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Korean Job Discussion Forums
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Hotpants
Joined: 27 Jan 2006
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 Posted: Fri Oct 06, 2006 11:40 pm Post subject: Goshiwon |
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Some people have asked me what it's like living in a Goshiwon/Goshi-tel/One Room. Hence, I have made a Goshiwon video! It's nothing hi-tech, but gives the uninitiated an idea of what the Goshiwon is.
Video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5JAxq--kn3I
I am the first YouTube poster for the heading 'Goshiwon'! Perhaps others can contribute their stuff?
I'm not exactly thrilled to be living in a Goshiwon. It's hot, noisy and full of mosquitoes, not to mention the incredibly small size. But, it really is a bargain option, and ideal for anyone coming to Korea on a speculative job hunt with a tight budget. It's much safer and cheaper than staying in a Yeogwan inn. It's also cheaper than a Hasook.
If you can read Korean, you can locate a Goshiwon in advance: http://www.gosi1.net/ Otherwise, they are quite easy to find especially around any university area. Just look for the Korean - 고시원
Prices in Seoul average 200,000-300,000 per month for the basic rooms. If you want an extra square metre, you can add at least another 50,000. All utilities are included. Your room is fully furnished with internet connection and TV. You will share a washroom, kitchen and laundry room. Some Goshiwons have an en-suite bathroom. Pretty small, though. Again, you will be paying a higher price for this 'luxury'.
Rice and noodles are provided free of charge in the Goshiwon, although you'll have to cook these yourself - no big deal.
If anyone can add their live-in Goshiwon experiences, feel free. |
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Mashimaro
Joined: 31 Jan 2003
Location: location, location
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| Posted: Fri Oct 06, 2006 11:53 pm Post subject: |
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| Are you allowed to have 'friends' sleep over? |
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jajdude
Joined: 18 Jan 2003
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| Posted: Sat Oct 07, 2006 12:13 am Post subject: |
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Yes, I think you can have friends over as long as you're not too noisy. I saw a few Korean guys with their girlfriends staying over a lot.
Another source for finding a goshiwon, as long as you read Korean at even a basic level, is those free 'market place' newspapers that sell all kinds of things. They list lots of goshiwons. I've seen them as cheap as 130,000/month, but would not recommend that, as conditions would no doubt be very basic. They are good for eating in too. You can buy food and cook in the kitchen, something you cannot do in a motel. Plus they usually have free rice always ready.
Of course it is best to find one that is less than full. Having to wait to get a shower sucks.
Be careful. Some of them get cold between Oct-Feb... |
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Ginormousaurus
Joined: 27 Jul 2006
Location: 700 Ft. Pulpit
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| Posted: Sat Oct 07, 2006 12:36 am Post subject: |
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| *shudder* I will never live in a goshiwon. |
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hogwonguy1979
Joined: 22 Dec 2003
Location: the racoon den
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| Posted: Sat Oct 07, 2006 2:17 am Post subject: |
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thanks for the tour, i've always wondered what they looked like
no way I'd ever live in one |
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Ya-ta Boy
Joined: 16 Jan 2003
Location: Established in 1994
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| Posted: Sat Oct 07, 2006 2:22 am Post subject: |
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| I could see living in one for a month or so if I were looking for a job...but a year? Hunh-uh. Not me. |
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Hotpants
Joined: 27 Jan 2006
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| Posted: Sat Oct 07, 2006 5:12 am Post subject: |
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| Quote: |
| Are you allowed to have 'friends' sleep over? |
I know the other girls sneak in their boyfriends from time to time, but quite honestly, if you have more than one person in one of these rooms at a time, it'll lead to SUFFOCATION! There's really no room to swing a cat inside one of these things...
| Quote: |
| Be careful. Some of them get cold between Oct-Feb... |
In my case, quite the opposite...SOOOO HOT because the underfloor heating system turns the small, often unventilated rooms into furnaces. It's like living in a sauna. So much so, I have suffered from heatstroke twice, and had to move out for a while last spring because I couldn't cope with the heat anymore. Thermometer read over 40 degrees inside the room, while it got down to as low at minus 20 outside last December. It was nuts. I tried to keep the fire escape door open to allow in some air, but all the other occupants complained it was cold, so we had a real fall out during that time.
(Yeah, I'm one of those who DON'T get housing with the job, otherwise, I certainly wouldn't have stuck this out for so long!) |
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matthews_world
Joined: 15 Feb 2003
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| Posted: Sat Oct 07, 2006 3:16 pm Post subject: |
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| Another benefit of staying in a goshiwon is free water, internet, electricity, gas and cable. In other words, no bills. |
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djsmnc
Joined: 20 Jan 2003
Location: Dave's ESL Cafe
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| Posted: Sat Oct 07, 2006 3:21 pm Post subject: |
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The narrator could hypnotize me with her voice.
I would pay her a nice sum of cash to read instruction manuals or cookbooks to me while I lay on my bed.
