6 years, 4 languages, 10 000 stories
When I was around 20, my belief that thinking in another language helps you have new ideas you might not have had in your native language peaked.
When I was around 20, my belief that thinking in another language helps you have new ideas peaked.
So I had this idea : I will just use all the money I saved and go study Korean in Korea’s top language University program… and I did.
Here are 5 lessons I learned moving to a new continent that will be detailed in this article:
- The extremely unplanned can still turn out fine
- You should not be scared to be vulnerable
- You need to be resourceful (like really)
- Languages can be easier than you would think
- working, living, and suing (hopefully you won’t need the last one)
Extremely unplanned
After sending my letter and resume for review I had 0 expectation and therefore didn’t really go much further than that. Eventually I got an acceptance email (else I wouldn’t be writing about it I guess). The whole thing was still very surreal to me at the time, I didn’t even own a passport, I had never travelled by myself, nor had any experience at all with the Korean language.
Long story short, I did the things; it was a vety frustrating and long process but I managed to get both a passport and my visa in time.
I booked a flight and I arrived in Korea. I had one night at an hotel near the airport, the next morning I realised I had no home, or even no idea of where to search.
I headed to the city in the vague directions given to me by the hotel owner, and when I got hungry I just went out of the clean and very quiet subway to go eat my first ever KFC. (I liked it)
KFC was nice, but I was still lost, I had no local phone number so I leached on the free Wi-Fi there for sometime. I never felt so free in my life, I was a self-(not-yet-)made-man and the world was mine (almost).
After a quick internet search I decided to go my university neighbourhood and search from there. I asked a lady outside the building and she didn’t only accompanied me to it but she rode the subway with me.
Finally we climbed up the stairs of the subway station and there I was, in what would become my new home. She then proceeded to lead me to a Goshiwon ( a building with dozens of walk-in closet sized rooms available to, lead the negotiation with the owner, and offered to pay for the first week.
Oh yes, the big part was, I had to pay cash and my card was blocked because I didn’t warn my bank in advance so they automatically blocked all non European transactions.
So this lady took me to my destination, found me a home where I would end up spending the first 6months of my two years stay; and offered to pay for me if it turned out I couldn’t pay after one week. I got to see my room with the owner, and when we got back downstairs, she was gone.
I feel a little sad not being able to thank her, I wish I could meet her again and have a nice talk, maybe even tell her how she was the beginning of the best experience of my life…
We could resume this first point like this: I applied to a top university in the over side of the world almost “as a meme”, ended up going there, didn’t prepare any housing or even the directions to go from the airport to my school, didn’t notify my bank and ended up without money the second day.
BUT asking only 3 or 4 people in total I found a very decent and extremely cheap home. The cleaning lady of the place even gave me a blanket, a pillow and some food to start out because I didn’t had any.
You should not be scared to be vulnerable
Leaving to live by oneself in a new country makes you very vulnerable in many ways. You will be a prime target for scammers, you will have to learn local customs and probably do some major awkward things at some point, health and emergencies situations will be this more complicated if you don’t know the language and the system of the country you’re in.
If you have read the upper paragraph you already know, but asking for help is actually the best thing you can do.
The keyword here is asking for help, not asking for someone else to do the thing for you. You should also be mindful about people who really really insist on “helping you” especially if their help is related to any kind of financial transaction or service, you will most likely get overcharged by the “helper”.
That being said, if I had the tiniest idea of how many things could have gone wrong, I would have never went; being ignorant, or hopefully in your case informed enough to not fear vulnerability is a key point. I doesn’t take much money, or throughout planning, you just have to be very adaptable and capable to ask for help.
In my case trying to find a place to stay before actually going there would have ended up so much expensive (as most online services in English charge a lot for the translation/research part).
You need to be resourceful
This is particularly true if like me, you don’t have huge funds to begin with. Or maybe no founds at all. Trying to live the lifestyle you lived in your home country will end up extremely expensive (except if your home country is very close in which case it’s obviously different). But the main thing is, live like the people around you.
- for home
- for food
- for going out
As stated before in this article, the housing market in Korea and in Seoul especially is a very complicated one to navigate as a foreigner, it’s expensive, and things can go very wrong (more on that during the “suing” part of this article). There are agencies dedicated to find housing for English speaking foreigners, and most of them are giving good services if you can afford them, if you can’t, you will need to adapt to what is available on the market here. First get someone from the area that will not charge to much to help you, the process being very quick and easy in you can find people willing to help you without to much hassle. It will save you an incredible amount of time because they already have a good idea of the housing market in that particular area, and a lot of money/troubles too. Then if you can, try to go for the local way of life (“one room” apartment or Goshiwon) they’re actually quite comfy when you get used to it. And while sitting at your desk you can pretty much reach your whole room without getting up.
For food, go to the local market and or super market and buy what other broke student buy; or even better learn to cook your own dishes. Cooking is an extremely valuable skill for any young adult (even on the most basic level), it will save you tons of money, probably spare you lots of health problems and even help you reach your goals physically (be it the way you look or the way your body functions, having full control on what you eat is great).
Going out can be challenging, space is extremely expensive and most place where you can meet and socialize will require some kind of payment. The typical date going like this: restaurant, movie, cafe, motel.
For people used to just hang out at each other’s place as we do in Europe, it’s quite a big shift both in mentality and budget. There isn’t many way around that, except I think ‘health club’ (gyms) are probably one of the best place to socialize. They usually include a little cafe like space separated from the actual weightlifting part, they are very clean, and they also have most of the time some kind of sauna. You can meet people from all ages and get to learn lots of things, if you learn Korean, you will find people to be extremely friendly and helpful. I would recommend avoiding “room cafe” or “DVD room” as they are usually quite expensive and don’t offer a lot of intimacy/ are mostly for teenagers to have a safe space to discover French-kissing.
You can also try tutoring English as a way to socialize, however you should not ask for money as this is considered illegal and you could be fined if someone ends up telling the immigration office.
The two remaining points: “language can be easier than you think” and “working, living, and suing” will be covered in the second part of this article.
