Things I wish I knew before coming to Seoul

By: Benson Zou

I was super excited to interact with the vibrant/diverse Korean community before arriving. However there were a few things that I did not have on my bingo card. With the proper preparation these scenarios can be easily avoided. 

One super small detail was the embarrassment of trying to open a door to DAISO that said “push”, but I didn’t realize it was a push button and I legitimately almost pushed the door down. You can thank me later. 

Another mistake I made was spending hundreds of dollars on foreigner friendly products. I bought McDonalds, Burger King, and ordered from the Shuttle delivery app way too much when there are cheaper and more culturally immersive options like local restaurants and the BAEMIN delivery app. BAEMIN is the doordash equivalent for Korea. You need a Korean phone number (010) for this kind of food delivery, but you can start ordering as soon as you arrive in Korea. Avoid Shuttle unless you’re just made of money.

Phone numbers are essential for international students in Korea, especially for identity verification after receiving your Alien Registration Card (ARC). Many services, like payments and account creation for apps, require a phone number linked to your ARC.

Since you can’t link an existing phone number to your ARC, it’s best to choose an initial phone plan that expires around the time you receive your ARC. This way, you can easily switch to a new plan linked to your ARC once your old plan ends.

For my volleyball and sports lovers out there, I’m really sorry to say the athletic scene is not as popular and widespread as it is in America. Don’t be surprised when there are no intramurals, clubs are super exclusive and that you’ll need to pay a pretty penny to get into any sort of athletic activity unless its just running basketball at the courts and finding empty grass field time with the pals. For volleyball there are local open gyms at astrohigh, you can also check out sus_volleyball and davolleyballbabies before arriving in Korea.

Some apps that I have were particularly useful while in Korea are NaverMap, KaKaoMap, META, 배달의민족(BAEMIN), WISE, Everytime, Uber, Naver, Papago. An NFC balance checker app is also useful for checking the Korean Transit Money Card balances. 

If you have questions about my experience in Korea you can dm me on instagram at benshuan_zow.

EXPLORE SOUTH KOREA