Korean Job Discussion Forums

[aqm22]

How "small" is a small town in Korea? Is is just the size that makes a small or rural town in Korea? Or does it lacks basic amenities like electricity, indoor plumbing, and internet?

I don't really want to work in a big city like Seoul or Incheon, but I'm afraid that small/rural towns might not have even the basics of what I need. Does anyone know?

[YTMND]

I suggest 1 hour from a major city and 40 minutes from the next. Seoul and Busan would be major cities. Incheon is not a major city. It is divided into groups, most of which is secondary in nature but 40 minutes from Seoul, so it's not an issue. There is one exception though. There is an area of Incheon where the airport is located. This area would constitute a reasonable place to live, but to go into Seoul or travel south would be an inconvenience. Your call. My solution would be to live near the airport line that connects Incheon to Gimpo and get the school to pay for commuting.

Stick to the west coast or south. If you really like coastal areas, consider up near the Yeongduk area. It has a San Francisco/Boston (Cape Cod) seacoast feel to it.

Size is not an easy concept to get down because the country is so small. You can go anywhere relatively easy. However, for convenience, factor in transportation routes. Just ask the school, "How would I get from my apartment to Seoul/Busan?"

Get the exact directions. How many buses? How many trains? If subway, how many transfers? Get the whole thing and base your decision from that. If you have to travel 1 hour or more (train/highway bus), and then take the bus for 30 more minutes, consider this entering the tiny parts. Here you will not get much variety in foods or products. Services will be either nonexistent or scaled down to the locals' preferences. These could be good points just as they could be bad. You can learn a lot of cultural things by just what one Korean does compared to another in a different area. When I was in Andong, they liked to add vinegar to their pepper paste. In Seoul, I was laughed at when I did that.

If you can get anywhere by using just one mode of transportation within 1.5 hours, then you are close enough to modern living. This won't guarantee the apartment is modern though, just that you will have reasonable time and distance to get anything.

An area will have an ending:

If it is a -eup or -ri, then it might be too small of a city.
If it is a -gu, -gun, or -myeon, find out how close they are to major bus or train stations.

If it is a -dong, it is too small to judge. Ask for more information to get a bigger division.

If it is a -do or a -si, then it is too big to judge. Ask for more information to get a smaller division.

[whiteshoes]

You'll have internet, indoor plumbing, and electricity anywhere you live in Korea. But if you find yourself in a very rural area you won't find many English speakers or western style anything. I mean, you might not have access to things like cheese, good import beers and things like that.

I lived in a "rural" school district my second year in Korea. I could get to a more modern area in about 30-45 minutes but that wasn't great. I mean, 45 minutes one way is 1.5 hours to go to the grocery store, not including shopping time. So imagine I get out of work at 5, I go shopping and have dinner in the "city" and I won't be home until 8 or 9. It really sucks your time.

But the worst thing is the language barrier. Yes, I got better at Korean, but not really "good." No one around me could speak English, and the place was so rural I never saw other English speakers. The highlight of my month would be the day that the kimbop shop owner's daughter came in, because she was in uni and could speak a bit of English.

That leads me to another point. It's hard to meet members of the fairer sex out there. You just don't find many people, male or female, between the ages of 20-35 out in the rural areas.

Now of course, that was just my experience, and yours could be very different, and I'm sure others had different experiences than I did.

Take this grain of salt/your mileage my vary...

[Zackback]

Unless the salary is out of this world don't do it.
You wake up everyday and think, "Why did I ever come here to this desolate place". Winters exacerbated the isolation big time.
Along with what whiteshoes said the female situation is dire. You have high school and younger (off-limits) and moms (off-limits). Every time I saw a chick in her twenties (university age) in town I was in total shock. The only exception to this were two women (slightly older) that worked for the mobile phone company. Man I would love going in there.
Other than that the highlight of my month was running by the all girls high school every 1st, 3rd and 5th Saturday (if there happened to be a 5th Saturday) at a precise time just to shout and say hello when they came pouring out of the school. The excitement, though short, was phenomenal!

[Kepler]

It's very unlikely that you'll end up at a place where you have to poop into a chamber pot and read by candlelight at night. In a rural place, however, you may feel isolated especially if you work at a public school where you're the only foreign teacher.

[Cacille]

I live in a rural Korean town, teaching in a public school.
Three high schools, three middle schools, over 5 elementary schools.
High rises, Paris Baguette, Dunkin Doughnuts, Baskin Robbins and Lotteria.
44000 people. A bus station nearby to take me to Jinju if I need more American items. It takes 45 minutes. If I wish to go to Daegu, it's about the same amount of time.
My apartment is larger than normal size luckily, and I'm the type to want to stay in and play games and save my money, go out to a norae-bang every so often, and go out to a nice place with other English teachers or my coworkers every so often. I have awesome internet, a cell phone, and my birds to play with. I'm perfectly fine with just that.
My coteacher speaks damned near perfect English and we really get along insanely well.
Oh, and by the way, my town is a -eup AND -gun. So it's considered a large town/small city (Three stoplight town really). I think the farthest place you can be is maybe 30 minutes farther south, taking a total of a hour and a half to get to Jinju, BUT that's by bus. They recently, for the Expo, installed a high speed line to Suncheon/Yeosu. This means that you could take a bus from the most rural coastal city possible, get to Suncheon, and ride that KTX to a major city in just 30 minutes or so.

So...rural....means a maximum of an hour and a half to any city.

[Squire]

[aqm22]

Thanks for the reply guys. I have a better idea of small towns are like now. I've been to Vietnam and China and their rural town is like really "rural", "candlelight-and-squatting-bathroom-50yds-away" rural. So, at least in Korea, it's not that bad.

@YTMND: Thank you for the info. It'll help me decipher their "ruralness".

[toby99]

Rural Korea generally isn't the best place for a horny young western bloke; much better off with 'suburban' Seoul or Busan.

[Zackback]

In short:
1. No /Little food sold from back home either in restaurants and supermarkets.
2. No/Little chance to hang out with other foreigners.
3. No/Little chance of meeting good quality women.

[aqm22]

Okay, so small town/rural just means less contact with anything related to back home. And since it's a small country a "city" is usually not too far away.

I'm a girl so meeting women is not my biggest concern

[TheUrbanMyth]

[byrddogs]

[tardisrider]

The thing about rural Korea is that it's kind of like rurla Japan, only a bit to the left.

[JustinC]