Korean Job Discussion Forums

[sweetsun]

ok i'm moving to seoul in two weeks...yikes!!!!!!! so soon. super excited and pumped but regular apprehensions as well.
so i will be living in gangnam...anyone there? any thoughts on this area? i would luv to hear about it.

[soviet_man]

It is an expensive upscale place with a lot of newly-monied yuppies.

Most of the housing in the area is in the form of tiny, over-priced officetel studios with massively inflated rents.

There are also a lot of small pretentious restaurants there, filled with narcissistic people (wearing suits and ties and driving black Equus cars) who sit around all day pretending to be important.

Most of the waygooks who work on Gangnam street are with one of the big three chains (YBM, Pagoda or BCM). Most of them are on hideous split-shifts and are earning FAR LESS money than what you could make at a normal kids hagwon in the suburbs.

Sure there may be fewer old ajummas doing aerobics in the gym and less bongo trucks clogging up the street, but apart from that - I've never figured out what the big attraction is to living in Gangnam (and I wouldn't live there myself).

[Lion Brown]

Well Soviet-Man, you make it clear you don't like the place nor live there. Been there once?

Gangnam is a big place, it's not just one street.
You are right when you say it is expensive, but there are parts of Gangnam that are more reasonable than others, still they are more expensive than shiTzville or where ever you live (yes making judgements here).

Obviously you have some issues with the area.

[soviet_man]

There is a major inflation problem in Gangnam with rental prices for apartments. It equates to the difference of paying 400,000 a month on the north side of the river (where I live), to potentially paying DOUBLE that (or more) a month to rent in Gangnam.

It is quite an elitist area and all that vanity and ambition doesn't impress me at all.

I guess if you like boob jobs, cheap suits, plastic surgery and absurd real estate prices - then you'll fit in fine there.

[Juregen]

The thing is Koreans are very "trend dependant", not all but quit a lot.

"Image" means all, so for these Koreans "if you look rich, you are rich".

[pet lover]

I live in Gangnam. I like it here. It's quiet. It's clean. When I'm out walking the dogs every morning, I always see people outside sweeping the sidewalk in front of where they live. Garbage is picked up quickly. Police cars make their rounds VERY regularly. Yeah, clinics for plastic surgery are EVERYWHERE, but they are easy to ignore. Not as bad as living somewhere that has fastfood restaurants all over the place. Plastic surgery doesn't stink. Fast food restaurants do. Literally. I've been here two weeks and have YET to have anyone ask me "how much?" or anything like that. Personally, I find Gangnam to be a really nice area in which to live.