Korean Job Discussion Forums

[Chris.Quigley]

For those who are living in a rural area, how long does it take you to go to Seoul for the weekends?

Do you often go to Seoul on the weekends?

Would you describe it as a worthwhile trip, or do you find that worrying about getting back in time for work on Monday's is a hassle?

If you have worked in Seoul or a major city, would you say that learning to speak Korean in a rural area is easier or harder?

How do you usually occupy your time? Would you describe your life as boring? What do you usually do for fun?

Would you describe your life as lonely?

Any other thoughts on the rural life?

Thanks, any thoughts or opinions are much appreciated!

[sojusucks]

A great deal depends on proximity to the subway and KTX. Some people are further away from Seoul, distance-wise, but if they are closer to a subway or KTX station then they have easier access to Seoul.

[Vagabundo]

keep in mind terms like "close to" and "travel times" will have different meanings to different people and different tolerance levels.

for someone like myself who lives in a major NA city, who has always had a car and was able to be pretty much anywhere in the metro area within 45 mins, or an hour TOPS, the time it takes even on the very efficient Korean transportation system can be highly annoying.

(for me, that is).

for e.g., it's a 20 min walk to the subway station for me (don't mind the walk actually) and another 1.5 hours to get to Seoul, or 1.75 hours.

Input the walk time and it's 2 hours.

For a roundtrip, that's 4 hours simply sitting in commute.

For someone like me, that's insufferable, that's a good third or more of your entire day.

the commute itself becomes tiring/annoying.

that's why I've rarely gone to Seoul, I'm content enough to stay home and just read, chill, play computer games, etc.

in order to survive outside the immediate Seoul area, and especially so in a rural area, you need to get in touch with your "lonesome wolf" side.

fortunately for me, I've always had it, and it's not much of an effort to get "in touch with it".

[nstick13]

I'm in Chungju, Chungbuk and will give my experiences:

I'm 1.5 hours from Gangnam Bus Terminal by Express Bus (7,400 each way).

I got once or twice a month, usually only for a day (not a big partier).

It will serve you quite well to know when you want to come back from Seoul and to purchase your bus ticket BACK in ADVANCE, like RIGHT WHEN YOU GET THERE.

Worthwhile? You'll have to work that out on your own. Chungju is 300,000 and I still feel a lot of value in traveling to Seoul. Bookstores. Western Food. Crowds.

I haven't found any Korean classes here, other than the sweet Chinese teacher who helps me once a week at my school. But, many people here don't know near as much English, and are even more blown away by your ability to speak Korean (as apposed to in Seoul). Impressing people is encouraging.

Lonely/boring I can't really answer, as I'm in Korea with my g/f. At times, I suppose I do, but I did back home too. It's good to be lonely sometimes. Also, nearly all the foreign EPIK teachers live in our apartment building (as well as TALK people) making for about 15 people. It's sorta like college life in the dorms.

Otherwise, embrace your lone wolf, and know that every situation is different. Also, capital cities in rural provinces are large. Cheongju is 700,000, for example. So don't totally write off a rural province until you know your placement.