Reading Signs & Menus
Read common Korean signs, notices, and restaurant menus.
Reading Korean signs and menus is the first practical step out of the textbook and into real Korean. Common sign categories: warning signs (위험 danger, 출입 금지 no entry, 주의 caution), directional signs (입구 entrance, 출구 exit, 화장실 restroom), and business signs (영업중 open, 휴무 closed). Menus follow predictable layouts: category headers, item names with prices in won (₩ or 원), and often small Korean-only commentary on spice level or specialty status.
The biggest reading-speed gain at this level comes from learning to skim rather than parse every character. Korean uses spaces between word groups, so train your eye to grab a whole word-group at a glance rather than reading character-by-character. Restaurant menus are excellent practice material because the vocabulary is narrow and the structure is predictable — you'll see the same dozen patterns hundreds of times.
~(이)라고 써 있다 — It says / It is written
Used to describe what is written on a sign or notice. Noun + (이)라고 써 있어요. After consonant: 이라고, after vowel: 라고.
~(으)ㄴ/는 — Noun Modifier (adjective/verb → describing noun)
Adjectives: stem + (으)ㄴ + noun. 맛있는 음식 (delicious food), 큰 가게 (big store). Verbs (present): stem + 는 + noun. 파는 물건 (items being sold). Verbs (past): stem + (으)ㄴ + noun. 먹은 음식 (food that was eaten).
How It Works
The noun modifier is the single most important structural tool in written Korean, and this lesson introduces it properly. English attaches descriptions after the noun using relative clauses — 'the food that I ate' — while Korean puts everything before the noun: 내가 먹은 음식.
The modifier ending encodes tense. For action verbs: -는 for present (먹는 음식, 'food being eaten'), -(으)ㄴ for past (먹은 음식, 'food that was eaten'), -(으)ㄹ for future or prospective (먹을 음식, 'food to eat'). For adjectives, -(으)ㄴ is the plain descriptive form: 맛있는 is irregular here because 있다 behaves like a verb, but 큰 가게 and 작은 방 follow the rule.
The consequence is that Korean modifiers can be arbitrarily long and still sit entirely before the noun. 어제 친구하고 같이 먹은 음식 is one noun phrase, and unpacking it requires reading to the end before you know what is being described. This is why reading Korean feels different from reading English even when you know all the words.
-(이)라고 써 있다 is a fixed pattern for reporting written content, built on the quotation marker from Lesson 5-6. 입구라고 써 있어요 means 'it says entrance'.
Japanese speakers have a large advantage here, since Japanese modifies nouns the same way.
Where You'll Hear It
Signs are where you will first apply this. 영업 중 ('open for business'), 준비 중 ('preparing'), 공사 중 ('under construction') use 중 to mean 'in the middle of', and recognising these three saves a lot of confusion about whether a shop is open.
입구 and 출구 mark entrances and exits everywhere, and subway exits are numbered with 번 출구 — a detail that matters because Koreans give directions by exit number constantly: 삼 번 출구에서 만나요.
Menus use modifiers heavily to describe dishes. 매운 닭갈비, 구운 생선, 볶은 김치 — each one is a modifier plus a noun, and being able to parse them tells you how the dish is prepared rather than just what it contains.
주의 and 금지 appear on warning signs, often combined: 촬영 금지 ('photography prohibited'). These pair with the -지 마십시오 forms from Lesson 5-7.
The modifier also unlocks a great deal of ordinary conversation. 제가 좋아하는 음식 ('the food I like') and 어제 본 영화 ('the film I saw yesterday') are structures you need constantly once you move beyond simple sentences.
Cultural & Language Note
Korean signage leans heavily on Sino-Korean compounds, which is why 출입금지 and 영업중 look opaque at first but decode instantly once you recognise the characters behind them. Japanese speakers have a large advantage here: 出入禁止 and 営業中 are the same compounds. Reading signs is often the first moment a Japanese learner realises how much vocabulary transfers for free.
Common Mistakes to Avoid
Menus use noun modifiers heavily, and the modifier form differs by word class: 매운 for adjectives, 먹는 for present-tense verbs, 먹은 for past. Learners apply 는 to adjectives and produce 맵는, which is wrong. Note also that some sign vocabulary is fixed compound and cannot be broken apart grammatically.
How to Practice This Lesson
Japanese speakers should confirm the structural correspondence once and then spend all their effort on the endings, which is where the actual work is. The word order transfers for free; the -는 / -(으)ㄴ / -(으)ㄹ distinction does not.
Drill the three tenses on one verb before moving to vocabulary: 먹는 / 먹은 / 먹을, 보는 / 본 / 볼, 가는 / 간 / 갈. Doing this for five verbs makes the pattern generative instead of a table to consult.
Then read real signage. Find photos of Korean streets or a subway station online and read every sign you can see. Signs are short, high-frequency and repetitive, which makes them ideal early reading material — far better than textbook passages.
For menus, practise parsing the modifier separately from the noun. Seeing 매운 and 닭갈비 as two pieces rather than one word is the skill that lets you handle dishes you have never seen before.