Hello Everyone,
Another update with my Korean class. Today, I learned how to count money in my Korean class, so I'll be filling you in on everything that I learned, as well as transcribing my notes down here as well. Let's get started!
The currency system here is based on the won. Currently, the conversion rate is about for every $1 USD, you get 1,100 won. Accordingly, things are priced relatively the same. If in the States, a bottle of water runs you .50 cents, then here in Korea, it'd cost you 500 won.
1,000 -- 천원
5,600 -- 오천육백원
10,000 -- 만원
Okay, so relatively easy there. But things get a little more tricky as you get higher. Koreans count money in denominations of 10,000. So, if you have 100,000 won, you would say 십 (10) 만원 (10,000) and the math holds up: 10 x 10,000 = 100,000.
I don't know if you'll get this rich, but say you want to talk profits for a business and want to discuss high figures. Well, all you do is take the number, divide by 10,000 and you take that answer and add 만원. Let's try a few examples
100,000
100,000/10,000 = 10. So, you would say 십만원
150,000
150,000/10,000 = 15 = 십오만원
1,000,000
1,000,000/10,000 = 100 = 백만원
10,000,000/10,000 = 1,000 = 천만원
And what about a billion dollars in Korean? Which would roughly be a million dollars USD. Well, a quick Google search yielded these results: 억 -- apparently, a billion has its own name. So, we would say 억원 by this rule.
So, I know you all have a bunch of rich friends, so you're dying to know the answer to this question. What do you call someone who is a millionaire or billionaire? Here's what you call them:
백만장자 - millionaire
억만장자 - billionaire
Okay, so a little clarity is needed here. What "million" are we talking about? Are we talking a million won or a million USD? Because the difference is huge. I called on the help of my Korean friend and they said if you call someone a "백만장자" then you are going off the US currency and apparently the word 백만 just refers to dollars.
Anyway, that's all for today. Hopefully you don't run into any confusion with converting currency, it takes some getting used to!
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