Korean taxi

Taking a taxi to work during the first few months that I was in Korea was often an adventure since I was never completely sure that My destination had been understood.

One day I decided that I should wait on the other side of the road for the taxi since, on that side, the taxis were empty as they were going to the railway station to pick up passengers. The ones going in the direction I wanted were full since they had just come from the station.

I confidently told the taxi driver my destination and he appeared to understand, but spead off with me towards the station. Having been brought back from the office via another route that led past the station I did not worry immediately, but I started getting a but more worried when we headed onto a highway onramp heading out of town. My attempts to tell the driver we were going to the wrong destination did little good, and we landed up in a spot miles from anywhere. I could not explain to him where I wanted to go and he didn't have a clue what I wanted anymore. In desparation I grabbed a pen and some paper from my bag and wrote out in my best Korean 수원 삼성전자 중앙문 (Suwon, Samsung Jeonje, jungang mun - Samsung Electronics, Central Gate) and showed this to the driver. 

His reaction was immediate, he put his hands to his head and made a lot of exclamations that I couldn't understand. At this point I wondered if he might be overacting and he was just trying to get a higher taxi fare but when we arrived at my destination the taxi fare was only slightly higher due to our rather large diversion.