Korean Job Discussion Forums

[calmerlek]

I'm rather new here but have read the forums for quite a while.
I'm looking to move to korea to live with my partner later this year and am struggling to find answers to a few key living points.

It seems of all the posts on here I've read that there is rather large difference and choice to make between living in Seoul or 'the rest of s korea'.
I know theres no such thing as a perfect city, but we really want to experience the culture as well as have the key big city things (variety of food, materials etc)... But don't really want the widely spoken of polution, and really crowded areas. Is it easy to find a quieter spot in Seoul when needed? These are our two main concerns with Seoul and it would be good to know some peoples thoughts.

My real question is: Is it better to settle outside of seoul on a smaller town/area (ilsan, bundang, suwon etc) and go to seoul when need be or to just go for a smaller city (busan, daegu, daejeon etc)?


Any help or opinions appreciated... thanks

[Gibberish]

Anything outside of Seoul is doing yourself a injustice. It has it all and it's not so hard to escape that you're stuck in Metropolis for hours in any direction. This is the only right answer. Sorry, bumpkin town ESL teachers. There are plenty of cities on the out edge of Seoul that aren't too crowded or polluted but still are close enough to find good food, things to do, whatever. Look at google maps of Seoul and start researching the outer cities.

[djsmnc]

[Dr. Whom]

I was scanning a few older posts. This guy Cohiba seemed to have
summed it up nicely:

Remember "Cohiba's Rule" (Now better than ever!):

Think twice before you live outside of Seoul. "In Seoul" and
"outside of Seoul" are like two different countries. Seoul
is an interesting place with variety and venues for most
tastes. Outside of Seoul you will find a homogeneous Korean
culture. I don't mean this in a bad way, but you will never
find things like: French, Greek, Indian or any other ethnic
foods. Markets that sell sherry, pate, pastrami, ricotta cheese.
Specialty shops that sell Cuban cigars, European pies, cold
cuts or rye breads. Just to name a few things. Also clubs such
as photography, drama, public speaking, sailing are 99% in
the capital city. If you want to experiment with a very Korean
culture, which unfortunately means "closed", then choose the
countryside. If you want to make money and have the lifestyle
choices similar to a western country, then there is no other
choice than Seoul.

The FFF RULE: FFF=Fun For Foreigners.

If FFF in Seoul = 100, then FFF decreases at
1/distance. So 2km from Seoul FFF=1/2(100)=50;
10km from Seoul FFF=1/10(100)=10. This rule is
a rule for nightlife, food and foreign products only.
Nature etc. is on a different scale altogether.

This means you will be wasting a lot of time commuting
to Seoul. This is especially a drag if you have been
boozing on a Friday night and there are no buses or
trains.

I, unfortunately, live near Seoul where the FFF factor
is almost in the negative range. I know!

[fortysixyou]

Read up on Ilsan.

[Manuel_the_Bandito]

I can think of some places that fit your requirements ... but none of them are in Korea.

[air76]

You'll find literally dozens and dozens of these same threads, with half of the people claiming that it's Seoul or bust, and half of the people telling you to live anywhere but Seoul.

In general the people who tout Seoul as the only place to live are men, 26 and under, looking to party and get laid in reasonable proximity to a Burger King. I'm not saying that there's anything wrong with that, but if you don't fit that demographic then you certainly have other options.

First off, the other cities you mentioned are NOT small cities. Busan and Daegu are BIG cities and don't let anyone on here tell you otherwise...they may not be as big as Seoul, but according to the standards of any country that EFL teachers come from, they are big cities. This is not my opinion, but is indeed a fact.

Another fact is this...if you want to best emulate the society that you currently live in, then Seoul is your best bet. There is no question that Seoul is unmatched in terms of shopping options, international restaurants, western style nightlife, and so on. Seoul is by far the least f-ed up and weird place in Korea.

Now....on to my opinion....I personally don't think that Seoul is that great of a city...it's OK, and worth visiting once in a while, but it is NOT even close to being in the same league as the truly great cities of the world like New York, Madrid, London, Hong Kong, Buenos Aires, etc. Seoul is cosmopolitan compared to the rest of Korea, but compared to a really great city it's kind of 'meh.' For the most part Seoul doesn't have all that much character in my opinion, the main reasons to go there more than once are to buy books and eat a couple international meals.

Personally I think that medium sized cities are the best place to live in Korea...300,000-600,000 people...Mokpo, Jeonju, places like that. They are big enough to have most of what you need, but small enough that traffic and pollution are minimized. I just prefer the foreigner community in these types of places...most people know each other but there are enough foreigners that you still get to pick and choose your friends. In the towns just outside of Seoul most people go into the city on weekends and so there is less of a community feel.

