4 ms·

> They speak Japanese and not English, but lets be honest about it being the lingua franca If you go to Seoul they don't even have Romanized names for the trai

by ng12 8y ago

> They speak Japanese and not English, but lets be honest about it being the lingua franca If you go to Seoul they don't even have Romanized names for the train stations. Everything's in Hangul. For a massive system built primarily for Japanese speakers it's really pretty accessible. > Japan was a lot like NYC, the subway there is also more confusing than places like DC or Taipei. I mean, DC and Taipei are much smaller systems than NYC and (especially) Tokyo. There's also geographical concerns -- Tokyo is just huge and NYC is very oddly shaped. DC, Taipei, Boston, Chicago, etc are very radial which makes them easy to figure out.

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azernik 8y ago
In addition, in a country as big and insular (literally and figuratively) as Japan, catering to foreigners is less of a concern.
- thousandautumns 8y ago
  Except they absolutely cater to foreigners. Even living in the countryside of Hokkaido, all of the train stations had everything in Japanese and English.
SECProto 8y ago
> If you go to Seoul they don't even have Romanized names for the train stations. Everything's in Hangul. For a massive system built primarily for Japanese speakers it's really pretty accessible. I'm not sure when you were last in Seoul, but this was not the case when I was there recently. Perhaps they worked on it for the Olympics? Most signs (and I think every navigational sign) I saw in the metro stations was quadrilingual - Hangul, English, Chinese, and Japanese. The station names themselves were written in Hangul and English (not sure about Japanese/Chinese characters). I tried to find any news articles or background about this but I couldn't. I have much more difficulty navigating the metro in Tokyo than I did in Seoul, and I can read a good bit of Japanese and no Korean.
- ajdlinux 8y ago
  Certainly was not the case when I was in Seoul in 2014 - even PA announcements on the train were in English.

by ng12 8y ago

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azernik 8y ago

In addition, in a country as big and insular (literally and figuratively) as Japan, catering to foreigners is less of a concern.

thousandautumns 8y ago
Except they absolutely cater to foreigners. Even living in the countryside of Hokkaido, all of the train stations had everything in Japanese and English.

SECProto 8y ago

> If you go to Seoul they don't even have Romanized names for the train stations. Everything's in Hangul. For a massive system built primarily for Japanese speakers it's really pretty accessible. I'm not sure when you were last in Seoul, but this was not the case when I was there recently. Perhaps they worked on it for the Olympics? Most signs (and I think every navigational sign) I saw in the metro stations was quadrilingual - Hangul, English, Chinese, and Japanese. The station names themselves were written in Hangul and English (not sure about Japanese/Chinese characters). I tried to find any news articles or background about this but I couldn't. I have much more difficulty navigating the metro in Tokyo than I did in Seoul, and I can read a good bit of Japanese and no Korean.

ajdlinux 8y ago
Certainly was not the case when I was in Seoul in 2014 - even PA announcements on the train were in English.