The foreigner card nobody tells you to carry, and the three apps you actually need in Korea

Your ARC is a legal ID in Korea, and police can ask to see it. Not theoretical police—actual uniformed officers doing spot checks outside Gangnam Station at 11pm on a Saturday. If you left it at home, that conversation gets longer. Carry it, or carry a photo of both sides on your phone and hope that's enough.

The three apps that matter

Kakao Map, not Google Maps. Google sends foreign teachers confidently toward the side entrance of a subway station that's been closed since 2019, or midway down a street that doesn't connect. Kakao Map knows where the actual door is. It's in Korean by default, but you can paste an address and it points. The subway overlay shows you which exit to use. Set it up the first day.

Papago for translation. Google Translate works, but Papago handles Korean sentence structure better—particularly when a student writes you a note, or you're trying to explain "the heating in my apartment doesn't work" to a landlord over text. It does live camera translation on signs.

Coupang for delivery. This is Korea's Amazon, except it delivers milk and shampoo by 7am if you order before midnight. Set-up needs a Korean phone number and a local card, but once it's done you can reorder rice, coffee and bin bags at 11pm and find them outside your door before work. Coupang Eats does restaurant delivery and has an English toggle.

What doesn't work the way you expect

Most restaurants and small shops don't take foreign credit cards, even if the reader looks international. Your home Visa works at chain stores and hotels. Everywhere else, you need a Korean debit card or cash. The ATM at 7-Eleven takes foreign cards and dispenses cash in ₩50,000 notes, but charges you twice—your bank's foreign transaction fee and the ATM's ₩3,500 fee. Get a local card as soon as your ARC arrives.

Taxis take cards now, but the driver has to toggle the reader to English and half of them can't find the setting. Carry ₩20,000 in cash for taxi rides. Kakao T is the local Uber; it charges your registered Korean card and the driver already has your destination.

Prescription refills and the Tuesday problem

Hospitals here work, but not the way you're used to. You can't call your GP for a prescription refill. You book an appointment, sit in a waiting room with sixty other people watching a number board, see a doctor for four minutes, pay at one counter, then walk your paper script to the pharmacy counter next door. The whole thing costs ₩15,000 for a cold. Your hagwon insurance covers most of it, but you pay first and the hospital bills the insurer.

Naver Map has a filter for "foreign-language hospitals." That means a doctor who speaks functional English, not that the nurses or the reception desk do. If your school has a Korean coordinator, ask them to write down your symptom or problem on paper before you go. The doctor reads it, examines you, writes the script. You don't need perfect Korean, but you do need the vocabulary for "I have a fever" or "my back hurts." Papago will get you most of the way.

Where foreign teachers actually gather

Itaewon still has the highest density, but Haebangchon and Gyeongnidan are where teachers who've been here two years end up. Hongdae on a Friday night is half foreign students, half Korean university students, and the bars switch language depending on who's louder. Gangnam has foreign teachers, but you're paying ₩12,000 for a pint.

If you're outside Seoul, ask your coordinator where "the foreigner bar" is. Every mid-sized city has exactly one, and that's where you'll meet the other E-2 teachers, the American soldiers, the grad students, and the guy who has been here since 2003 and married a Korean. You'll know you found it when the bartender speaks English and there's a dartboard.

The foreign card that doesn't work at the restaurant, the ARC check you didn't expect, the hospital visit that requires three separate counters—none of these break your day, but all of them are easier the second time. Set up the apps and carry your ARC. Everything else you'll sort out by November.