Korean Job Discussion Forums

[rareeagle]

Anyone any experience of this city and area?

[icicle]

There are 2 Gwangju's in Korea ... which confused me at first when I got a job in the other one ... which is in Gyeonggi Province not far from Seoul ... I am sure from previous postings that there are people on this list from the larger Gwangju which you are interested in...

Icicle

[Smee]

There are plenty of posts about Gwangju here . . . use the search function to get some more info.

I've been there many times, and yes, it's the biggest city in Jeollanam-do. Politically it's independent of Jeolla-do, but it's smack dab in the middle, and has plenty to do.

For more info:

http://wiki.galbijim.com/Gwangju

http://wiki.galbijim.com/Portal:Jeollanam-do

[rareeagle]

is there enough things to do to keep you busy for a year?. Been offered PS job there and curious as seems to be away from the 'action' of Korea, if you know what I mean? Doesn't seem to have subway etc is it a smaller version of Daegu? I've read the net blurb, just after some personal insights thanks....

[lulu144]

I went crazy there and quit my job in gwangju. Now I'm just outside of seoul and it's awesome!! I never saw foreigners during the week and the public school treated me like crap. Sure it's bigger, and there is a canadian bar.... but in my experience everyone ( most) in gwangju are pretty nutty..... and not in a good way

[butlerian]

[OiGirl]

Gwangju has a subway, but it doesn't go much of anywhere, unless you have an appointment at City Hall or something...

There are plenty of things to do, but if you're used to a bigger city, it might be a drag. It has that certain Jeolla attitude, and the foreigners who are happy here over the long term resonate with that.

I can go weeks without seeing another foreigner except at school, (and even then, quite rarely unless I go by the Language Center,) but you can always go downtown or to a few other hot spots and hang with people. There are a number of bars downtown that are quite popular with foreigners, one foreign-owned, the "old" bar run by Koreans that targeted the foreign crowd, a German brewery, and a nice quiet wine bar.

Any more specific questions?

[rareeagle]

perhaps you could expand on the "jeolla attitude"? What's the cost of living like? How long would it take to go to the coast? Is it a modern city or does it have some heritage places? Good markets?

[OiGirl]

Read about 5.18. The kind of things that made that happen here, from the citizens' point of view, still exist. Kind of revolutionaries, freedom fighters, from a country-bumpkin background.

The cost of living is quite cheap, at least for me, because I don't have a lot of "Western-style" needs. You can get some Western food at restaurants and groceries and the like, but I still need a run to Seoul a few times a year for books, clothes, and groceries.

It's a few hours to the coast. I haven't been there on purpose in a while.

There's not a whole lot of "heritage" in the city itself (except the the 1980s stuff), but lots of interesting sites in the suburbs and in the province, many of them accessible by city bus if you are patient and creative.

Many small markets and one big one. What are you looking to get in a market? I know THE BEST tofu place in all Korea!

[penfold]

Where is this German bar?

[julian_w]

Ah, yeah, gidday rareeagle.

The good peoples at the Gwangju International Center might be able to help keep you busy... depending, of course, on exactly what you want to do to "...keep busy for a year..." (...But then that's the question you'd want to ask yourself.)

They do stuff like Korean language lessons, monthly English language tourist trips around the province on weekends, an annual foreigners festival-type day with mutli-ethnic food. There's a good, cheap, second-hand book library at the center. And yeah there's quite a good monthly magazine to keep you up to date with what's happening. It's written and published virtually completely by volunteers, and they're usually looking for anyone keen to help out.

I was in the city for three and a half years, and still think of it as my 'home' within Korea. I'm enjoying exploring other parts of the country... but I'm not really a big city type. Can't stand Seoul, except for the music scene there, cos I do enjoy a good variety of loud (live) music.

But then again, the good people at Mike & Dave's have sorted that out a good bit; there are other bars you can go to, to play your own music or with friends anytime; and there's some very fine bars literally across the road from down town that play an assortment of the best recorded music. There's the small bar called Truffaut with the super-cool owner dude with a supremely fine DVD music library you can actually borrow from, and a great wine selection at hand, too. They're just around the corner from the standard bar-type bar Soul Train with the pool table (still going last I heard). Four Play is just the other side of the block, and more into jazz, but the owner/operater bloke will pull out anything you request - and he'll have it.

It comes back to that question about what you want. Do you need ALL the creature comforts of standard western life, or are you up for more of a cultural challenge? Gwangju is - in my mind - a perfect place, because it's poised gracefully between being a city overrun with western consumerism, and a country-town character that makes it fairly unique.

Like someone else was getting at, you've got to be there during May to understand the pride the place carries for essentially spearheading the modern era of democracy on this land. If you're at all interested in politics, or the local people...

Or for that matter the best of Korean food - as I've now had confirmed by other Koreans all over the country - and have surely experienced myself: Go west, young person! (ie. west of Jilli Mountain, that is!)

As for western consumerism: jeeze, just after my mates from there and I arrived in about 2000, there was a huge cultural revolution - and I'm not talking about the World Cup - I'm talking about the advent of real coffee. Now, there are expresso shops all over the place. ...

Wish I could tell you about the German beer bar... But you can read about it in a back issue of that magazine. I'm sure they had an article on it sometime in the last year or so...

Good luck! Have fun, whereever you land.
... And let us know if you do end up landing there. I'd like to know what you reckon about the place, and what it's like these days.