Ask A Pro about Living in Seoul, South Korea

I'm a 23 year old Heads Up specialist currently making a good living in Seoul, South Korea. While this city may be in the top 5 most expensive, I find for single bachelors who make about 4k USD a month minimum, this can be one of the most fun cities to make a living at without needing to be a baller. Asia in general has a much better nightlife than the U.S. Sorry guys, I just came back from NYC and while I love the U.S., the nightlife just pales in comparison to Asia. If you want to get ****faced here, there are just so many ways to do it, whether you want to be classy about it or not, and it can easily be done for just $10 a night.

This city, like every other major city, is about knowing what to make of it and actually going out to do it. For any foreigner I highly recommend joining an institute like http://www.yskli.com/languages/korean/in.... Not only will you get your ass out of home to learn the damn language, which is supposed to be the easiest of Japanese and Chinese, you will meet friends and from there you can get the ball rolling. You def. need friends to enjoy this city, and if they're drinking buddies, even better. If you're white, hell even if you're a Korean-American like me who doesn't speak the language well, it's impossible to not have fun as long as you're not completely socially inept. In my experience, the people have generally been very outgoing and just a ton of fun to go drinking with.

I'm a huge fan of food and for the first month, one of the things I'd be constantly eating for dinner is

samgyupsal

and galbi

Korean meals come with a group of small dishes we call banchan. These are complimentary and some of them taste pretty amazing.

Oh and of course if you're a real man, you'll be drinking plenty of these with your meal

It would def. be a mistake to say that drinking is not a big part of Korean culture...

As for the nightlife here, what I love about Seoul is that it's not like your typical city where you have to basically go to downtown to go clubbing or drinking. In Seoul we have

Hongdae

which is where the art school is located. Tons of funky venues and jazz bars exist in this area.

Sinchon

This place was my stomping grounds for the past year (I've moved onto a better location). This place is in front of Yonsei University, one of Korea's top schools and so naturally it became a drinking haven. You wouldn't come here to club, really to get ****faced w/your friends for $10 a head basically.

I'm going to stop here for now but there are maybe 3-5 more locations that are well known for drinking.

Feel free to ask about the food, women, culture, night life, and tourism.

And this question will come up so I'll answer it in advance, No I do not go to casinos here. The stakes are not high enough and I much prefer the comfort of my home where I can grind in my boxers while enjoying the A/C.