Culture Shock Tips
What is Culture Shock?
Culture shock is something everyone needs to know more about including symptoms and solutions. Culture shock is something we all experience when learning to live alongside people who do things differently. Culture shock can be experienced when you move between companies, counties, or countries. It is nothing to be ashamed of and something to be embraced and managed.Our Commitment to Empower You to Overcome Culture Shock
South of Seoul made a commitment to being open and honest about culture shock and offer as many resources to our community as possible. We want you to know that you are not alone and there are ways to manage the mental and physical pain often experienced when the mind and body face extreme change.Want to Life in South Korea to Get Easier? Read These Blogs
Learning more about culture shock and tools for managing culture shock will help you feel empowered to live your best life in South Korea.-
Culture & Community, Culture Shock Tips, Education, Home Life & Maintenance Tips, Physical & Mental Wellness, Public Health
Managing the Korean Emergency Alerts
Updated: 2024/12 South Korea has a Public Alert Service for notifying citizens of important information. The following blog post explores more about the system and offers support for dealing with the smartphone sounds and the language barrier. Listen to the BlogCast Don’t want to read? Listen to the South of Seoul BlogCast which provides accessible content through the use of AI technology. We don’t have time to read each article but we do our best to make more of our content accessible. If you would like to join our Accessibility Team apply to…
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Therapy Options for Expats
Updated: November, 2019 Living abroad is filled with all kinds of stress. There is no way around it and there is no shame it it. Instead of turning to online forums that only feed the insanity, may I recommend therapy as a far more productive option. As a former Social Worker and a current teacher, I wish everyone spent more time in therapy. Mental health is a critical part of well being; like going to the gym or getting a haircut. It’s something to embrace and enjoy on a day…
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Culture & Community, Culture Shock Tips, Education, New Arrival Information, Physical & Mental Wellness
5 Tips for Conquering Culture Shock
Culture Shock isn’t just an English punk band. It’s also a very real thing we all deal with while living abroad. It’s part of the territory and it’s something everyone needs to be very aware of in order to live their best life. It starts out small and builds over time, sometimes ripping through our lives with very painful consequences and other times hiding in the shadows waiting to knock us off course when we least expect it. It can even cause intense depression, destruction of relationships, uuncharacteristic bigotry and racism,…
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How to get Better Service in Korea
Let’s talk about how to get ‘better’ service in Korea. I put ‘better’ in quotes because service looks different in different countries since each culture has its own expectations. Such differences may feel like ‘bad service’ since they don’t meet our own social expectations. Let’s look at what this might mean. About My Life In Korea I am a US military spouse living in Korea with my family. I have a few kids who are homeschooled and we spend a great exploring Korea off base. I’m also half Korean but…
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Useful Phrases for Getting an Exchange or Refund
Sometimes a product you purchased doesn’t work out the way you want it to. Instead of getting frustrated, try some of these phrases to help you get an exchange or refund. Christi ClineChristi Cline holds a Bachelor’s in Business Administration and a Korean American. She proudly served in the US Marines and worked as a police officer before moving into social media and online content. As a Cultural Liason and Content Creator with South of Seoul, Ms. Cline reported on Pyeongtaek news and helped to coordinate youth camps with the…
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Nav Apps: Options, Strengths, and Failures
Tell me if this is you… You just arrived in Korea, you are so stoked to start your adventure. You are all sassy like, “Hey, let’s open Google and see what’s up”! You pop open your handy smart phone and start searching for things you love! You search and search and search… but nothing is coming up. You find almost no info that really helps and a little seed of panic starts to settle in. You wonder if there is actually anything out there to do or eat at all…
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5 Ways to Learn Korean In Pyeongtaek
With 2018 knocking on the door it’s time to start on your resolutions early. Since we all live in Korea, I think it’s fair to say studying Korean is on most of our lists. South of Seoul is here to help you connect with the resources you need to improve your language skills. Our volunteers have tried all of these study options and found them to be both reliable and helpful. Each solution has a different strength and all of them are affordable and accessible. 1. Pyeongtaek International Exchange Foundation…
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What makes a good mom and pop restaurant?
This meal was filled with 정 and deliciousness. Recently I was asked this questions, “What makes a good mom & pop restaurant in Korea?” When I first arrived here it was one of the most perplexing things for me and I never thought I would ever be good at it. Everything looked the same and I couldn’t deduce what was good and what was bad. I felt helpless when it came time to pick a place to eat. My solution, just start walking into any place I saw and just…
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Private Tutors in Pyeongtaek
Halloween English Teaching Fun Finding a Korean tutor in Pyeongtaek can be maddening. Thankfully, I know two amazing ones! Introducing Sue and Jennifer! Jennifer Teacher Sue Teacher These two wonderful teachers just finished up an intense two year certification aimed at teaching Korean to foreigners and they are ready to help you get to the next level. If you are just getting started, or you need to get over a learning hump, these women can help you succeed in learning Korean. Personally, I’m lucky enough to have called them friends…
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찜질방 Jjimjilbangs: Don’t be scared
Alright, to be clear, I’m addicted to jjimjilbangs/public baths. Sometimes I wonder if I should just move into one and stop paying rent on my house. It took me about nine months to get up the nerve to give one a try, and immediately felt like it was nine months of my life I had wasted. Maybe I’m weird, but I can’t see why anyone would say no to a 9,000 spa day. I encourage everyone to give it a try at least once. However, jjimjilbangs are very different from…
