Korean Job Discussion Forums

[flash viego]

I have travelled a bit, but my main source of reference is what suburbs, and smaller cities are like in the US.

In the US, things are very different in NYC, and San Francisco, as opposed to places like Waco, Texas, Savannah, Georgia, and suburbs of Atlanta, Dallas , and so on.

What I mean by that for example, is

In NYC, if you want any of the comforts in life, you have to have a ton of money. If you want to be a member of a sports club, it;s crazy expensive. It's very urban, so you can't go to a huge supermarket, and easily park your car 24 hours a day like you can in a suburb, or smaller city.

I guess what I'm trying to get a sense of, is if life is easier in the satellite cities, and smaller cities like it is in the siuburbs, and smaller cities in the US.

For example, anywhere near NYC, if you wanted to join a golf club, you'd have to be a millionaire.

In small cities in the US, you can be a school teacher and afford membership at a golf club.

I know I'm all over the place with this, but I was wondering if there are nice comforts, like 24 hour stores, cheaper health clubs, and stuff like that in satellite cities, and smaller cities like we would have in the US, or is it stil kind of urban everywhere, and just poorer with not those kind of comforts in those places?

Please excuse my ignorance, but I just have no idea what those places would be like in Korea.

Thanks

[Hugo85]

Everywhere is pretty much the same as a normal Seoul neighborhood. So a satellite city will be like any neighborhood in Seoul except no Itaewon, Hongdae, Gangnam, etc... It can be said every city in Korea looks almost the same.

[NYC_Gal 2.0]

I'm in Incheon and it's pretty comfortable. It's close enough to Seoul that I can get there in 45 minutes, and far enough that my rent is much cheaper. I can afford to get a weekly pore cleaning/oxygen/collagen facial, fortnightly deep-tissue massage, expensive face creams at a ridiculous mark up, and assorted other spa treatments on a regular basis. Back home, I only got the skincare once a month, as it cost a whole lot more. Pedicures seem to cost twice as much here, though.

Foodwise, it's on par with Seoul. It's cheap if you buy local, expensive if you crave western foods. I don't go out drinking, so I spend that money on import items like cheese.

Also, my family are certainly not millionaires, but we could certainly afford to play golf at the local courses in NYC. I was sh** at it, though, so usually just went to the driving range when I was stressed out and needed to hit something.

[flash viego]

NYC gal
I guess I'm thinking about all the country clubs in Westchester, and Connecticut, where I used to teach tennis. You not only had to be a millionaire to be a member at those clubs, but you had to be selected to join, and there was a 10-15 year waitlist.

I actually wouldn't even compare NYC suburbs to other US city suburbs, because I found everything still crazy expensive until you got like 1 and a half hours away from the city, and then it was just a little expensive.

In my suburb of Houston where I live now, I can be a member of a decent golf course for like 75 bucks a month. My gym membership which is 24 hours a day, has an indoor pool, etc is like 40 a month, and I can use them all over the country. Theres a 24 hour walmart,(im 35 min away from Houston city has like 60k ppl) 24 hour dennys, and like 10 other 24 hour grocery restaurants etc.

Parking is super easy, rent is insanely cheap, theres never any real traffic, and life is just easy. Granted, theres more chains than interesting places, but I'm an easy commute to a big city.

I guess I'm wondering how suburbs and smaller cities compare more to the US experience of those size places, and ones like 45 minutes from Seoul, Busan etc., or a city under 2 million people.

I guess Hugo is saying that those places are not like US suburbs, and small cities, but rather just the same set up as Seoul, just smaller, furhter out, and maybe a little less expensive.

So I can't go to Waffle House at 330 AM I guess, go swimming at 330 Am, or buy a television at walmart at 2 am?

I'm going in late Aug/Sept, and before I start thinking about cities, or the importance of, I wanted to get a feel for what different places are like. In the US, on a lower type salary, I have found life easier in the burbs, and smaller cities. I would like to be a member of a club where I can swim, maybe even play tennis. I'm imagining in Seoul, and Busan that luxury would only be availible for the wealthy. I'm wondering if I get placed, or take a job in a city with like 600k people or something, that I could actually afford to join a club like that, or if they would even have something like that.

