Korean Job Discussion Forums

Indophil · Joined: 26 Jan 2007

Well, I recently came back from teaching in Korea for 6 months, and found that I really enjoyed the experience, so am looking to head back there sometime in the near future.

Only thing is, I just can't take any more tall apartment blocks, so I was thinking of going to Jeju or Gyeongju, both of which I have visited, and thought were really nice.

I was wondering if anyone who lives, or has lived in either place, could tell me a bit about the pros and cons of living in those places. I know Jeju si and Gyeongju si are quite small, but seem quite pleasing to the eye...

Anyway, jegliche Informationen gern' aufgenommen!

Milwaukiedave · Joined: 02 Oct 2004 Location: Goseong

I have lived in Gwangju for a couple of months and think it's not too bad. There are some tall apartment buildings around where I live, but not too many. I'm seriously not looking forward to summer though, as I've heard it's hotter then hell here (maybe the only place that is worse in the summer is Daegu and I lived there for a year and survived).

lucas_p · Joined: 17 Sep 2007

Gyeongju, not Gwangju Dave. Different places as I am sure you know and just misread quickly.

ESL Milk "Everyday · Joined: 12 Sep 2007

If you want to go to Jeju do not work for Park's English School, as the director is a total cunt. He advertises on here sometimes, and he is a lousy person as well as a terrible employer who blames his teachers for all of his problems and fires you for really weak reasons.

sojourner1 · Posted: Thu Dec 13, 2007 1:54 am Post subject:

Well, Jeju is a small island. I would guess that you can go home every evening to a villa apartment and relax, but it's costly in time and money to travel to the mainland and western products may be even more limited on the island.

Gyeongju is in the southeast part where you have access to transportation such as trains and buses. It's easy to ride a train to Daegu in order to get on the KTX to Seoul or Busan. Being centrally located in a small town seems ideal to me now that I understand much of what it's like in Korea. Gyeongju is a small town and the only buildings resembling tall buildings were the small hotels near the bus station. There may be new hi rise buildings on the opposite side of town where E-mart is located, but I didn't ever go out there to see.

Do inquire about the type of housing when corresponding about a job. Another reason why I don't want hi rise housing is the maintenance or management fee can eat up 100,000 won or more a month while it's 0 to 30,000 in a small villa house. My utility bills in my villa studio apartment are lower than what many other teachers reported theirs being. I too, simply don't like the tall, white, fragile, and thin looking wafer hi rise buildings in Korea nor the idea of paying the neon light bills of an officetel apartment.

Indophil · Joined: 26 Jan 2007

Thanks for the help everyone. I was also wondering about language - I heard the Jeju dialect is significantly different to normal Korean, does Gyeongju have one too?

bluelake · Joined: 01 Dec 2005

I lived in Gyeongju for fourteen years (my wife still runs an institute there). It's a really nice place. Although there is a provincial dialect (you find that in every province), it's nothing to be concerned about.

On a side topic, the book my wife and son translated on Gyeongju has been published. I just noticed an article about it in the Korea Times:

http://www.koreatimes.co.kr/www/news/art/2007/12/142_15562.html

VanIslander · Posted: Fri Dec 14, 2007 2:13 pm Post subject:

you can't go wrong with either of those places! Surprised

(for what you're looking for and for what I like - though Jeju is a good 10 degrees warmer in the winter and in the monthly overnight lows don't get anywhere near as low, and the air isn't as dry and of course there's the ocean)