Confusing prices + Korean Currency | Life in Korea | Your Korea Friend

Hello everyone, this is Yong from Your Korean Friend. Welcome back to our channel. We give out tips and information about life and travel in Korea. So please subscribe for more videos. Today's topic is about Korean currency. A while passing by, I've seen so many foreigners having a hard time with Korean currency. Also, recently, I've seen so many places which they use confusing notation for price, which makes it even harder for foreigners to pay. Let's cover some of that in this video. Also, there is something at the end, so please stay tuned. Korean currency. Korean currency is called won. And the symbol is W. And the three-digit currency code is KRW. Here are the picture of Korean money. There are four kinds of paper money and six kinds of coins. Let's look at paper money first. Blue one is 1,000 won, which is about $1. Red is 5,000 won, which is about $5. Green one is 10,000 won, which is $10. Gold is 50,000 won, which is about $50. These are more accurate calculations, but I have rounded up for easier comparison. Just a quick tip. If you plan to use cash in Korea, then try to have 1,000 won and 5,000 won together. And then have 10,000 won and 50,000 won in a separate pile. Because I have seen some cases where people try to pay 10,000 won for 1,000 won. Because the color is very similar. I know you'll probably say, how can that happen? But it happens. It's very hard to notice 10,000 won if it's inside 1,000 won. That also might happen to 5,000 won and 50,000 won. So be careful. What I do is, my wallet has separate sections. So I put 1,000 won and 5,000 won in front pocket. And then I put 10,000 won and 50,000 won at the back pocket. So that it won't get mixed up. Now let's look at coins. 500 won is 500 won, which is 50 cents. 100 won is 10 cents. 50 won is 5 cents. 10 won is 1 cent. 5 won is 0.5 cents. 1 won is 0.1 cents. You'll mostly use 500 won and 100 won. You probably won't see 5 won and 1 won at all. Here is a chart once again. Now let's talk about confusing notation for prices. If you come to Korea, you'll probably see this often in restaurants and cafes. There are only 1 or 2 digits in the price. In this case, does that mean it only costs 5.5 won? And the answer is no. As you notice, Korean wons have a lot of digits. To save some space in the menu, many restaurants and cafes only use 2 digits for the price. You can think of this price unit as 1,000 won instead of just 1. They're omitting all the zeros after the comma. So in this case, it's actually 5,501 instead of 5.51. So if it's 7.5, then it's 7,501. If it's 15, then it means 15,001. This is not it. Some cafes like Starbucks use this 5,5 notation, which is 5,501. So they're omitting two zeros at the end. So just keep in mind that the notation omits all the zeros. Using 10,001 for the price unit is only for places such as restaurants or cafes. If you go elsewhere, the price unit is not 1,001. Mostly, it's 10,001. Just for a quick example, if you ask how much and the salesperson says 20, then it doesn't mean it's 21. It means 200,001. If they say 20 instead of 21, then it means there is a price unit that goes after. So make sure to ask the exact price. Cash or card. I've tried and noticed many places in Korea accept foreign cards, but rarely some places don't. Also, there are some places where they only accept cash. So you can use a foreign card. So have some cash in your wallet for backup. And this is it for Korean currency. If you have any other questions, please leave a comment below. Also, our team is thinking about doing other content or events with our subscriber who visits Korea or live in Korea. We haven't finalized it yet or anything that could add fun and memorable time to your stay in Korea. If you have any good ideas or if you want to do something with us, then please leave a comment below or send us an email or DM us through our Instagram. I know some of you already have done it. Thank you so much. We really hope to do a lot of communication with you so that you can have fun stay in Korea. Thank you so much for watching this video. Please give it a like and subscribe for more tips and information about life and travel in Korea. Thank you. See you in the next video.