Korean Job Discussion Forums

[jzrossef]

Just wondering if anyone had experience here? It's really small place (wikipedia says the population is like just below100k... that's the entire province, not a city... place I'm looking at is like just over 25k) I'm thinking of getting few months of experience here to get the jest of living in Korea. It's a Christian school with English director and the contract looks pretty solid... just wondering if it's more or less a modern city.

[jvalmer]

[drunkenfud]

It might be best to think of Yangpyeong (읍 the town rather than 군 the county) as more or less a modern town rather than city. It's big enough for a couple of supermarkets and loads of restaurants. Not much in the way of foreign chains. It's about an hour from Seoul by subway, bus, or regular train. I personally think it's a good place to live, but some people might find it a bit too quiet.

Do you know where you will be expected to live? If it's anywhere in the county other than Yangpyeong town or Yongmun, I'd suggest you think long and hard. Parts of the county are very rural indeed.

[TheUrbanMyth]

I lived there for three years and enjoyed it. Overall it was my best living experience in Korea. But I lived in a new apartment right on the edge of town so it was pretty quiet...except for the tanks/army jeeps that about once a month drove down the main road right beside the apartment.

[Alphabet_Stew]

Oh! Yangpyeong - NOT Yeongpyeong..

[jzrossef]

The school's located in Yangpyeong. I'm trying to get some experience teaching before I settle for teaching career in Asia. I thought it was nice cause it's a city but not too close to Seoul or too overcrowded. Not sure if the goods are cheaper even if it is relatively a rural area. (Though that may not be the case as it is still pretty close to Seoul?) Is it really rural or mediocre-sized town? The population is really small and there are a lot of farmlands from google map. I just hope that there are few big retail stores to keep my needs in check. (Think it's called Bak-kah-jum in Korean)

[drunkenfud]

It is pretty much how you describe it. It's not rural, although it is set in a rural county, and is a medium sized town.

It's not noticably cheaper than Seoul for everyday items, maybe even a little more expensive due to lack of competition.

There are supermarkets (smallish ones, no e-mart), but no department stores. However, anything you could want is a short train ride away in Seoul.

[jzrossef]

[zhanknight]

I live in Yangpyeong-DONG in Seoul. Taxi guys always want to take me all the way out to Yangpyeong city.

[thatkidpercy]

You can actually take the subway from Yangpyeong into Seoul - it's towards the end of the Jungang line which terminates at Yongmun. It's understandably not as frequent as the inner city lines in Seoul itself (2-3 trains per hour), but very handy nonetheless - it's dirt cheap at around W1500 and takes just over an hour to get to Wangsimni, from where you can transfer to line 2 and easily get to most places you'll want to be in Seoul.

There's also a regular train (Mugunghwa) which is a lot faster (30mins), but it terminates at Cheongnyangni, which I personally find a little inconvenient.

I don't really participate in the native teacher scene, but I'm aware that there's a decentish sized meetup once or twice a week in Yangpyeong.

[jvalmer]

[jzrossef]

I hear that subways are usually on the schedule and clean unlike other Korean transportation... so a real relief to hear it. Thanks thatkidpercy.

Thanks jvalmer for your estimates. (I'm gonna assume that 300k per month is assuming the current rise in grocery inventories) I can cook on my own whenever I get the western crave... but should be alright.

I'll see if school has something like that. Let's hope that it's better than plastic food or fastfood ripoff.

[sesyeux]

i thought this was about the line 5 place in seoul too, because thats where i lay my hat, alas