cultural difference. in korea, the whole bathroom is your shower as the floor is tiled and there is a vent in the middle to drain the water.

Excellent post.

I'm out of the game now since I am now married to a Korean. But your advice is spot on in most places.

Also, DO speak more Korean on your date. I will post some romanized phrases later in this post which are useful.

You're especially true about if they don't drink, don't bother. In fact, women love to get drunk so they have an 'excuse'. "I'm tired let's go to sleep" etc.

Korean dating is a bit teenage, but relationships are more serious. In the west meeting their parents was not a huge deal, but here it is a big big sign so be sure you are really thinking about a longer term relationship if they ask you to meet their family after a few months.

Also, marriage in Korea is like a passage everyone feels a very stong compulsion to have out of the way before they are 30 (Korean age, that's about 28-29 in RoW). So a lot of couples at that age marry rather quickly. As in, first meeting then married in a year or less is not totally uncommon.

Phrases later

Because you are just looking at tiny one room apartments. Bigger apartments almost always have a bathtub and shower curtains are widely available.

Yeah, smaller apartments have wet room bathrooms. This means that the floor is tilted so the water drains easily.

These apartments are typically $3-5k deposit and $200-450 rental per month. That is what the majority of hagwon and TaLK teacher live in.

Normal apartments have tubs and separate showers, as you would expect.

Starting cost for rental of a normal apartment would be roughly $15,000-30,000 deposit and $600-1200 a month. This is called a Wolsay rental.

Another form of rental is Johnsay rental, that would be a much larger deposit of around 40-60% of the total value of the home, a typical 2 year contract but then no monthly rental fee. This is a pretty awesome system as you can gradually build your way up to owning your own house so long as you save. Rental fee is actually fairly reasonable in Korea. The deposit system is good too. Your deposit accumulates interest for the home owner, which kind of subsidises your rent. You get your deposit back in full at the end of the term of the contract. I wish this system was actually in the western world too, as rent money is simply dead money.

no, the system is pretty ****ty and makes no sense to lock up that much money when you have far more utility using it with your own investments.

You also forget that the deposit you put down is not kept in a savings account or anything like that. My friend's family is currently suing their previous landlord because they could not pay back the deposit after their investment went sour.

Phrases:

XYZ Moh Go Bol Leh - Would you like to eat XYZ
Jong mal Joh Hun Bam Ee Yot Da - It was a really good night
Gwe Yoh Wo - You're cute
Yepuda - Pretty
Ippo - Beautiful
Mah jah - That's right
Nam ja chingu ee so yo? do you have a boyfriend?
ol man nah olreay ee so nee - how long have you been here?
Jon hwa pono ju say yo - give me your phone number
ego mo hey yo - what's this?
Sul han jan hey yo - do you want a drink? (alcohol)
Club Ka ja - let's go to a club
Jib eh Ka Ja - Let's go home
Jon hwa heh - Call me later (when on phone)
nah jun ee bah - see you later
bo go ship oh - I miss you
Orum ju say yo - Give me ice please
tek beyol hada - You're special
Miso ga yepuda - You have a pretty smile
Misoga eepo - You have a beautiful smile
Begupa - Hungry
Beh Bul Oh - I'm full
wan jon begupa - very hungry
Ara yo - Do you know/understand (are are asking)?
Ara so - I know/understand (you are answering)
no nun hal su esoh - You can do it
wan jon - very
jay me eesoh - funny
wan jon jay mee esoh - Very funny
nongdam - joking
nugu - who
ne ga - I/Me
jo nun - I/Me (very formal)
na nun - I/Me formal
morh - what
odi - where
onjay - when
odd oh kay - when
weh - why
Jan - Cheers (when drinking together)
Shiro - don't like
juah - like
aishibal - ****ing hell!
jen jang - damn it
ego mo hey yo - what is this?
erum mo hey yo - what's this called?
chaga man yo - just a minute
hindero - tired
pigun hey - exhausted
chiru hey - im bored
key bun jua - im in a good mood
sang gwan obso - i can't be bothered
oren man yo - long time no see!
nail ba yo - see you tomorrow
anja yo - sit down
jin jong eh yo - calm down
dak cho - shut up! (rude! BUT FUNNY IN THE CORRECT CONTEXT)
al yo jo - let me know
onjay gun ayo - When will you finish?
chil go wo so yo = Nice talking to you
nah jung ee bah - see you later
oH so O say yo - welcome here (to this place)
Kin chan ah yo - Forget it, it's nothing, don't worry, you're welcome for that
chigum - now
chigop ee moh hey yo - what do you do for work?
pan gap sum ni da - nice to meet you (formal, good when meeting their friends/siblings/family/parents etc)
jay me geh nora - have fun
yol lock ha ja - keep in touch
chal res so - good job!
Mori Jua - good idea/good thinking (informal)
Appo yo - Hurt
Jin Jah - Oh Really?
Mah shi so - Delicious
Ou you bo dan - caught between two stools (idiom)
Il sok ee Jo - Kill two birds with one stone (idiom)
chung bun ayo - that's enough
sul teah obso - useless
papa yo - im in a hurry/I have to rush
chal ja - sleep well
no doh - same to you too
nah doh - me too
Nanun mekju jua hey yo - (I beer like polite ending) - I like beer
mi an hey yo - I'm sorry (informal)
Jo song hab ni da - (formal)
mul da geh say yo - I don't understand
hangul mal oh XYZ ga moh ey yo? - How do I say XYZ in Korean
yong-oh chal rey yo - You speak very good English
ne ga che chal naga - I am the best!

