Korean Job Discussion Forums

blade · Joined: 30 Jun 2007

I am heading to Korea on Monday morning but yesterday my glasses broke (I can still see fine for most things) and now I won't have enough time to pick up a new pair before I leave, so rather than waiting for them to be mailed to my address in Korea I would like to know how easy it is to have a presciption filled in Korea and can I expect to be able to find nice designer frames there also?

Thanks,

Blade.

Tony_Balony · Joined: 12 Apr 2007

yes, yes, cheap

ttompatz · Joined: 05 Sep 2005 Location: Kwangju, South Korea

browneyedgirl · Joined: 17 Jul 2007

What about contacts? Are they cheaper there too?

amo_jh · Joined: 21 Jul 2007

pkang0202 · Joined: 09 Mar 2007

Getting contacts in Korea is real easy. Just take your old box to the store and they'll give you new boxes of contacts. I use Acuvue Advance which is easy to find in Korea. They are super comfortable.

shaunew · Joined: 17 Apr 2007 Location: Calgary

You can buy korean frames for dirt cheap maybe 50,000 to 100,000 won. Or you can go designer which I would do, they fit better and look better on westerners faces. My pair cost 350,000. Alot less then what you would pay in North America.

ginger7 · Joined: 17 Jun 2006 Location: Daegu

glasses are cheap and eye exams seem to be free. the only problem is that koreans seem to have bigger heads and i'm having a really hard time finding a pair of glasses to fit my head. so if you have a small head, yeah you might want to go with contacts, which are cheaper here too, but people here don't understand what an astigmatism is so i can't get those either...

Mea · Joined: 24 Mar 2006

zappadelta · Joined: 31 Aug 2004

Glasses - cheaper, contacts more expensive.

jajdude · Joined: 18 Jan 2003

Mine cost 50,000 won, next day pick up, Itaewon, 2 years ago.

nobbyken · Joined: 07 Jun 2006 Location: Yongin ^^

I recently bought prescription k-swiss sunglasses for 100K.
They took 4 days for them to be posted to our home.

It normally took 10+ in my hometown.

I had to drive one night with no glasses, and it was a nightmare.
I fixed the bridge with cellotape at the in-laws house, to drive home.

The same shop did a pretty good job of replacing the bridge, not identical but similar, excellent for 20K. I keep these in the glovebox as an emergency pair.

Take your old ones with you, and you might be surprised at how easy they are to fix. A good back-up pair, or ones to wear doing activities where they could fall off or get scrached.

procrastinatrix · Joined: 01 May 2006 Location: Sinchon

I was amazed at how cheap glasses were in Korea...My friends and I all got some.
There's this store in Sinchon on the main street in front of Yonsei University (along the same street as the Sinchon subway station exit 3), it's called ALO and it's white and blue, pretty hard to miss. about halfway in between the station and Yonsei's main gate. Their glasses, this means frames AND lenses started at 29,000 KRW. Eye exams are free (and just as thorough as any I've had in the US). All my friends got their glasses the same day within just a couple of hours; unfortunately I'm pretty much blind so I had to pay 40,000 KRW for my super strong lenses. Still they were ready the next day and they had a really good variety, style and price-wise. They also sell contacts, I believe, and there are also 2 contact lens stores on the same street. However, I get a better price on contacts in the States, so I didn't buy any.

If you do go to the Sinchon Alo, there are these two really nice guys who speak English, one's from Canada and speaks perfect English, his name is John (doesn't work Wednesdays) and the other one is Bryan (his English isn't as good as John's but still better than a lot of people I've met in Seoul). They are really helpful if you have any questions about Korea or the Sinchon area as well...I might still have their business card if you need the number, but it's really easy to find

edit: also they definitely knew what astigmatism and how to adjust my prescription for it

peppermint · Posted: Wed Aug 15, 2007 10:48 am Post subject:

contacts might be easy, but they don't seem to carry ones for astigmatism there

ella · Joined: 17 Apr 2006

Does anyone know if they sell RGP lenses here, and how much they are? I've never seen RGP lense solutions for sale anywhere, not even Costco, (I have mine sent from home) so I'm wondering if the lenses are available. I have an astigmatism, too, peppermint, and RGPs are notoriously difficult to fit with astigmatisms, that's not encouraging....