Seven Things I Will Really, Really Miss About South Korea

This article began as a list of "Ways That South Korea is Better Than America”, and in many ways, that is still the heart of the message. As an American English teacher living Daegu, South Korea for the past two years, I have become all too comfortable with the lifestyle. As my return date approaches, I am dreading a great many aspects of the transition. The fact is, there are indisputably many things about everyday life in Korea that are much better than in the United States. That being said, after I started writing this, my rebellious brain almost immediately led me to a list of all the ways that the USA is actually better than South Korea (it's surely a list that could be made). But I'm writing about the country I live in, not the one I'm from. So forget about who's better- I'm heading home to the US tomorrow and I'm super bummed about some things that I'm leaving behind. Here are all those things.

1. Not Having to Really Worry About Finding a Job

I have no choice but to open with this whopper. Most teaching gigs in Korea operate around one-year contracts. Many (most?) of these teaching jobs offer such standard benefits as free round-trip airfare from your home country, free housing, and contract completion bonuses. That's on top of all the other things most modern countries consider “standard” like health benefits (see below for more on healthcare). With the absence of rent and low cost of living, it's virtually impossible not to save money month-to-month while working here. This is why 95% of the people I know go traveling, often for several months, at the end of their contracts. As if the benefits weren't amazing enough, the job requirements make the whole thing seem just plain too good to be true. You basically need three things to teach English in Korea: A passport from an English-speaking country, a bachelor's degree (any subject), and a pulse. How many jobs at home have even half the perks with less than twice the requirements?

On top of all this, English language education is a booming, multi-billion dollar industry in Korea, which means that if you want steady employment here, it's not really a matter of IF you get a job, but WHEN.

All this isn't to say that working in Korea doesn't have its share of pitfalls, dangers, difficulties, and issues. But those problems are magnified by those of us that live here because we often forget just how awesome we have it in comparison to the average American nine-to-fiver.

2. Not Paying an Arm and a Leg for Healthcare

Over the past three years, I have had a few sever bouts of acute gastritis, and on two occasions I've been forced into a trip to the Emergency Room for severe stomach pain- once in Korea, and once in the U.S.A. This made me the subject of a pretty pure experiment in how each of the systems work. In both cases, I was admitted with almost no waiting. I consulted with a doctor, was administered painkillers, got blood work, and was given a few prescriptions. I was released after an hour or two.

The level of service was excellent in both cases. The doctors were equally busy, equally thorough, and equally helpful. The ONLY noticeable difference in these two experiences was the out-of-pocket price tag: the experience in Korea cost the equivalent of about $200. The one in America was well over $2,200.

Why oh why? Well, for starters, South Korea has a single-payer healthcare system. Like most other “modern” countries, they believe that affordable healthcare is a basic human right. Many of my American friends in Korea already have gotten, or plan to get, all of their non-emergency medical work done here, before returning to the States. It'll save them thousands of dollars.

3. Easy, Affordable, Fast Public Transit

If living abroad teaches you anything, it's that the little things are what make the difference in your everyday life; you learn to rise above the bad and appreciate the good. When it comes to getting around in Korea, it's (almost) all good.

Owning a car is a necessity for no Korean in a good-sized city. Buses and subway lines run everywhere, and run frequently. They are almost never crowded. Bus fare in Daegu is about $1 for a ride, with a free transfer. Compare that to nearly $3 for a ride on a smelly city bus in Sacramento, California, for which I'll receive no transfer. Which means I'll have to pay another $3 to the next bus (which I'll have waited 30 minutes for).

But what if you're in a hurry? What if it's late? What if the bus just won't cut it? Taxis are all over the place. The fair begins at about $2.60, and inches slowly up from there. A forty minute ride all the way across town would cost $20 or so. As for the cabs in the US...I really couldn't tell you. I've only been in them a couple of times, and it was always a reminder of why I never take cabs at home. They will clear out your wallet like a vacuum cleaner.

4. Ridiculously Fast Internet...like, really

Is the internet a necessity in modern society? It certainly seems to be heading that way. The USA is on its way up in this regard- most coffee shops, bars, and even Subway sandwich restaurants are wired up with wifi nowadays. The thing that makes Korea so much better is speed. Wifi is everywhere here, and it's all fast; around 14Mbps on average, which is twice the USA's average speed. I have traveled to both urban and rural Korea, and pretty much the only place I couldn't find a wifi network was in the woods. One time, when I REALLY wanted to download an episode of Game of Thrones, I literally just walked down the street with my laptop until an unsecured network showed up. It took me about ten minutes. To find the network AND download the episode.

Korea has a few giant telecom companies that handle cell phone, data, and internet service, much like the US. The difference is that these companies actually compete for your business, fiercely. Rather than the AT&T approach of “we're the only option, so take our terrible, slow and spotty service”, Korea's telecom companies are constantly introducing new advances and perks to attract new customers. You know, that whole capitalism thing?

Now admittedly, American cell phone companies have become super competitive, which is great for consumers. But has Verizion Wireless equipped public trains, city buses, a whole smattering of private businesses, and even entire urban city centers with their wifi service in order to attract customers? I think not. Olleh Telecom in Korea has done this. If your cell phone comes from Olleh, there are payphones all around the country that double as wifi hotspots for you. Beat that, 'Murica.