Oh, I had no idea about that with regards to deposit. I thought it was a secured deposit. Or that if they risked the deposit cash, they also lost the rights to the house, and the person they owe the deposit back to assumes the temporary ownership until repayment is made... right?

I dunno, all I know is the parents are pissed and suing

My current rental situation is a bit of a fortunate one. My Nuna has a friend who didn't get his payment back, so now he kind of owns an extra house. So since he now technically owns the place until the situation is resolved he allowed me to stay there WITHOUT deposit fee, which is a win for me, obviously.

I know on Jeju Island you can get summer places that will rent monthly for a short time or winter (slow season). It's a little more per month but I'm pretty sure it's not that much. I've seen a few places that have bath tubs but it's pretty rare from what I've seen.
Doesn't matter too much since Jinja bongs (Saunas) are cheap and everywhere.

I don't know what you are responding to?

Your quote and your reply don't correspond with one another.

Anyway, later on I looked up more about Johnsay, eventually found this video:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5XZV7cjuQ_M

Depositors have an advantage in the end. Check 2-4mins into this video

the romanized Korean phrased made me lol no offense. I'm sure Korean girls who are into white guys will find it "cute" though and probably easier to remember



I loled hardest at john-say hahaha

non taken

its my method and it works(ed) well for me lol

Also my interpretation of the pronunciation of these words could be, and probably is, different than yours.=

When I first got here I wanted to smash high quality gal and distance myself from the average clueless English teacher on their first big trip abroad

=)

Now I'm happily married in a steady relationship so why not share the trade secrets

If you have the auditory part down I'm pretty sure you can get the writing and reading with some work.or maybe you already do? Congrats on your marriage

I can read and write Hangul; the post was for the benefit of readers here who can't. Do feel free to correct the interpretation of the pronunciation; I know it's not exactly perfect when romanized. I'm also seriously bored today, no class for a week or so has left me lurking on here too much

Nah they were great I just never put the two languages together and thought about the same sounds but two different pronunciations

i actually like the all-in-one studio bathrooms. something about taking a dump while showering is surprisingly liberating. it also certainly beats the alternative where anybody over 6 feet tall has to squat down to wash their face and hair.

Haha, I'll definitely have to try that. Doesn't it bug you that the whole bathroom is extremely wet afterwards though? I stayed in a hostel in Taipei that didn't have any shower curtains/doors (even though it was a large bathroom). I tried really hard to keep all of the water in the shower area, but every time I finished taking a shower the bathroom was soaked. I wouldn't wanna keep my toothbrush, deodorant, etc. in a bathroom where everything is gonna get soaked daily.

Hey, I just moved to Anyang with my gf. I'm originally from the US. It would be cool to meet up with some other poker players if anyone is in the area. Shoot me a pm.

You should also post on Waygook.org to meet teachers if you want to. Plus they have sites for locals to post on as well.

Yo dsmallidge, meeting up with another poker player here would be wicked, I live in North Seoul, so you're pretty far away. If you ever closer, shoot me a PM and I'm down to kick it.

i'm up in uijeongbu if you want to get a beer.

Sounds good, I'm in Seongbuk. My foot's in a cast so I'll hit you up when I get get out of it in ~2weeks.

Hey I've been living in Anyang (technically uiwang, but 2 minutes from Anyang) for over 2 years now so I know a lot about the area. What type of stuff are you into? Since you're out here with your girlfriend I don't know if our ideas of a night out will be the same. But I'd be happy to answer any questions you have on here. Also, could be in for some kind of meet up but I'm usually kinda busy.

Also, I used to post a lot more on here but slowed down after the hack.