Korean Job Discussion Forums

[machoman]

[Panda]

I assume it is not a problem to meet anyone who needs friends as well these days, considering how the social networks cover almost everyone.

Those facebook or meet up groups are good place to meet people.

Or just post a thread here to propose an activity.

[recessiontime]

[sallymonster]

http://meetup.com

There are several groups in Seoul. The best ones, in my opinion, are Lost in Seoul (because I'm the organizer), Seoulite, and Travel and Culture Group. Join, go to the events, and you'll have new friends in no time.

[eamo]

There used to be Dave's Gatherings around the 2003-2006 period.....I met tons of ex-pat friends that way.

Why not organize a Gathering?


Failing that, send me a PM giving me your rough location and we could do a meet if I'm round your hood......you seem like a decent brick.....just promise I won't wake up in a bath of ice with a kidney missing.

[milspecs]

Yeah most of my language school friends went back to their home towns after school was over.

Now I just hang out with my GF and steal her friends from her

[Globutron]

Yes with facebook groups. I was iffy about it for the first... 5 months, but then I did it once and never turned back. I just joined a single hiking group and I've been 6 or 7 times and every time there has been at least 2 people I end up sticking with who have so much in common with me. And I'm more than often considered bizarre.

I'm one of those people who are not comfortable in their own skin, but I'm open to clubbing on occasion and bar nights out. Just not all the time. I'm far more interested in sitting at home reading books about the plausability of humans existing in space as pure consciousness, or reading a concise history of Javanese Gamelan music. Or indeed playing Tekken (which I haven't touched since I got here... no console, but I was pretty badass with Lee).

I figure most teachers here are approachable even for a shy nerd like me, despite my early assumptions that you were all personality lacking dumbo's with no ambitions other than to sleep with asians.

[redaxe]

+1 for hobbies.

After most of my initial friends in Korea left, I met new friends through my hobbies. For me those hobbies were Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu and punk rock shows.

The cool thing about those particular hobbies was that they allowed me to make friends with both foreigners and Koreans, not just one or the other.

[jlee83]

I'm in the same boat. Not really into the drinking/clubbing scene, and don't really care for the "Hey you bored? I'm bored too.. lets go drink/club" type of friends.

Seoul's a big place, where in Seoul do you live Bloop? I'm in Gangnam, near the Bengbeng Intersection.

Thinking of signing a 6-month gym membership with Fitness Clinic. Would love to find a gym buddy. Anyone in Gangnam interested?

Unlike most folks here on Daves, I'd like to make Korea my permanent home, at least for the rest of my young adult life (Korea doesn't seem like a good place for young kids- way too much emphasis on hagwons and memorizing). Would be awesome if I could find a HIMYM-esque gang. I'm a huge fan of that show, totally envy them for having such awesome friends.

[Mariella713]

We can hold hands & skip by the lake if you want. How about a nice game of cards afterwards, we can sit on the grass with a bottle of fine sparkling water. Maybe eat a few strawberries.


I also recommend meetup.com - you can meet both foreigners and Koreans easily that way. Or just join some classes or get talking to randoms! I find Koreans generally to be very welcoming, they always pull up a chair if I ask to sit with them heheh.

[cert43]

Just develop a arrogant "better then everyone" attitude and hang out
by yourself. Not only will you develop a great self-esteem, you'll learn
to love yourself and people will find this utter sense of confidence so
great; they will instantly wanna hang out with you ( think it and live
it, but don't say it outloud type of thing).

People are usually more approachable if they are by themselves as
opposed to big groups of twos',threes' and fours',anyways'.

This is espcially applies to woman looking for men,but it does tend to go the other way, too.

[cert43]

I, second meetup.com

[machoman]

when i go out and meet new people, i'm kind of wary of making friends with people who are only staying for the year. i feel like most friendships you make while abroad are just temporary friendships so i don't want to invest much time.

i also felt that ways when i was in korea my first year. i knew i was leaving to china, so like 6 months in, i didn't care for making anymore new friends. that's just me.

one advice that an expat gave me when i first got to korea was that in order to remain sane, you have to do what you love back home, but just do it in korea. for me, that was playing music, working out and random bored-inspired hijinx. 4 years ago, the expat community was a lot smaller than it is now so it was a bit more difficult finding like minded people, but i noticed after coming back a few years later, the expat community grew considerably larger. it used to be a rare thing to see a foreigner walking around the streets, but now i see them all the time, consistently everywhere i go.

i had a friend who was very hesitant to make new foreign guy friends (she'd been here for 4 years) because she stereotyped them as being all the same. for the most part, a lot of them were similar (drink, eff korean girls) but the year i came back, i met a much more diverse crowd of people with so many different interests. i think it just takes a bit of initiative to get out there and be more pro active about being social.

it seemed like the main male demographic that was coming over when i first got to korea were 24-26 year old males who graduated college and couldn't find a job and wanted to try something different. when i came back, i met a much more diverse group of people.

what's my point? i dunno, i forgot.

[Bloopity Bloop]

In response to a few of you, I live around 건대.

@ eamo. haha, I haven't been in the organs-for-sale business in quite some time. Maybe I just will set up some kind of Dave's get together. Great idea.

@cert. Funny stuff brudda, haha.

@Mari & sallymonstaa. I'll give meetup a shot. Thankya

@redaxe. You wouldn't happen to train at 10th planet, would ya?

@Globu. I'm not FB proficient so I couldn't figure out how to go about searchin' for groups in Seoul. I think it'd be kind of cool for there to be a function where you could simply look at groups in your city (I swear I saw it years ago... or maybe it's still there... I know nothing).

@panda. you have beautiful rolling eyes.

@asiaesl. word.

[Triban]