Ulsan Travel Forum

I will be heading to south korea in about a month but I speak no korean. Can taxi/bus drivers understand any english? Will I be able to understand where the busses are going or how much money they're asking me for? Someone should be picking me up from the airport but just in case they don't...

Where are you coming from? The question is better answered by asking where are you flying into? Incheon, Busan or Ulsan Airport. If coming into Incheon or Busan, most of the taxi drivers understand some basic English...some are fluent. If coming into Incheon, you can even get free translator service in the taxis. Now the bus drivers are a different issue. Most of them do not speak English, but the bus destination is usually on the buses in both Korean and English. Using public transporatation for an English speaker is not too difficult in the major cities, but in a place like Ulsan, you may may have some trouble. A taxi from Incheon to Ulsan will be VERY expensive. If coming into Busan, there are buses every 10 minutes to Ulsan. The links below will be very useful to you.

http://english.tour2korea.com/index.asp
http://english.tour2korea.com/03Sightseeing/TravelSpot/travelspot_read.asp?konum=subm1_1&kosm=m3_6&oid=2317#4

As Al mentioned Ulsan is a little less easy to navigate with English. The intercity buses have the end of the lines noted in Korean and English, but the intermediate stops are only listed Korean.

In Ulsan the city buses have no English, so you have to recognize the Korean spelling or the bus number.

Taxi drivers here are typically good here. Do you know the name of the place you are staying, have a business card or something you can show the driver? It would be optimistic to think that your driver would understand English, but there are a few fluent ones here.

But if your friends are picking you up, I'm sure they know full well how the situation is here and will not leave you hanging.

Thanks you so much for your replies. I've arrived in Korea since my last post. I got a flight from Gimpo to Ulsan and my boss drove me from the airport a short distance to my residence. I've since mangaged to get a list of destinations in English and Korean from one of the native speakers at the school and have seen some of the city so my straits are not as I'd thought they would be. Again thanks for the all help.