Would you call that a fetish? |
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princess
Joined: 16 Jan 2003
Location: soul of Asia
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| Posted: Sat Oct 07, 2006 3:27 pm Post subject: |
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| Ginormousaurus wrote: |
| *shudder* I will never live in a goshiwon. |
Me, too. I'd rather stay in a motel and eat my meals out. |
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Mashimaro
Joined: 31 Jan 2003
Location: location, location
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| Posted: Sat Oct 07, 2006 4:28 pm Post subject: |
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| princess wrote: |
| Ginormousaurus wrote: |
| *shudder* I will never live in a goshiwon. |
Me, too. I'd rather stay in a motel and eat my meals out. |
How many hotels cost 200-300,000 won per month? |
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heydelores
Joined: 24 Apr 2006
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| Posted: Sat Oct 07, 2006 4:37 pm Post subject: |
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| Thanks for sharing it. It makes my officetel room look like a mansion! |
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Hotpants
Joined: 27 Jan 2006
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| Posted: Sat Oct 07, 2006 6:05 pm Post subject: |
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Princess wrote:
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| I'd rather stay in a motel and eat my meals out. |
I think you missed the point that you can choose whether you eat in or out when in a Goshiwon. It's not quite a prison!
Also, your user name suggests you are female. I used to think staying in a motel was a good idea. Korea is safe...nothing bad will happen... Well, I managed about 4 months in one, but one night a man picked the lock of my door and tried to attack me while I was sleeping. My phone line turned out to have been cut in advance, so the attack had all been planned out and would have ended in disaster had I have not woken up in time. It was really sooo scary that I'd never live in another motel if it didn't have good security - a feature that the low cost motels simply don't have. Looking back, I realise how dangerous some of the motels potentially are. Therefore, I would tell all women here to live in a motel only as A LAST RESORT and to make some plan in case someone breaks into your room. Of course, a Goshiwon has its risks, too, but I think the security is a bit tighter in the building, and it is not surrounded by the inviting seediness of a motel, so potential risks are lower. |
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mithridates
Joined: 03 Mar 2003
Location: President's office, Korean Space Agency
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| Posted: Sat Oct 07, 2006 6:17 pm Post subject: Re: Goshiwon |
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| Hotpants wrote: |
Some people have asked me what it's like living in a Goshiwon/Goshi-tel/One Room. Hence, I have made a Goshiwon video! It's nothing hi-tech, but gives the uninitiated an idea of what the Goshiwon is.
Video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5JAxq--kn3I
I am the first YouTube poster for the heading 'Goshiwon'! Perhaps others can contribute their stuff?
I'm not exactly thrilled to be living in a Goshiwon. It's hot, noisy and full of mosquitoes, not to mention the incredibly small size. But, it really is a bargain option, and ideal for anyone coming to Korea on a speculative job hunt with a tight budget. It's much safer and cheaper than staying in a Yeogwan inn. It's also cheaper than a Hasook.
If you can read Korean, you can locate a Goshiwon in advance: http://www.gosi1.net/ Otherwise, they are quite easy to find especially around any university area. Just look for the Korean - 고시원
Prices in Seoul average 200,000-300,000 per month for the basic rooms. If you want an extra square metre, you can add at least another 50,000. All utilities are included. Your room is fully furnished with internet connection and TV. You will share a washroom, kitchen and laundry room. Some Goshiwons have an en-suite bathroom. Pretty small, though. Again, you will be paying a higher price for this 'luxury'.
Rice and noodles are provided free of charge in the Goshiwon, although you'll have to cook these yourself - no big deal.
If anyone can add their live-in Goshiwon experiences, feel free. |
That's a great video and I added it to the external links on the goshiwon article:
http://wiki.galbijim.com/Goshiwon
That's definitely one of the cheaper ones though. I guess my worst goshiwon experience was for a month back in 2003 when I moved out of an apartment in Sanbon and had to look around the station for a new apartment, and in the meantime I stayed there. No nice hot water in the shower, well only about half of the time. Weird smell from there and since there was only one you'd have to time your showers just right by waking up 30 minutes early and listening until you think the person left the shower and now you can go in and use it, if the hot water is running that is. Whenever it didn't work I'd go down to the health club one floor below and pay to use theirs. That goshiwon cost 160,000 a month and I hope it's gone now. |
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DCJames
Joined: 27 Jul 2006
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| Posted: Sat Oct 07, 2006 6:52 pm Post subject: |
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| Hotpants wrote: |
Princess wrote:
| Quote: |
| I'd rather stay in a motel and eat my meals out. |
I think you missed the point that you can choose whether you eat in or out when in a Goshiwon. It's not quite a prison!
Also, your user name suggests you are female. I used to think staying in a motel was a good idea. Korea is safe...nothing bad will happen... Well, I managed about 4 months in one, but one night a man picked the lock of my door and tried to attack me while I was sleeping. My phone line turned out to have been cut in advance, so the attack had all been planned out and would have ended in disaster had I have not woken up in time. It was really sooo scary that I'd never live in another motel if it didn't have good security - a feature that the low cost motels simply don't have. Looking back, I realise how dangerous some of the motels potentially are. Therefore, I would tell all women here to live in a motel only as A LAST RESORT and to make some plan in case someone breaks into your room. Of course, a Goshiwon has its risks, too, but I think the security is a bit tighter in the building, and it is not surrounded by the inviting seediness of a motel, so potential risks are lower. |
Hotpants, there are many 'undesirables' that live in gosiwons as well. Most people that stay there are students or young working people saving to move to a better place, but there are some people that live there because they are unemployed, mentally unstable, or moving from place to place.
You should be very careful even with the security they have at your gosiwon.
Personally, I wouldn't live in one if I didn't have to. |
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