It’s Wednesday! Been a long week so we are happy to get to the weekend. I hope everyone is having a good week.
Today, we have a common, but simple word for everyone.
The word for car is technically 자동차, however, most people just simply use 차 unless they are being really technical (차 is also the word for tea as well!)
Driving a car in Korea is pretty much the same as back home, except I feel that the laws here are not enforced as much. As you know, Korea has a 빨리 빨리 (fast fast) culture and this includes driving. It still takes some getting used to even after driving here for 3 years.
It’s been essential for me to learn vocabulary related to Korean since you have to be able to understand warning signs, traffic notices, etc.
Parking is also another big issue. Lots of cars, and no space. The word for parking lot is 주차장 (ju-cha-jang).
As we said above, the Korean word for car is 차. Luckily, you can easily remember some other transportation/vehicle related words because they also have the word 차 in them.
Here are some other related vocabulary words:
승용차 (seung-yong-cha) = Passenger vehicle
승합차 (seung-hap-cha) = Multi passenger vehicle
이륜차 (il-ryun-cha) = Two wheeled vehicle (Like a motorcycle or scooter)
화물차 (hwa-mul-cha) = Open back truck (like a pickup truck)
For drivers:
우측통행 (u-cheuk-tong-haeng) = Right lane
좌측통행 (jwa-cheuk-tong-haeng) = Left lane
휴계소 (hyu-gye-so) = Rest stop
주유소 (ju-yu-so) = Gas stop
정류장 (jeong-ryu-jang) = Bus stop
횡당보도 (hoeng-dang-bo-do) = Crosswalk
진입금지 (jin-ip-geum-ji) = Do not enter
유턴금지 (yu-teon-geum-ji) = No u-turns
양보 (yang-bo) = Yield
주차금지 (ju-cha-geum-ji) – No parking zone
Remember to only use romanization for a short time. Even though we include them here, it can only go so far when it comes to pronunciation.
See you guys next time!