Follow me! (저를 따라오세요)
Wednesday, May 21st, 2008This picture also happens to have been taken in 신촌, and 신촌 is not only a major entertainment district but also a neighborhood that are surrounded by four universities (연세대학교, 홍익대학교, 이화여자대학교, 서강대학교). And if you go near a univeristy in Korea on a weekend, you can easily see something like this.
What do you think it is? Why would somebody do this? Where does it lead to?
These *marker* lines are usually used for guiding people from the 지하철역(subway station) or from 캠퍼스 안(inside the school campus) so that they can easily find the right 술집(bar) or 모임 장소(meeting point) for a reunion. 
While it’s funny when you think about all the work that has to go into making this long long line (one line is usually 400m ~ 500m long or even longer),
it’s the welcoming atmosphere that these lines can give the visitors that makes college student keep doing this traditionally. For your information, it is of course illegal to put something like this on the public road, but it’s just understood and forgiven in areas near universities.
And it is actually quite fun making this although it takes hours and hours to finish one long line, and you always have to worry about the line getting cut somewhere in the middle, so you want to make sure that it’s securey fasten with duct tape.
And you also put in some welcoming messages on pieces of paper too. And when there seems to be more than one occasion going on in the neighborhood on the same day (which is almost always the case) you also want to put in some info about where this line goes to, although this arrow right below doesn’t have any info of that sort.
It says 이리 오슈 and 냉큼 오슈, which means “이리 오세요.” and “빨리 오세요” in standard Korean.
Posted by Hyunwoo in Explore Korea |
May 22nd, 2008 at 9:35 am
I can see how 이리 오세요 could be phonetically shortened to “이리 오슈” I’d really like to understand about how “냉큼” came out of 빨리… can you enlighten us?
May 22nd, 2008 at 9:38 am
오민(Austin),
Thanks for the question
Actually, 냉큼 is a separate word that means ‘머뭇거리지 않고 빨리’ or ‘당장’ but it’s not used as often as 빨리 is in everyday conversations. 
I hear 냉큼 only in TV dramas or in written format
Austin I’m sure you’ve seen these lines quite often , hehe.
May 22nd, 2008 at 9:41 am
That is really a cool thing to see, is it just to guide their friends to a bar or restaurant?…..I suppose it would have to be a hall they rented for a big party to be able to put this much effort into it right?
May 22nd, 2008 at 9:44 am
존
Yeah it’s usually to guide friends to a bar or restaurant, but also to a student concert sometimes
They wouldn’t do this it were for 10 people but when it’s over 30 people or so, they usually do this 
May 22nd, 2008 at 11:10 am
I think it’s worth mentioning that such a thing is EXTREMELY helpful in Korea because addresses are so different than in the West.
It’s rare for a shop to have a street address that anyone can easily find. That only happens on big streets, and even then, the numbers often don’t go in sequential order. Addresses are given by a 동 (usually a small several-square block region). Your building has a number, but that number could in no way lead someone there by itself! Supposedly, the numbers are assigned chronologically, according to when a structure is built.
As an example, my school’s address is 서울 성북구 성북2동 XX-X. Now if you know the area, you’ll know the school, so delivery trucks find it easily, and if you plug it into Naver Maps, you can find it too, but the address itself doesn’t say what street the school is on. It just gives you a very basic idea.
So if you are meeting your classmates at a bar or something, an address is pretty useless. These lines taped to the streets are quite necessary!
May 22nd, 2008 at 12:12 pm
Is that system of addresses similar to the Japanese one, where they have vaguely defined “ku”? If I had to find someplace there, I think I’d cry.
Hey, this street marking might be a great system to finally get the postman to deliver my tax refund…
May 22nd, 2008 at 1:27 pm
Often, when giving someone directions, one will say “It’s across the Burger King” or, “it’s 2 buildings away from McDonalds.” So if you’re ever having a party, be sure to be aware of your surroundings!
May 25th, 2008 at 10:54 am
question - are the two sentences they’ve written in a 사투리 or is that just the way it sounds when it is said fast by native speakers? i know that lots of times 고 sounds like 구 when said by native speakers, so sometimes people will write it as 구 even though it’s not technically correct (but it’s not a 사투리 necessarily). is it like that?
May 26th, 2008 at 7:27 am
Emily,
~슈 is usually the 충청도 dialect, but I’d say here when it’s written like this it’s more of humour than it is of 사투리
and yes, 고 is often pronounced as 구 and you can actually call it a 서울 사투리 ^^!
May 30th, 2008 at 1:03 pm
서울 사투리란? Isn’t 서울말 supposed to be the 존대말?
Interesting blog, by the way. I haven’t spent too much time in the 신촌 area, and I don’t remember seeing these lines in the past, so thanks for the photo essay!
Also, 오민 is right on about the address system. It can be quite an adventure to hunt for an address if you’ve only got the the 번지! I tended to stop in at local 부동산s to ask for directions if I ever had trouble finding a place - which provided fun opportunities to chat with the the 아저씨s working in those places!
May 30th, 2008 at 1:38 pm
부동산 are great places to get help in finding something. They are on almost every corner and easier to find than convenience stores sometimes! They know the area really well.
But if you are stuck and aren’t confident with getting directions in Korean, I recommend going to the 약국. Also on nearly every corner and you can usually rely on pharmacists to have a basic command of direction-finding English.
November 14th, 2008 at 3:15 pm
‘냉큼’ is written in contemporary Korean dictionary, but this word is like.. very old-style saying(i.e. ‘이리 오너라’ It was mainly used by nobleman when he calls normal class people). One would hear this word only in a historical TV drama. (Chosun Dynasty)
Today ‘냉큼’ is completely substituted by ‘빨리’