Aled came a long way, from Wales and having taught in Greece, to where he's currently located--in Seoul, South Korea. He admits that he didn't like it there at first, but he has come to discover many good things about this Asian city and country after nearly four years there. Read on for more about how a Welsh guy came to Seoul, and what he likes and dislikes about living there.	Aled Powell

October 18 2006

-Where were you born?
Rhuddlan, in northern Wales

-In which country and city are you living now?
Seoul, Republic of Korea (South)

-Are you living alone or with your family?
Sadly, alone.

-How long have you been living in South Korea?
Just a few weeks short of four years.

-What is your age?
Just a few weeks short of 28 years! If I remember rightly, I waved goodbye to my parents on my birthday back in 2002.

-When did you come up with the idea of living in South Korea?
I was offered a job teaching English here back in 2001, having wasted time and money completing a dodgy online teaching certification course. The same company offered to set me up with a paying job, an apartment and a bunch of other benefits for teaching kids here in Korea, but wanted me to pay them for the privilege. I had a look around and found hundreds of such offers, from institutes and recruiters without me needing to pay a penny, not even for the airfare. It was an attractive offer, as I'd previously lived and worked in the US and Canada, and saw teaching English as a way to see more of the World.

However, Asia seemed a bit far for a penniless young man to go to try a completely different job in such a foreign culture, so I cautiously tried out teaching on a contract closer to home in Greece. That went well, and I decided to head for Korea (I didn't have the cash to pay the airfare to Japan, whereas Korean employees pay it for you) for the World Cup in June, but I got held up in Greece, finally arriving here at the very end of November.

-Was it hard to get a visa or a working permit?
Not at all. My employer was in Korea, my agent in Canada and me in Greece. Having picked up the paperwork mailed to my home in Wales, I popped to the Korean embassy in London before hopping on the plane in Cardiff. To teach a language here, you need a passport and a university degree from a country where the language is natively spoken. (With hindsight, this was so easy I should have been a bit more concerned and read up on the place a bit more.)

-Was it difficult for you to get medical insurance before you went there or when you first arrived?
Medical cover is standard with every contract I've heard of over here. I pay half and the employer pays half. It's far from expensive, but you'd be surprised how many teachers get the surprise that half or none of their supposed contribution has been going to the right place.

-How do you make your living in South Korea? Do you have any type of income generated?
I think I covered most of this in my long-winded explanation of how I came about living in Korea. Even with sparse and slow Internet access in Greece, I had the time to afford picking and choosing job offers relatively freely. I tried planning ahead of time, but the whole process from application to being here in the classroom can be done in well under a fortnight if you have the right documents at hand.

As for now, I'm nearing the end of my second year teaching at a university in Seoul, far from the small city at the other end of the country where I taught young kids just a few years ago. It's not great money, but for the amount of hours I work and the winter and summer holidays I get, it's great. Having so much free time and not being able to earn an extra bit of cash is very frustrating, though. Many are here making very handsome, though illegal incomes, but I'm too honest to do it myself. I wish I had the nerve.

-Do you speak Korean and do you think it's important to speak the local language?
I didn't like the place when I first came here. Having come from teaching international Cambridge and Michigan examination English in Greece, it was a shock that they called my job here teaching. From the first day of my contract, I looked forward to the last, as did every other expat working at my hagwon (the Korean word for a privately run educational academy that takes advantage of the inadequate state education and competitive mentality of the Korean people by selling them often equally inadequate, but extra, classroom time as kids get for free). I bought a self-teach Korean book in my first week, but after a year of not thinking I'd stay, I'd not actually learnt much.

Of course it's important for anyone to respect others' beliefs and customs, but it's not always so easy. I can tolerate pretty much anything if I know the reasoning behind it, but Koreans don't seem to be able to explain to me most of what they do. They get frustrated at my asking 'why?' and believe that reminding me it's a different culture is enough explanation. I inconsistently enjoy Korean life, but that's what makes it interesting.

I've always made an effort to show an interest in the language of most people I've met. Even knowing a word or two can give a good impression, relax moods and trigger a smile and a conversation. Since moving to Seoul, I've had to do things for myself more than before. There aren't so many expats in my neighbourhood, and my Korean has really improved in leaps and bounds. It says more about their incomprehensible train of thoughts than my Korean ability, but a couple of taxi drivers have even asked if I am Korean!

It's appalling that when I'm back in Wales I run into "Welsh" people who won't even reply to my 'bore da', while they know 'bonjour,' 'buenos dias' and a few more greetings in languages from places they've never even visited.

-Do you miss home and family sometimes?
It's been over nine years since I last lived week-in week-out with my family back in Wales. Of course, I'm not the only one to have moved from home, so even if I were to visit now, I'd have a hard time tracking down friends and any remnants of the life I used to have when I packed my bags to university almost a decade ago. I do miss my family. But it's grown and spread to include husbands and wives, boyfriends and girlfriends, and sons and daughters that I've yet to meet, and who live in parts of the UK I've never visited.

