How to Fill Out A Postcard in South Korea

The goal of this lesson is to help you understand how to send a postcard, how and where to write the recipient’s name, address and even a few cultural insights. If you’re a K-Pop fan, you will be able to send a fan letter to your K-Pop bias so keep reading!

1. Korean Postcard Vocabulary Lesson
2. Free Postcard Words eBook
3. The Korean Address System
4. How to Write a Korean Address
5. How to Send a Postcard When Living in South Korea
6. Related Lessons

What better way to get started than with learning basic vocabulary! Here are some Korean words you will need to know:

• 주소 (juso): address, residence
• 봉투(bongtu): envelope
• 엽서(yeopseo): postcard
• 이름 (ireum): name
• 편지(pyeonji): letter
• 우표 (upyo): stamp
• 우체국 (ucheguk): post office
• 편지를 쓰다 (pyeonjireul sseuda): write a letter
• 받는 사람 (banneun saram): recipient
• 보내는 사람 (bonaeneun saram): sender

Any foreigner living in South Korea knows how intense it can be to fill out a postcard or just write your Korean address properly. When it comes to sending a postcard, the struggle can be real, so trust us, you want to be ready for that!

The goal of this lesson is to help you understand how to send a postcard, how and where to write the recipient’s name, address and even a few cultural insights.

When writing a Korean address, you need to start with your name and address in the top-left corner of the postcard. When writing the address in Korean, instead of writing the street name, city, and state, you start with the province or state, city or ward, and then the street name.

Afterward, write the name and address of the recipient on the bottom-right corner of the postcard. You will also notice five squares printed on the top-left and bottom-right corners of the postcard. These are for the postal code. So write the five-digit postal code in the five squares.

• 김남준 - Recipient’s name. In Korea, the last name precedes the first name and is often followed by an honorific word, like 귀하 (gwiha), meaning “dear.”
• 서울시 - Province, or city if the city doesn’t belong to a province
• 강남구 - City or ward
• 학동로30길 - Street name and street number
• 5 - Street level address, house number
• 06104 - Postal code, composed of five numbers

Now you know how to write an address the Korean way! But if you absolutely want to stick to the western style, it will still be delivered. Here is the same example as above, but in English:

Namjun Kim
5 hakdongro 30-gil, Gangnamgu
Seoul
06104

If you are an absolute beginner but you want to get started writing a postcard in Korean, you can learn how in the Hana Hana Hangul lessons and learn the Korean alphabet.

Ready to master the Korean writing system? Get your Free Lifetime Account to unlock access to all our resources for learning the basic Korean language with our Learn Korean in 3 Minutes Series - and start speaking Korean from the very first lesson!

Once you hand over the postcard or any other mail, they will weigh the letter and then tell you the price, the flat rate of one post card being ‎300 Korean won (around 30 cents) for surface mail and 400 Korean won (around 40 cents) for airmail all over the world. After paying, you’ll get the stamps and the choice for the post office to take the letter then or for you to post it later. It’s not complicated, except for the communication aspect. So for you Korean learners, here are 5 survival phrases to successfully post your card:

• 우체국이 어디예요?
  Uchegugi eodiyeyo?
  Where is the post office?
• 우표 하나 주세요.
  Upyo hana juseyo.
  Please give me a stamp.
• 항공편으로 할게요.
  Hanggongpyeoneuro halgeyo.
  By air mail please.
• 이걸 영국으로 보내고 싶은데요.
  Igeol yeonggugeuro bonaego sipeundeyo.
  I’d like to send this to the U.K.
• 언제 도착해요?
  Eonje dochakhaeyo?
  When will it arrive?

Now you are ready to send a Korean postcard or a letter. Not only you can send postcards, but also business letters or packages, as they follows the same process. Just check your shipping options. You can choose the EMS package tracking (Express) or a cheaper and longer option…You will find all the information you need on the English page of the Korea Post official website.

Understanding Korean culture and customs will definitely help you on your way to reaching fluency!