5. Banks that are actually worthy of the 21^st Century

Before living in Korea, I lived in Thailand for two years as well. Thailand and Korea are VERY different countries, but they do have one thing in common- their banking systems are both better than the U.S.

Korean ATMs are set up to do 95% of the financial transactions you'll need to perform in a given month, and there is one of them every hundred feet in the city. Money transfers between bank accounts, even from different banks, are as simple as a few clicks on a touchscreen, and everyone is wired into this system. This means you can pay your rent, pay your utilities, pay for some concert tickets you want, pay for a book you bought online, and send ten bucks back to your friend that you borrowed it from, all in less than five minutes, on your way to work, at the ATM. Your boss needs nothing other than your account number to send your paycheck to you instantly, 24/7. And you can keep track of everything on a handy little bank book that acts like an automatic check balance book. “But my app does that!” Of course, all Korean banks have apps that do all this stuff too. This ain't amateur hour.

When I lose my debit card in the USA, I have to make a phone call and wait a few days for a card to come in the mail. Hmm, not too bad. In Korea, I walk into a branch and they make me one in five minutes. Hmm, better.

When I don't have enough money to pay for something in America, the bank allows the transaction and charges me $35 for the privilege of buying that stick of gum from 7-11 without being embarrassed. In Korea, when you can't pay for something, you can't buy it. You also can't be gouged by your bank for making a tiny mistake.

Oh, maybe you noticed back there where I mentioned you can pay your rent at the ATM. Back home, they're still asking for checks for the rent. Are you kidding me? CHECKS? What is this, 1991? Needless to say, I will sorely miss not having to head down to the nearest museum bank for some checks just to pay for my apartment.

6. A Practical Response to Alcohol

Some people in Korea (and well, everywhere) have a drinking problem, and that's nothing to take lightly. Drunk drivers are not OK, drunken aggressors can be annoying if not dangerous, and the health risks of heavy drinking should be considered by everyone. Korea is one of the heaviest drinking countries in the world, with bottles of soju (rice wine) going for $1 at every supermarket. But it's not the drinking culture itself that I will miss, but rather the public/law enforcement response to drinking.

Open alcohol containers on the street are not illegal in Korea. When my American friends came to visit me here, I told them that drinking in the streets was totally OK, giving them the impression that lots of people do it. That's really not the case. It's not that everyone does it; it's just that nobody cares if YOU do. Why should they? Something as arbitrary as WHERE you get drunk has nothing to do with how you behave afterward. In this context, American public intoxication and open container laws feel to me like relics of the puritan era. “But I don't want all those drunkies stumbling around me and my kids!” Then don't take them downtown at 11pm on a Saturday, because with or without open container laws, there will be drunks walking the streets in any country. The difference is, Korea doesn't see being drunk as such a terrible social misstep, and while that might not jive with you, being tolerant of the idea that non-criminals can do what they feel like doing certainly jives with me.

DUI laws are fully enforced here, complete with roadside checkpoints and sobriety tests. However, in Korea you can call a service that will send someone over to your location, who will drive you home in your own car. This is a practical solution to a common problem- if you drove to the bar and are now drunk, what do you do? Abandon your car? Sleep it off in the back seat? Take the risk? This service completely neutralizes the problem, while putting some profit in some entrepreneurial pockets.

If you DO wind up drunk on the street in Korea and needing to sleep it off, do the cops throw you in a “drunk tank” with six crackheads and a car thief? Nope. The police station has beds in it. Beds! Just for drunkies to sober up. A safe, secure place where they're not wreaking havoc or beating their wives or being thrown in the dungeon just for having too much to drink.

Why can't WE do that? Instead of finding ways to punish drunk drivers that also fund the City Budget, why can't we come up with some solutions to drunk driving that actually PREVENT bad things from happening? If nothing else, I sure will miss bars that are located a $4 taxi ride away from home- I haven't needed a designated driver in two years.

7. Being a Foreigner

In Thailand, we were called “farang” and here we're “waygookin”. We're the natural outsiders of this city, but you'd be surprised how well that draws us together. Being part of a community of foreigners in a city overseas is at once intimate, fleeting, and invigorating. You instantly have something to talk about with every new person you meet. “Where are you from?” and “How long have you been here?” are questions that some expats find boring to ask, but let me tell you, they are far more boring back home, where 99% of the respective answers you get are “Here,” and “Forever.”

As a white person, I think there's something terribly important about feeling like the other one or two times in your life- about being stared at, sized up, and turned into a generalization enough times that it starts to bother you. It tells you who you really are, helps you understand the world, and heightens your sense of empathy. It's empowering and special, and travel is the only way we feel it.

When I wake up each morning in Korea, I may not be sure if I'll be able to get the lady making my kimbap to understand that no, I don't want radish in it. But I am positive that every day I will learn something new, I will experience the world that I am a part of, and I will feel indisputably unique, thanks to all the people around me who are so different. It's a feeling I've become addicted to, and I can feel preemptive withdrawal setting in as I pack my bags for home. Who knows, maybe I'll be heading back to live here someday? Eh, I kinda doubt it.

There's other words for “foreigner” I wanna try on.