Thanks guys

[young_clinton]

I lived in a city of about 15000 people. All it had was a bowling alley and a sauna. When you leave the large metro areas all your going to get is Korean versions of American fast food. Keep in mind though the small local Korean restaurants that serve Korean food are generally delicious and cheap. I remember Buyeo which is 90,000 had only a Lotti Burger which is not so good. I never heard of anything really to do there either. Kongju, 150,000 used to have a McDonald's but it went out of business; Koreans like Lotti Burger not McDonald's.

[bucheon bum]

[NYC_Gal 2.0]

True, Hugo was spot on. Also, you can go to many Homeplus stores (Korean Tesco's, which is like Walmart) 24 hours a day, though some close at midnight.

Rent prices do go down a lot in the satellite cities, though. In Seoul, my 1-bedroom apartment would have key money of at least 20-30 million won. In Incheon, it's 5-10 million won (though we got it down even lower because we negotiated to pay a higher rent, as our puppy was very young when we moved in and were afraid he might destroy stuff.)

[wishfullthinkng]

flash,

the seoul satellite cities, as people have mentioned, are kind of like mini-seouls without certain aspects of the main city. however, they have a much different feel to them. for example, suwon is a large satellite city just south of seoul and is home to samsung, so naturally everyone and their brother there works for samsung. it is much more of a family-oriented city compared to seoul however, and it shows.

as well, you will find many outlying cities to have more older people, as seoul is a very young city and many young people from outside seoul go there to live/work/study. so even though many of the satellite cities look and feel similar to seoul, once you live in both you'll realize quickly that they are in reality almost nothing alike. i personally hated living in suwon when i did, but then again i like the speed and dynamics of a bustling metropolis and the energy younger people bring to a city like it even though by american standards, suwon is a bustling metropolitan city.

as for your worries about being able to do stuff/buy stuff at any time, the answer would almost always be yes in any major city here. as someone else mentioned, korea is more of a 24 hour society than anywhere else i've ever been, and much more so than america.

most foreigners here will never actually experience some of the things you were talking about here in terms of the exclusive clubs and such, but just like the usa there are 1% credit cards, 1% clubs, etc, they exist, even in the satellite cities.

[Threequalseven]

I've only been to four cities in Korea so far, and like others have said, there are fewer and fewer 20-somethings as the cities get smaller. But even in the city I live in, Mokpo, which has 250,000 people, there are still plenty of younger people. However, I visited a town of maybe 60,000 people once, and the bus terminal was ajumania. The vast majority of people were seniors with a few family-types sprinkled in the mix, but nobody my age. So, I guess to that extent, Korean cities are like American cities. But that's one of the only similarities.

The built environment in Korea is completely different from America. I actually like the city I live in. Everything is super close so I can walk or bike anywhere. I live 1 km from Emart and maybe 2 km from HomePlus, so I can just make little trips. For me, this is a big advantage over living in a big city like Kwangju or even Seoul. In Kwangju especially, I got the sense that everything was really spread out. The roads were really wide, and the buildings were really big and far away from each other. It wasn't nearly as human scale as Mokpo. In Seoul, this is mitigated by the subway system, but your commute time can still add up. So, unlike America, smaller cities in Korea are actually very accessible (as opposed to all the strip mall wastelands in America, where you need a car to get to the nearest convenience store).

One more thing. I was surprised how similar Seoul is to Mokpo. I was expecting some kind of centralized development, like Manhattan or something. But it was really just a lot of the same type of development as most other Korean cities - just more of it. I wasn't even that impressed with Itewon, Hongdae, or Gangnam. I mean, from everything I heard, my expectations were pretty high. They had more bars and foreign themed restaurants than most places, but I wasn't blown away like I thought I'd be. However, there are also tons of sights to see in Seoul, so I'm sure all the people living there will say I'm full of it. Also, I've really only spent time there once, so take what I'm saying with a grain of salt.

Anyway, if you already live in a small U.S. city, then you'll most likely enjoy a small Korean city too (as long as it's not too small). The major department stores might close at midnight and the foreign restaurants might be limited to McDonalds and Lotteria, but aside from that, you'll have no problem getting what you need.