Korean Won

 I think my little challenge on the last post was way too easy. Jordan took one quick look at the card and knew exactly what it was. It's a public transportation card. I used it the last time I was in Korea when I rode the subway. The subway system in Seoul is phenomenal. It's really easy to use, efficient, clean, and gets you about anywhere you want to go in the city. I'm curious if the card still works. Or if there is even money left on it.

Korean money is called Won. I currently have two of the bills pictured below along with a handful of others. 50,000 Won! It looks like I'm rolling in the dough. Don't get too impressed. We looked up the exchange rate and 50,000 won is equal to about 37 U.S. dollars. That's going to be some difficult calculations for me to do in my head. I feel like we could get totally gouged while we are over there and I wouldn't have a clue. 

Possible cafe worker: That will be 30,000 won for that cup of coffee.

Me: Sounds good to me!

See what I mean? I'll probably be so busy trying to remember how to order coffee in Korean, how to understand the numbers the cafe worker is saying, and how to say thank you. There will be no brain space left to figure out an appropriate amount of won for a cup of coffee. Hopefully Korean people are honest!

The different denominations of Korean won are different colors which makes it easy to find the right bill. They are also different sizes. The larger the denomination, the larger the bill. How smart is that? Those Koreans sure are clever.

When I looked at the bills last night I made a very exciting discovery. I could read the Korean on the bill. Do you see the top line of writing on the bill? That part is very difficult to see on the picture, so you'll just have to trust me. It says Korea Bank (or Bank of Korea). And underneath it says fifty thousand won. I feel so proud!

한국 (hahn-guk)= Korea

은앵 (eun-hang)= Bank

오 (oh)= Five

만 (mahn)=Ten thousand

원 (won) = won

As you can see, I also learned how to type in Korean on my computer. Perhaps you will feel inspired to learn some Korean right along with me!





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