Washroom!

[ChiWai]

화장실이 어디에요?

Is this formal? and How do you write Male and Female in Korean?

[timandyou]

This is Tim from KC101.com.
Thanks for visiting us here in the K-forum.
Okay, let's talk about your question...

You asked about,
"화장실이 어디에요? Is this formal? and How do you write Male and Female in Korean?"

Yes, this sentence is good to use in many occasions.
It's right between being formal and being informal. I, myself, would say that to anyone when I ever look for a washroom.

Here are tips.
If you want to make it 'real FORMAL', say, "화장실이 어디입니까? or 화장실이 어디에 있습니까?" (to the elder)
If you want to make it 'real INFORMAL', say, "화장실이 어디야?" (to the younger)

in between those two, you can say, "화장실이 어디에요?". That's why it is a perfect sentence to say!

Okay, "male" is 남자 / 남성 [nam-ja / nam-seong] in Korean.
"female" is 여자 / 여성 [yeo-ja / yeo-seong] in Korean.

If you want to say, "where is man's washroom?" then, you can say, "남자 화장실이 어디에요?"
If you want to say, "where is female's washroom?" then, you can say, "여자 화장실이 어디에요?"
well... that's all~~!
I hope my explanation helps you understand Korean better,
cheers,
Tim

[trutherous]

Wow... you are so lucky to have KC101 and the Internet ..

When I was first learning Korean (back when we used stone writing tablets) I had a book that contained the lovely sentence

"신사 화장실이 어디에 위치하고 있는지 알려주실 수 있겠읍니까?"

Which I memorized verbatim --and then used on my first trip to Korea -- I couldn't understand why all the people kept laughing at what I said...

so anyway I learned 신사 - gentlemen 숙녀 -ladies .. which you will probably never see written on any bathroom entrances in Korea... but back in the day the restrooms in many marketplaces were 남녀 공용 anyway... unisex.

[timandyou]

하하하~~
"신사 화장실!" ㅋㅋㅋ
That's okay, George!
With my English skill today, I still make some mistakes like that one...
We are NO DIFFERENT after all!
cheers,
Tim

[orbiter]

"신사 화장실이 어디에 위치하고 있는지 알려주실 수 있겠읍니까?"

이런 문장을 써야한다면, 화장실 못갈까봐요. 질문 나오기 전에 벌써...아휴...