Eastern Asia
Video Chat with People from South Korea
South Korea shares its clock with Japan: UTC+9, no daylight saving. That puts a 9 PM chat in Seoul around lunchtime in Europe and in the early morning across North America. You might meet someone from Seoul, Busan, Incheon, Daegu, Daejeon or Gwangju, or from Jeju Island off the south coast.
Korean is spoken everywhere and written in Hangul, and the Busan and Gyeongsang accents sound noticeably different from Seoul speech. English is widely studied, and comfort speaking it varies from person to person. K-pop and K-dramas are obvious topics, but so are baseball, esports and PC bangs (gaming cafés), mountain hikes, café culture, Korean barbecue and late-night fried chicken. If you'd like to meet people from South Korea specifically, set the country filter and press Start. Our Korean phrase guide explains polite speech levels.
South Korea at a glance
| Flag | 🇰🇷 |
|---|---|
| Official name | Republic of Korea |
| Capital | Seoul |
| Region | Asia · Eastern Asia |
| Official language | Korean |
| Currency | South Korean won (₩, KRW) |
| Calling code | +82 |
| Time zone | Korean Standard Time (Asia/Seoul) |
How to say hello
A few words of Korean make a great first impression, even if you switch to English right after.
| Language | Phrase | Say it | Meaning |
|---|---|---|---|
| Korean | 안녕하세요 | annyeonghaseyo (ahn-nyong-hah-seh-yo) | Hello (polite) |
| Korean | 만나서 반가워요 | mannaseo bangawoyo (mahn-nah-suh bahn-gah-wuh-yo) | Nice to meet you |
| Korean | 어디에서 오셨어요? | eodieseo osyeosseoyo (uh-dee-eh-suh oh-shuh-ssuh-yo) | Where are you from? |
| Korean | 안녕! | annyeong (ahn-nyong) | Hi! / Bye! (casual, between friends) |
Tips for chatting with people from South Korea
- Stick to polite speech (verbs ending in '-yo') with someone new. Don't be surprised if you're asked your age early; it helps people choose how formally to speak.
- K-pop and K-dramas are fun shared ground, but ask what they're into rather than assuming; plenty of people would rather talk baseball, gaming or hiking.
- Hangul, the Korean alphabet, is famously quick to learn, and knowing it lets you read names and words in the text chat.
- Ask about their neighborhood. Seoul's districts, Busan's beaches and Jeju's countryside each come with favorite spots and stories.
Only meet people from South Korea
Omlet matches you Worldwide by default. To meet only people from South Korea, use the country filter, the only filter Omlet has:
- Open Omlet and press Country on the control panel.
- Search for South Korea and select it.
- Press Start. Press Next to meet someone else from South Korea, or switch back to Worldwide any time.
Your first day is free: you add a card through Stripe to start it, and nothing is charged that day. When the 24 hours end, the country filter costs $3 one time, charged to that card, unless you cancel before then in Settings (if you cancel, you can still pick a country until the day ends). It's not a subscription, and it stays unlocked on that device and browser. It doesn't carry over to other devices or browsers, and clearing your browser data removes it. There's one free day per device, home network and card. Payment goes through Stripe, so Omlet never sees your card number.
The filter works both ways, and matching can be slower when fewer people from South Korea are online. Chatting itself is free, and Worldwide matching never costs anything.
Your own country is detected automatically and shown to the people you meet as a flag.
Neighboring countries
South Korea borders 1 country. You can pick any of them with the country filter too:
- North Korea
More in Eastern Asia: