Tips for Living in South Korea

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Cookie18

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I found out yesterday that my application to study at a South Korean university next semester has been successful so I will be living there from February to July 2013.

So what do I need to know about living in South Korea? Is there anywhere in particular I should go/experience? Most importantly, can I get video games in English from brick and mortar stores?
 
Cookie18 said:
I found out yesterday that my application to study at a South Korean university next semester has been successful so I will be living there from February to July 2013.

So what do I need to know about living in South Korea? Is there anywhere in particular I should go/experience? Most importantly, can I get video games in English from brick and mortar stores?
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Have you gone to the DMZ yet? =3
 
What university are you studying at? I'll be at Sogang University for the same amount of time!

By the way, I also went to Seoul last summer for a summer class. Getting around is really easy; the only difficulty thing might be ordering food in certain restaurants that aren't English friendly (but generally around the universities there are many restaurants that either have menus in English or have pictures of the food in the menu).
 
Cookie18 said:
I found out yesterday that my application to study at a South Korean university next semester has been successful so I will be living there from February to July 2013.

So what do I need to know about living in South Korea? Is there anywhere in particular I should go/experience? Most importantly, can I get video games in English from brick and mortar stores?
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Had a friend go through that system. It was filled with Mongolian and Chinese applicants.

Better get used to terrible dorms and learning a difficult language ASAP.

dogbutt said:
What university are you studying at? I'll be at Sogang University for the same amount of time!

By the way, I also went to Seoul last summer for a summer class. Getting around is really easy; the only difficulty thing might be ordering food in certain restaurants that aren't English friendly (but generally around the universities there are many restaurants that either have menus in English or have pictures of the food in the menu).
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Ya OP hope you get a big SKY university. Otherwise enjoy the sticks.
 
dogbutt said:
What university are you studying at? I'll be at Sogang University for the same amount of time
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I'll be at Soonchunhyang University. It's about 50 miles outside of Seoul.

shira said:
Had a friend go through that system. It was filled with Mongolian and Chinese applicants.

Better get used to terrible dorms and learning a difficult language ASAP.


Ya OP hope you get a big SKY university. Otherwise enjoy the sticks.
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I didn't go through an exchange system as the University is twinned with mine in England. The dorms are all English speaking/Korean split.
 
Where in Korea will you be living? Korean isn't very difficult to learn. The written language is incredibly simple as its all phonetic, spoken is fairly easy once you get used to the sentence structure and verb forms.

There are some cultural things that can throw you off but I assume you will be with other international students and Korean uni student so it shouldn't be too rough.

Edit:nevermind we know where you will be now. What's the name of your town? 50 miles is quite far.
 
dogbutt said:
Ah. Well, I don't know how easy things are outside of Seoul. You should definitely visit Seoul at some point though, there's a ton of things to do there.
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It's only 30 minutes on the bullet train to Seoul so I'm going to be going there as much as I can. Tickets are cheap too.
 
South Koreans study a lot. My best tip is for you to be prepared for that, but you probably knew it already. A lot of students study all the time when they're not sleeping. Some are even driven to suicide because of all the studying.
 
I have no first-hand experience with this, but I've heard several Starcraft 2 personalities (who have lived in korea for a while) saying that sarcasm and irony is very uncommon in South Korea. So I guess be wary before trying anything like that.

Also men (maybe just boys) seem to hug and touch eachother a lot more than in the western world, even when they're both straight.
 
If you don't know it then the alphabet is super easy, 아이 합 네웨 이웬 빈 인 데르.
I hab neve even bin deru
Jokab said:
I have no first-hand experience with this, but I've heard several Starcraft 2 personalities (who have lived in korea for a while) saying that sarcasm and irony is very uncommon in South Korea. So I guess be wary before trying anything like that.

Also men (maybe just boys) seem to hug and touch eachother a lot more than in the western world, even when they're both straight.
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mkp1.gif


Good luck with the food. No really, I have heard the taste of it is very different, but that regular korean food is much healthier than regular food in the west. If that sounds horrible you can make korean pancakes (hoddeok) which is just a fermented dough with sugar, nuts and cinnemon inside that is cooked untill the sugar is caramelized. Not health at all, but tastes really good :P
 
Cookie18 said:
I found out yesterday that my application to study at a South Korean university next semester has been successful so I will be living there from February to July 2013.

So what do I need to know about living in South Korea? Is there anywhere in particular I should go/experience? Most importantly, can I get video games in English from brick and mortar stores?
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http://www.eatyourkimchi.com/korean-culture/

Watch their videos. Informative and entertaining.

Also

270180_376066849153176_137211066_n.jpg
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Hyoyeon.
 
Koreans have a false sense of how spicy their food is, and will constantly warn you about it. It can be annoying and amusing at the same time.
 
I just moved to Korea (Ulsan) about 3 months ago, it's a fucking awesome country with some really amazing people here!

One thing that really stands out about life here is that it's quite 'dynamic' as it's often described, which basically means things change all the damn time and sometimes with no explanation. On my street alone there's been like, 7-8 restaurants that have disappeared and been renovated into something else in the time that I've been here with no warning. Expect a lot of last minute decisions and changes to plans in every aspect of your life. I've heard of bus routes disappearing overnight too, but not from my own experience.

I hope you eat meat because it is incredibly difficult to live as a veggie here. Everything contains meat, and it's near impossible in most places to even ask for meat to be taken out of food (they never do anything different than the menu). Even if they say they excluded meat, spam doesn't seem to be considered meat here. If you are a meat-eater though, welcome to paradise! There's so many barbecue restaurants that are all amazing; samgyeopsal, galbi, jokbal... soo good!

In terms of what to bring, don't worry too much, I've had no trouble finding anything yet other than asprin/paracetamol. You can't buy that from the supermarket, it has to be from a pharmacy. Also, the toothpaste is quite different here, I think it's because it doesn't contain flouride so in case you don't like it, bring a few tubes with you. Deodorant is rare and kinda expensive, so bring like 4-5 sticks.

As someone else mentioned, you'll want to go to Yongsan, it blew my goddamn mind. So many games, computer things, cameras, just being sold on the street. For miles and miles. It's amazing! If you want to meet other English speakers easily, Itaewon is the place, and also Hongdae (another university area) is popular with foreigners.

Hope any of that is useful!
 
Sindorim on line one has a place called Techno Mart. On the 4th floor there are a ton of game vendors, same for Yongsan. Also,try your best to learn the language, it will make life a bitch if you don't....And it's fuckin cold as shit here right now, so be prepared.
 
Korea is amazing. I was only there for a week or so, but everything's super cheap and the food is unbelievable. I'd live there in a heartbeat if I got the chance to. There's less of a culture shock going there than Japan, the western culture is more prevalent so it's it's easier to adjust. I was living in Japan at the time that I went and it was like a breath of fresh air. ENJOY!
 
i've heard that the traffic is lawless and scary
a friend of mine said that a moped hit his car after running a red light and he got a ticket because "he was bigger (the car)" anecdotal and all but yeah...
 
Cookie18 said:
Most importantly, can I get video games in English from brick and mortar stores?
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Protip:

It's not the "most important" thing.

You're only there for 5 months. Make the most out of it. Don't waste your extra time playing games. You can do that in your home country. Use your time to network, make friends, and learn about where you are living. (If you can manage to interact with the Korean gaming scene, that might work. Just don't play games alone when you have the opportunity for something better).

Use the opportunity to find new avenues of entertainment that take advantage of your new environment, instead of relying on entertainment that you can do anywhere.

Assuming you have a generally positive experience abroad, you're almost certainly going to wish you spent your time more efficiently once it's time to go back home.
 
Rentahamster said:
Protip:

It's not the "most important" thing.

You're only there for 5 months. Make the most out of it. Don't waste your extra time playing games. You can do that in your home country. Use your time to network, make friends, and learn about where you are living. (If you can manage to interact with the Korean gaming scene, that might work. Just don't play games alone when you have the opportunity for something better).

Use the opportunity to find new avenues of entertainment that take advantage of your new environment, instead of relying on entertainment that you can do anywhere.

Assuming you have a generally positive experience abroad, you're almost certainly going to wish you spent your time more efficiently once it's time to go back home.
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I'd like to add that I semi-disagree. Yeah -- use your time to network, make friends and so forth, but don't exhaust yourself. If you want to calm down a few hours then go ahead and play some games. There's no reason to be "on" all time. Everyone need a moment to relax. You're there for a whole (not "only") five months!
 
LonelyGreyWolf said:
I'd like to add that I semi-disagree. Yeah -- use your time to network, make friends and so forth, but don't exhaust yourself. If you want to calm down a few hours then go ahead and play some games. There's no reason to be "on" all time. Everyone need a moment to relax. You're there for a whole (not "only") five months!
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Given that it was "most important", and he's on NeoGAF, there's a good chance "calm down for a few hours" is going to turn into a lot longer than that.
 
Rentahamster said:
Protip:

It's not the "most important" thing.
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That was a joke.

Thanks for all the replies. I'm reading through the thread now.

FYI: I'll probably just be taking my Vita and 3DS with me for use on the trains. I just really wanted to know where to go in order to see the culture that surrounds gaming there. Even then, it was still just a joke ;)
 
Respect the elders, since the older generation takes that shit seriously. Granted you may think its the same as the US for example, but its an even larger part of the Korean culture.
 
Just got back from Seoul two weeks ago, pretty awesome experience

The food is unbelievable (and this coming from an italian), Itaewon has some of the best restaurants i've ever been to.
It sucks if you're not used to spicy food though, i don't mind it but i almost had a stroke eating Topokki and that's not even the strongest food i tried there lol
If you are in a restaurant or a bar and nobody shows up (it doesen't happen often 'cause in general service is extremely fast) to serve you or take order don't indulge to shout out loud, that's how it works there and as said above DON'T give any tips outside for taxis

Stand up and offer a seat if you see an elder on the bus or metro without one

Smoking is extremely cheap, just be aware that in a lot of places smoking is forbidden and people can get really angry if you're smoking when there's children around

You MUST visit all the palaces or what they're called, the weather was not the best for me and i just can't imagine how beautiful they could get in a snowy season
ib0KMIcYHL5VNZ.jpg



...avoid music shops if you're not into K-pop. in 10 days i only saw like two stores with other kind of music or indie shops, pretty shitty how obsessed they are with idols and such

Ps Korean (expecially Seoul citizen) might seem a little cold in the approach and such at first, but just give it a couple of days, you'll have a great time, i'm sure of it :D

PPs 90% of shops and cafees has free wi-fi (psw is on the receipts or written at the counter) but if you just want to be sure to always have wifi available take a look here
http://first.wifi.olleh.com/en/index_new.html
 
Be sure to pack a semester's worth of deodorant.

The pizza is terrible.

If you like singing along to American music, lots of karaoke places.
 
ah I didn't even bother to find a Costco when I was there. Although I was able to get my deodorant at the military base.

Might still be cheaper to just pack your favs op.




Peru said:
You didn't go the right places http://www.facebook.com/pages/스파카-나폴리Antica-Pizzeria-Spacca-Napoli/104384266336716?sk=info
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Hey when I say the pizza is terrible, I mean, 99.75 percent of the pizza is terrible. Like mainstream Korean pizza compared to mainstream America pizza there's no contest. And mainstream American pizza isn't even that good.

I lived in Daegu so I can't say that I have visited that joint, looks delicious tho.
 
This is brilliant. There are too many great suggestions for me to reply directly to but I am definitely bookmarking this thread.

I'm obviously diving headfirst into all aspects of the culture by going but some of the things I've been reading about have been really surprising.
 
T.O.P said:
If you are in a restaurant or a bar and nobody shows up (it doesen't happen often 'cause in general service is extremely fast) to serve you or take order don't indulge to shout out loud, that's how it works there and as said above DON'T give any tips outside for taxis
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Yes. Don't give tips there. I once asked why, and the closest thing I got to an answer was that it's like giving money to a beggar or something. They don't 'need' it or something like that.

I dunno about this no shouting rule...I've heard a lot of Koreans shout out 'excuse me' plenty of times. Still, a lot of places will have a button for you to press to get their attention (GOD, I wish we had that here sometimes...)

And a lot of the smaller places, you get your own water there (I kinda prefer this too)
 
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