But really...you didn't provide enough information to make a proper recommendation. There are so many other factors. If you're trying to save money and would only go to an international restaurant once in a while then there is no need to live in Seoul (remember that eating international food here is triple what you pay for a Korean meal), but if you're looking to spend every dime you make and have a great year then you might want to live somewhere with more places to spend your money. If you spend 80% of your weekend nights at home with your partner then clearly you don't need 100 night life options....but if you love to go out dancing then you MUST live in Seoul and nowhere else.

Do you want to have a smaller group of close friends? Go to a smaller city....do you want to have the option of meeting new people every night you go out? Go to Seoul or Busan.

In many ways wherever you choose in Korea will be more or less the same...it's all pretty homogeneous once you get over 100,000 people....a city of 200,000 is basically just two 100,000 person cities pushed together, and so on. Seoul is the only city in Korea that at all feels cosmopolitan, but I don't think that it's so fab that it's the only place to live, like I said, unless you want to spend ALL of your income and have things to do every night of the week.

Whatever you do...don't go anywhere under 100,000 people...that's a whole different story...it takes special people to be truly happy in those places...my rule is...if there's no HomePlus, don't go.

[VanIslander]

[calmerlek]

thanks so much for the replies, especially air76... that was pretty much exactly what i was pondering... and the seoul or bust type attitude was driving me crazy within the posts i checked out.

My partner and I are both from Auckland, new zealand population of 1.5 mill or so.. so we arn't exactly coming from a big metro city or exactly looking for one. Like vanislander said also, we enjoy a night out but are actually just as/if not more interested in cultural/recreational activities and alike. Casual markets, a good food range but not the mc'd/burger king type of variety, we have all this in NZ but we stay far from it... Also sport/parks, good access to be able to do weekend trips and so on.

Nothing really that demanding from any city of 1 mill plus... but I just got so mislead by alot of my reading i guess.. with people making it out like life outside of seoul is not worth it. To be honest we want more so the opposite of emulating our current lifestyle... We couldnt care less about eating western food and actually are more interested in korean/asian cuisine in general. We would be there to moderately save money but also to do some casual weekend trips and alike.

Maybe this info will help narrow down some places? Again thanks so much for the help, greatly appreciated!

[Pa Jan Jo A Hamnida]

Busan bar none!

[air76]

The most important thing to remember for doing weekend trips is to buy a car as soon as you can...having a car makes Korea 1,000 times better, I think that it's essential, especially in your first year when you're interested in exploring. It isn't complicated and it's dirt cheap. For $1,500 you can buy a reliable used car and pay for the entire year's insurance for both of you.

If you like the outdoors check out Jeollanamdo...Mokpo, Suncheon, Jinju (not in Jeolla but nearby)...all those places are big enough to have western food options, cinemas, foreigner bars, shopping, and so on.

[Smee]

[calmerlek]

I actually saw that FFF thing in a post when i was searching and thought it sounded a bit stupid.

I think we would probably like to be in quite a decent sized city (5-700,00ish plus). Those places look great air76 but I think better for weekend trips for us, we were thinking a little bigger. We basically looked through the remaining larger cities from Seoul down and thought they all looked pretty sweet, but couldn't really find much reference on google or alike as to what each city's benefits (or what they are known/noticed for) were except the usual climate/public transport stuff. I have a list at home of some places also I will post when I get back.

Also the consulate here said a car would be a good idea, but I've heard korean driving is quite crazy?

[reactionary]

I'm gonna have to side with the Seoul crowd. When I lived in Japan, it was fun to travel around the country. A lot of cities had a unique feel to them. In Korea, if I visit a new town, I get there, say "meh," and look forward to the three hour train/bus ride back to Seoul. You can eat dak galbi in Chuncheon. You can drink Andong soju in Andong. Big deal.

Seoul is dotted with mountains within the city limits, and a lot of them are less crowded than famous mountains in other parts (Seoraksan). Every place I've lived in Seoul has been near a mountain. In Seocho-gu, I was able to walk to a small one from my apartment. Now I'm a 5-10 minute bus ride from Bukhansan.

Smee has posted about the Boseong tea plantations before - I'd imagine getting there, spending 5 minutes taking pictures, and then be done with it.

A lot of the "joys" of living in the country or smaller towns are extremely seasonal. The beach isn't that fun in the winter and neither are ski resorts in the summer. Seoul has cultural stuff going on year-round and enough nature to satisfy you in the mild months.

[Draz]