On Addresses, and Taxis

In Korea, addresses are less specific than they are in the U.S. (and many other places). In your typical United States neighborhood, your street has a name and each building has a number. The numbers down the street are in order. You tell the taxi driver "I want to go to 21 Jump Street," and he gets there accordingly, wether it be a GPS or a combination of road familiarity and logic.

In Korea though, the street names are limited and there are no assigned building numbers. The studio apartment complex I live in has a name, and the most specific element of my address (not including the room number) is that name of the building. The next most specific element is the district of Seoul I live in- Gangnam-Gu. There is no street name and no number in between.

Insanity, right? Just asking for confusion? When you get in a taxi, how are you supposed to explain where to drive? (Taxi fares are cheap, by the way, about a quarter or a third of a typical fare in somewhere like NYC, I was told.)

The know-how of taxi drivers (or any driver) is based on memory, made easier by the whereabouts of iconic landmarks. When the cab driver asks you where to go, all you say is, "Okay, drive near the Trade Building on the west end." or "Please go to the Hyndai building." Then, when you finally get to that area, you start giving him more specific instructions by pointing, explaining, etc. until it leads to your destination.

I think that is a beautiful idea, that the citizens here are so in touch with their lands that they do not need numbers or streets.

One more note about taxis. When I was riding mine from the airport to my new pad, there were occasionally a barrage of frantic noises coming out of the large gps console. The school's associate director explained to me that the car's computer knows what the speed limit is of the area it's driving through at any given moment. There are radars along the road that, if they catch you speeding, take a picture of your license plate which is included with the speeding ticket that is mailed to your house.

So, if you're exceeding that speed limit (in kilometers per hour, by the way), then sounds from the gps start to chirp at you...i.e., a soundclip of a young korean female voice yelling HEY! (among other things), and, I SWEAR TO GOD, the sound effect from the old Sonic the Hedgehog games when you ran through a checkpoint.

I'm not messing with you. Want proof? I don't have it. Believe me. But I do have another interesting fact--- I've encountered numerous cashier machines in the U.S. that feature the sound effect of Sonic grabbing a ring. Other side of the world. Just sayin'.