Korean Job Discussion Forums

[Iago]

Hi, I was wondering how difficult it is to make Korean friends while in Korea?

I haven't quite got there yet but will be in about a month.

I already have a couple of Korean friends in Kwangju but don't really want to go there.

cheers

[King Baeksu]

[Freakstar]

[ruffie]

Don't worry, If you have something they want, they will come to you.

[Oreovictim]

Oh, yeah, I've made TONS of Korean friends. They especially want to hang out with you right before having a big English exam. Gee . . . I wonder why that is? Maybe they just feel nervous and want to get distracted by hanging out with a good pal.

Yeah, another strange thing; they always want to hang out in libraries or in the (few) quiet coffee shops there are. Don't get me wrong, when you do go out to a restaurant or bar, they always bring their guy friends, and you never see any of their girlfriends that they talk about so much.

Okay, all situations are like this. I do have a few cool Korean friends. But the one that I hang out with the most spent his high school and college years in America, has already scored a perfect (or near perfect) score on his TOEIC exam, and has no reason to practice his English-e.

You shouldn't have a problem making friends. REAL friends? That's a different story.

[jajdude]

Real friends?

Yeah, we use "friend" too liberally.

Sometimes "drinking buddy" might be the correct term.

[PeteJB]

Try KoreanFriendFinder, you'll get a few takers there. Just watch out for the Oppa crowd.

[Pak Yu Man]

What a silly question. How easy is it to make friends back home?

Some Koreans are friendly, some are a$$es.

[Dev]

[Dev]

One thing you almost never see in Korea is a Korean young woman holding her foreigner boyfriend's hand.

You constantly see Korean women holding their Korean boyfriend's hand, but never the foreigner boyfriend's hand.

What does that tell you about the general attitude of Koreans towards foreigners?

[Smee]

I think it helps if you're involved with an extracurricular activity. While most of my coworkers have been pleasant, they haven't really been too social. A lot of times I can understand, especially if there's an age difference (I'm 26, and they're often married with kids and obligations). But at one of my hagwon the teachers were discouraged from socializing with the foreign teachers, and I've heard this being the case at other places as well. Especially if it involves a mixing of the sexes.

If you're involved with something else around the community---whether martial arts or music, or something as simple as hiking or exercising in the park---that seems to make things easier.

I've had mixed results making Korean friends. I've met a few quality friends, but in general they've been (1) coworkers who are friendly but don't get too personal, (2) interested in making an "English" friend, or (3, the most common) nice enough people who are very much into the routine of drinking, drinking, drinking, and asking the same questions, like "do you like _____ (food)" or "how about Korea?" That gets old after about 3 days, and as I've been in country a while I definitely steer clear of that type.

[Homer]

As it was said...there are good people and bad people here...so making friends will depend on that, on you, and on how you approach things...

I made some close friends here and many acquaintances (funny...that tends to happen everywhere...few close friends, many acquaintances you see irregularly)....

Of course if you behave like an idiot it might make it hard to make friends.....also to make Korean friends you have to hang out with Koreans sometime...not just at the westerner watering hole

There can be a language barrier and culture will only be a barrier if you make it one.

[Atavistic]

[nautilus]

[Dev]