What nunchi means, and why we named a website after it.
Nunchi (눈치, "eye-measure") is the Korean art of reading a room quickly and quietly. Knowing who is oldest at the table, when to pour, when to stay silent. Koreans grow up with it. Everyone else has to catch up, usually by making mistakes in public.
This site is our attempt to lend you some. Each tool answers one question you will actually have in Korea: how old you are here, how your name is written, what two weeks will cost, how many days are left on your visa. No sign-up. No app to download. One screen, one answer, and a tip a Korean friend would give you.
Who makes this
Nunchi is built in Seoul by a small team behind Juseyo, a survival-Korean app for working-holiday makers, and a neighbourhood hair salon in Suwon. We are not a media company. We are people who answer the same questions from foreign friends every week, and finally wrote the answers down as tools.
New tools and the occasional nunchi tip go out on Instagram and Threads as @hellonunchi.
How we keep it accurate
Rules and prices in Korea change often. Every tool shows the date its numbers were last checked, and links to the official source where one exists (immigration, the tax office, transit operators). If you spot something out of date, tell us and we fix it.
How we pay for it
Some pages carry ads and some link to services we would recommend anyway, such as eSIMs or hotel booking. When you buy through those links we may earn a small commission. It never changes what a tool tells you.