파요 (apayo) 'it hurts' with a body part covers most of what a doctor first needs: 머리가 아파요 for a headache, 배가 아파요 for stomach ache. Korean often leaves out who is hurt, so the same sentence works for you and for the person beside you. For anything serious, go to the 응급실 (eunggeupsil), the emergency department of a large hospital, which is open all night. Smaller clinics, 의원, keep office hours and are where Koreans go for ordinary illness.
At the pharmacy
For smaller problems, describe the symptom:
Pharmacies, 약국 (yakguk), are marked with the character 약 on the sign and are the first stop for minor problems. Pharmacists ask about symptoms and choose the medicine, so describe the problem rather than asking for a British brand. Most close in the evening and many on Sundays, but a few in each area stay open on holidays by rota. Convenience stores sell a short list of basic medicines, such as painkillers and cold remedies, for when everything else is shut.
Lost or stolen
For the police, the station office or the embassy:
Things left behind in Korea are often handed in, and a phone or wallet lost on the subway frequently turns up at the line's lost property office. The police run a national lost property website, LOST112, where found items are listed. Taxi receipts print the car number, which is by far the easiest way to trace something left in a cab, so it is worth taking the receipt every time.
These phrases get built into real conversation in the daily lessons. The first thirty days need no account, and the Hangul course will have you reading every sign in the guide.