I really do miss my home. My home being Wales. It's so nice to know that whatever may happen to me wherever I am in the World, I'll always have a home to go to back in the Welsh countryside. Every waking minute of my time in my Seoul apartment, though, sounds like a living room back in the UK. I have the radio on all day long, and settle down in the evenings to watch last night's TV which I downloaded through the Internet. I just wish I had someone to share it with.

As for recreational activities, there are plenty. I used to play football twice a week with the expat lads when I lived down south, and took a paragliding course there, too. There's plenty from beaches to ski resorts here, but living in Seoul, I find there's so much to do that I hardly get out of the city. It's having friends to hang out with that makes life here worthwhile.

-Do you have other plans for the future?
I'm not sure how much longer I'm going to keep teaching. I'm coming toward the end of another contract and I'm really putting some careful thought into my future, but, ultimately, I see myself staying here a few more years.

-What about housing, have you bought, or are you renting a home? How much do you pay for it?
I'm living on the outer edge of one of the main central districts. I looked at a lot of places within my budget in the area before finding a place that was uncharacteristically spacious compared to everything else I saw. I've hosted parties of forty-something people in my living room, and I've a pretty big bedroom, too. The kitchen and bathroom are at the edges of the building and take up little space. Downstairs is a Chinese restaurant which closes at 9pm and upstairs is my flat rooftop and another little room that's good for relaxing in the sun and for hosting parties.

The rental system here works differently to in the West. Some landlords take huge deposits which they invest and make money from, giving it back to you at the end of the contract. With the economy not growing like it was, it's becoming more common to pay monthly rent, but most accommodations are still a combination of both. My university subsidises my accommodation by providing KRW30m (25,000 Euros) key money (which they'll get back) which I work an extra three hours a week for. I pay a monthly rent of KRW500k (400 Euros) on top of that.

-What is the cost of living in South Korea?
Apparently, the second highest in the World. I don't know what figures they used or how they came up with the statistics, but Seoul is apparently the second most expensive city in the World now. I figure the cost of land and accommodation must have played a large part in that. South of the city's Han River (and actually in some places north of it too) are some very affluent neighbourhoods, where people have more money than sense, it seems. From what I hear, they've mostly made it on the property market. Also, you've got to remember that this is a country that has itself got rich quick in its recovery from the (officially still ongoing) Korean War.

-What do you think about the Koreans? How do they treat foreigners?
Some treat foreigners well because they are foreigners. Some treat foreigners badly because they're foreigners. I really appreciate those who treat me as they would a Korean because I am largely living the same everyday life as Koreans do.

-What are the positive and negative aspects of living in South Korea?
I'm going to put a limit on myself here. Three of each.

Positive: The weather. (Actually, a little monotonous, though. I can't remember the last time it rained. But then if I were sat here in August I might struggle to remember the last time it didn't rain. The weather doesn't change much from day to day like I was used to back in Wales. It's going to get fiercely cold in the next couple of months, but stay largely dry and sunny through the winter.)

The food. (I can't imagine living without a fix of hot and spicy all sorts on a regular basis anymore.)

My students. (Teaching conversation to university students is a great way to earn a living. A mix of entertainment, education and socialising.)

Negative: The netizens. (A force not to be reckoned with. They can snowball a rumour into a national scandal. The country's media isn't much better. I've felt unease at times when the actions of a minority of badly behaved foreigners have been spread over the internet and then blown out of all proportion.)

The traffic. (The Korean mentality is such that having a car is such a huge status thing that the country's roads are chaotic with oversized vehicles being driven by inadequately trained drivers whose minds are all too often on getting where they're going more than on how they actually get there.)

The boss. (Luckily for me, I have a lot of freedom in my position and I have very little contact with anyone above me. But I do see and hear how backward and crooked the old guys running this country's institutions and business can be, and I've had some pretty nasty bosses here in the past.)

-Do you have any tips for our readers about living in South Korea?
I don't know how I do it myself, to be honest.

-Do you have any favorite Web sites or blogs about living in South Korea?
My little home on the web is www.aledpowell.com. I keep meaning to install some blogging software on there to make it easier to maintain and have more frequent posts and photos.

Duff Recruiting is an Australian recruiter based here and much recommended on popular Korean EFL websites, for anyone considering teaching English over here.

O'Brien's Irish Bar and Restaurant is the website of an Irish-owned bar that keeps a few hundred expats sane down in Changwon, in the south of the country.

Expat Consultants is the site of an American friend of mine who offers his years of experience in Korea at the service of expats who might need a helping hand with settling and getting things done over here.