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How's living in Itaewon with a family?

 
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mr. positive



Joined: 02 Jan 2008
Location: a happy place

PostPosted: Sun Jan 05, 2014 3:37 pm    Post subject: How's living in Itaewon with a family? Reply with quote

My wife and I are looking at moving to an apartment in Itaewon, in the Chunghwa Apartments (청화아파트) specifically, about a seven-minute walk south of Itaewon Station. I had never really thought of living in Itaewon before but the apartment sounds like it could be a good deal. So I'm just wondering if anyone in this group lives in Itaewon and what you think of it and/or what pros or cons you can think of to living there as a family with two daughters.

One factor that seems like it would be significant is that my daughters would go to Itaewon Elementary School. I'm guessing it is a pretty multicultural school, which to me seems like it would be a big plus, since one of my major concerns about my daughters growing up here is the monocultural society.

As for the potential negatives, though, Itaewon is not a terribly family-friendly area overall in my experience, and I'm concerned that my wife wouldn't be able to find (English) tutoring gigs in the area as I'm guessing the market for tutoring is not huge already and might be saturated by native speakers and not have much room for a near-native English-speaking Korean.

Any input will be much appreciated, thanks!
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Harpeau



Joined: 01 Feb 2003
Location: Coquitlam, BC

PostPosted: Wed Jan 08, 2014 7:40 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

Itaewon is a nice place to live. Depending on the location, it can be a bit noisy in the evenings. The cost of living is somewhat higher than many other parts of Korea.

In regard to your wife, if she is bilingual, she might be able to find an interesting niche. Part of that is to find an itch that needs to be scratched.

Living in Itaewon is very dynamic. It all depends what you want.
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furtakk



Joined: 02 Jun 2009

PostPosted: Wed Jan 08, 2014 7:37 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

I lived in the area for about two years. I was a minute away from Chunghwa.

That complex is quite old, but has been maintained quite well, especially for apartments in Korea. The complex is really big and has a lot of greenery. It's just down antique street so you don't have any of the noise that you would in HBC or Gyeongridan. At the same time, it's close enough to the station that you can comfortably walk there.

On the other hand, as soon as you start to go south, the area becomes really slummy. Bogwangdong is a pretty dirty neighborhood. Tons of old villas that are on their last legs. You don't see any new buildings going up like you do in HBC or Gyeongridan.

As for raising a family in the area, I don't think I ever would. Chunghwa is pretty isolated from the rest of the neighborhood, but it's definitely not a great place for kids.
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