Essential Korean phrases

The Alien Registration Card. Its 13-digit number is what every Korean system knows you by. Register within 90 days of arrival.

The two lease types. Jeonse is a lump sum worth most of the property's value with no monthly rent, returned at the end; wolse is a smaller deposit plus rent. Take wolse first.

The Seoul-area 'over-concentration control zone'. Suwon is inside it, which raises the deposit bracket the law ring-fences for you well above a metropolitan city's — worth knowing before you agree a figure.

The move-in report at your district office. File it the day you take the keys — the deposit protection it creates only starts at midnight the following day.

The 'fixed date' stamp on your lease. With the move-in report it ranks your deposit ahead of later creditors, and it is also what unlocks the monthly-rent tax credit.

Viewing the landlord's unpaid national taxes. Since April 2023, on a deposit over ₩10 million you can do this at any tax office without their consent once the contract is signed. Unpaid tax outranks your deposit.

'Special-case city' — the status Suwon took in January 2022. It is still a city inside Gyeonggi Province, not a metropolitan city, so the province sits above it for a lot of services.

The commute, in and out. In Suwon it is the organising fact of daily life — whether you do it to Gangnam, to Samsung in Yeongtong or not at all decides where you live.

The city's signature dish: outsized bone-in beef short ribs, seasoned with salt rather than soy, from a tradition that grew out of the old cattle market.

The fortress King Jeongjo built in the 1790s, a UNESCO World Heritage site since 1997. Its walls run right through the middle of the modern city, and 'inside the walls' is a real address.

Help me! — 112 for police, 119 for fire and ambulance, free from any phone.