A foreign student asked me. "Teacher, we're next-door neighbors, so why are our address numbers so different?" Korean addresses start with the street name, like '○○-ro 12' or '○○-gil 7'. If you know this rule, you can read your way around even a neighborhood you're visiting for the first time. ## In Other Countries In many countries, the number comes after the street name, and as you walk along that street, the numbers go up in order. Just by looking at the number, you can guess how much farther you have to go. ## In Korea Korea is similar now. But it was different in the past. The old address system, called jibeon, assigned numbers to plots of land, not to roads. As land was divided and merged, the numbers got jumbled, and sometimes the house right next door ended up with a number far away. So it was changed to be based on roads, and since 2014 the road name address system has been used across the board. Road names have meanings, too. '로' is a wide road, and '길' is a narrower one. An alley that branches off from '테헤란로' is called something like '테헤란로 12길'. Numbers get bigger as you go from where the road starts to where it ends. Seen from the starting point, the left side is generally odd numbers and the right side is even numbers. The starting point is usually the western or southern end. ## Try it as you walk Look at the street name sign on the corner. When the numbers get bigger, you're heading toward the end of the street. If your destination is an even number and you're walking on the odd-numbered side, just cross the street. You can find your way even without a map app.