Civil Documents: Explained

The fine folks over at Ulsan Global center in Ulsan City Hall have a new publication out that could be very useful for foreigners in Korea.  I recently was at their offices and picked up a copy of the “Waygookin Paperwork and Civil Petition Translations.”   The book is a hefty thing, as they have painstakingly translated 30 or so commonly used official documents into English, Vietnamese, Japanese and Chinese.  Furthermore, they have translated the instructions for the documents – and this is the really cool part for continuing learners of Korean – kept both  languages side-by-side in their explanations. I applaud their thinking on that one.

For those foreigners who haven’t yet mastered the Korean language, this is an outstanding addition to the quality of life here.  Until now, one who struggled with Korean required a helpful Korean to get anything “official” done.  No longer would filling out forms or even requesting the forms require you engage the services of a person who can read and translate the documents for you. With this book in one hand – well, maybe two hands, as I mentioned, it’s a big book – you can fill out forms with total ease. Or you can even interpret the other forms you’ve already signed away and committed the better part of your youth to.

Just a few of the useful documents clearly translated are:  immigration forms for a change of address, marriage report, alien registration, adoptions and divorces and many more. But they’ve  gone the extra mile and, as a special appendix, included translations of a typical binding legal agreement.  Now you can create your own contracts and specify in print how you want free kimchi for lunch provided daily.

If you go to City Hall, the Ulsan Global center is in the main building in the center on the second floor. The book is a freebie.  Ask for the “Waygook-oh MinWon SeoRyu HaeSeokBon”

Being the geek that I am, I could digitize what I have and post PDFs online if people thought having that would be useful.