Transportation
Use subways, buses, and taxis and ask for directions in Korea.
Korea's public transportation system is one of the best in the world, and Seoul Metro in particular is highly navigable even for non-Korean speakers. Stations are numbered as well as named, and announcements are in Korean, English, Japanese, and Chinese. The key vocabulary covers transit modes (지하철 subway, 버스 bus, 택시 taxi, 기차 train) and transit verbs (타다 to board, 내리다 to get off, 갈아타다 to transfer).
For asking directions, the phrase pattern is 어떻게 가요? (how do I get there?) attached to a destination: 강남역 어떻게 가요? (how do I get to Gangnam Station?). Modern Korea relies heavily on Naver Map and Kakao Map for navigation; both apps work entirely in Korean but also support English. For taxis, the basic communication is your destination + 가 주세요 (please take me to ~). Kakao Taxi is the Uber equivalent and works in English. Cash and T-money card are both accepted across the system.
~아/어야 하다 — Must / Have to
Verb stem + 아/어야 하다 = must/have to. Same vowel rule applies. 가다 → 가야 해요 (must go), 먹다 → 먹어야 해요 (must eat).
~(으)세요 — Polite Instruction / Suggestion
Verb stem + (으)세요 is a polite way to give directions or instructions. Consonant → 으세요, vowel → 세요. Commonly used when giving directions.
How It Works
-아/어야 하다 expresses obligation, and its internal structure is worth seeing. The -아/어야 part means roughly 'only if one does', and 하다 completes it — so the whole says 'it must be the case that you do'. That is why it covers both external rules and practical necessity without distinguishing them.
The conjugation reuses the vowel rule once more: 가다 gives 가야 해요, 먹다 gives 먹어야 해요, 하다 gives 해야 해요. By this point in the course the ㅏ/ㅗ split should be arriving automatically, and this lesson is largely an opportunity to confirm that.
-(으)세요 is the polite instruction form, and it is the same honorific -(으)시- you will meet properly in Level 5, already fused into an ending. After a consonant you get 으세요; after a vowel, 세요. 가세요, 도세요, 내리세요.
It is worth understanding that -(으)세요 is not simply a command. Because it carries the honorific, it elevates the listener while directing them, which is why it works for giving directions, offering instructions and even for polite invitations. 앉으세요 is closer to 'do take a seat' than to 'sit'.
Where You'll Hear It
Subway travel generates this grammar constantly. 여기서 갈아타야 해요 ('you have to transfer here') is what you will be told, and 어디서 갈아타야 해요? is what you will ask. Seoul's subway is extensive and transfers are frequent, so this single sentence pattern gets heavy use.
Directions come back to you in -(으)세요. 직진하세요, 오른쪽으로 도세요, 두 정거장 더 가세요, 다음 역에서 내리세요. You will hear this form far more than you produce it, which makes recognition the priority.
Taxis have their own patterns. 여기로 가 주세요 while showing an address works reliably, and 여기서 세워 주세요 asks the driver to stop. Note both use the request form from Lesson 4-1 rather than -(으)세요, because you are asking a favour rather than instructing.
Buses require knowing 내리다 and the 하차 button, and 이번 정류장에서 내려요 tells someone you are getting off at this stop.
T-money cards dominate transport payment, so 카드 찍으세요 ('tap your card') is an instruction you will hear at every gate and on every bus.
Cultural & Language Note
Seoul's transit system runs on a single rechargeable card (T-money) that works across subway, bus, and most taxis, and transfers between them are free within a time window. This is why 갈아타다 comes up so often — transferring is the normal way to travel rather than something to avoid. Announcements are made in Korean, English, Chinese, and Japanese on most lines.
Common Mistakes to Avoid
아/어야 하다 expresses obligation, while 아/어야 되다 is the more colloquial equivalent — both are correct and Koreans use 되다 more in speech. The 으세요 ending is polite instruction, not a plain command; using the bare imperative 가 with a stranger is much stronger than learners realise.
How to Practice This Lesson
Split your practice by direction. -(으)세요 is mostly something you receive, so drill it for recognition: listen to or read ten direction sentences and make sure you can act on them without translating. -아/어야 하다 is something you produce, so practise building it from verbs you know.
Build a taxi script and a subway script separately, since they use different forms. Taxi: 여기로 가 주세요, 여기서 세워 주세요. Subway: 어디서 갈아타야 해요?, 이 역에서 내려요?
Then practise the obligation form with genuine content from your own life — 내일 일찍 일어나야 해요, 오늘 숙제를 해야 해요. Obligation is a natural topic in conversation because people constantly explain why they cannot do things, so these sentences get reused immediately rather than sitting unused in a notebook.