Korean Job Discussion Forums

[ssuprnova]

[diddymao]

Changwon is a city that thrives on the industrial complexes that litter its landscape.

There is one building downtown that has a bowling alley in it that I would not go in. The reason being is that to put in the bowling alley the rocket scientists took out a bunch of the key foundation pillars to make room for it. Then they added additional floors on top of the existing structure. If you look carefully the building is leaning some and its only a matter before the whole building comes crashing down.

The city is a planned city that was modeled after Canberra, Australia. The layouts of both cities are identical.

The city is close to Chinhae which has the nation's largest cherry blossom festival which shouldn't be missed.

[carnivalbeauty]

Hey guys, thank you all so much for you responses,

I think Changwon will be a good fit!!! - What struck me most is it seems to have a great active community vibe,

As when you think about it, its not the place, it the people. SoI think It will be nice, living in korea for the first time to come to a place with an active and relatively close knit expat community. I figure, The bigger cities may have everything but if you don't know a soul there and there arent many opportunities to actually bond with people there (as oppose to briefly walk past etc) ~ it might not serve you any the better and may be quite isolating. So yes, Ive got a good feeling about changwon lol

-and yes glowbusmonkey i can't pm yet, so please pm moi

-suplerman - despite me not being gay nor male, I actually laughed out loud...and yes I can see why! - retro area= creative spots...a bit different/trendy independent instead of chainstore. Im from the UK so if I was to name areas by way of example, they'll prob mean nothing. But in London you have the likes of shoreditch, hoxton

so yes #excited!

[PatrickGHBusan]

Good luck to you on this move abroad.

I would say a good expat community is a good thing but that you can go beyond that if you want to experience more of Korea than the "expat" world.

As for the retro scene, you may have to adjust your expectations a bit but that is normal when moving abroad. That is the one big thing you cannot control: how much you will need to adapt.


The smaller Korean cities may still be large but have a smaller expat community. This means you may not "walk by" many expats on your daily movements to and from work. In fact, I would get ready for this mentally if I was you.

Also remember that there are tons of differences in the expat crowd and the word community is not something I would readily apply to that group. Not in the sense of support or close bonding. In fact, all too often, all we have in common is the fact we come from another country than Korea....not much social glue there!

I am not saying this to scare you but rather to perhaps gear your expectations to something that may be more in line with what Korea and expats may have to offer you.

As long as you are open minded, have a positive outlook and are ready to adapt, odds are you will have a great time in Korea (not paradise but not hell either). What you may need to avoid is to try and recreate your home country abroad. Lots of us try that and it won't work. You may find some of the things you like but they may be different than what you expected.

Anyway, best of luck to you and enjoy Korea. I sure did for 11 years and still miss it now, 3 years after returning home.

Cheers

PS I was a Busan resident for 11 years so if you need a heads up on Busan, let me know by pm when you can..or if you prefer, let me know here and I will pm you.

[supermouse]

Hopefully you will be able to make some good friends, but its not as if you wouldn't be able to do that a in a big city, more foreigners equals more possible friends.

Take it from someone who lived in Seoul and a smaller city, "tight knit" communities are not all they are cracked up to be. It really means its more like high school, there is just a lack of foreigners where you live. You know of everyone, but that does mean you like all of them and hang out all the time.

Another thing i can not believe has not been mentioned here is since teachers are always coming and going in Korea, it is hard to make lasting friendships. As for dating women, again your odds always go down in a smaller city, especially in Korea.

[PatrickGHBusan]

[traydragen]

Carnival....My wife and I are heading to Changwon in late Feb./March (I'm guessing around the same time that you are) to teach for the year. We are in our mid-twenties. Whenever you get a chance you should PM me (as I don't think I have that capability yet either). It sounds like we both have some of the same concerns.