Korean Job Discussion Forums

tanklor1 · Joined: 13 Jun 2006

I live in a city with less than a 100000 people so I know that I'm in for a shock when I leave. So I was hoping to maybe get into a smaller city or town to teach. But I have a feeling that that definition of "Small" is going to be different over there. So how many poeple would you say are in a small town/city in Korea?

kermo

jacl · Joined: 31 Oct 2005

100,000 is fairly small here. You might have a Pizza Hut, Dominoes, and a Popeye Chicken. No McDonalds or Burger King. No steak restaurants unless you dig for it somewhere. Enough supermarkets and a movie theater.

It's hard to say because there are so many people here.

I'd venture to say that 100,000 in Korea is like 30,000 back in Canada.

sekki · Joined: 20 Jul 2006

tomato · Posted: Mon Jul 24, 2006 12:11 pm Post subject:

You're right.
When I put out a notice for a job in a small town, recruiters try to tell me that anything with 5 digits is a small town.
The smallest town in which I have been able to land a job--until now--is Hongsong in the province of Chungnam.
That was the only community in which I felt as if I were locally famous.
Whenever I went downtown, I was greeted as Tomato not only by children in my English school, but by children I didn't even know.

I am currently in the process of packing up and moving to Janghoweon in the province of Gyeonggido.
Janghoweon has a bountiful peach harvest every year, and school always lets out for their week-long peach festival.
I might be able to tell you more about Janghoweon later.

Ya-ta Boy · Joined: 16 Jan 2003 Location: Established in 1994

As I understand it, a myon is the rural equivalent of an urban dong. I live in a myon of 7,000 people. A bunch of myons make up a county. My high school pulls in kids from 6 or 7 myons (maybe more) for an enrollment of 120 in the high school.

We are big enough to have two grocery stores...one of them even put in a butcher department this last month. Up till then, they only had some meat once a week.

But I think the really telling statistic that truly explains just how small this burg is is this: We have ONLY 4 PC bangs.

JZer · Joined: 13 Jan 2005 Location: South Korea

JZer · Joined: 13 Jan 2005 Location: South Korea

jacl · Joined: 31 Oct 2005

Then there's "eup" which I believe means "town". "ri" means "village", I think.

laogaiguk · Joined: 06 Dec 2005 Location: somewhere in Korea

I am in a town of about 100000. The McDonald's went out of business. That might say something Wink

kermo · Posted: Mon Jul 24, 2006 3:53 pm Post subject:

Benicio · Posted: Mon Jul 24, 2006 3:53 pm Post subject:

Kwangju has a million people and Koreans call it a "country town".

In Korea, there are only 2 places: Seoul and not Seoul.

JZer · Joined: 13 Jan 2005 Location: South Korea

tomato · Posted: Tue Jul 25, 2006 2:41 am Post subject:

heydelores · Joined: 24 Apr 2006

Does anyone know what an -eup is? I lived in one. It had about 5,000 people. Some things were really nice about it. EVERYONE knew me. I got offers for rides, sometimes to other towns, and dinner invitations all the time. People I didn't know well at all would bring gifts for no reason. Other things got old fast. There were no other foreigners in town except for my coworkers, and it was much too insular of a community. Very few people spoke enough English for a conversation. No matter what I did or where I went, someone would ask me where I was going. Then I'd hear about it later from someone else. "Delores, doctor. Okay?" On the one hand, it was nice to know people cared. On the other, there was no privacy. I would go our of town on the weekends for a change of scenery. Parents actually complained to the school that I went away too often (why should they care, right?). I don't regret my time there, but I won't be going back and don't know that I'd recommend it.