10 things I hate about life in South Korea

I’m not gonna lie - sometimes life in South Korea is tough! At this point I’ve been living in South Korea for about 4 months, and although I still have a long road ahead of me here in the country, I’ve already formulated some very ~strong~ opinions about life here. While South Korea is frequently raved about as the country of convenience, I’ve actually found the opposite to be true. Never fear, this is due to a number of personal factors and your experience might be completely different than mine! And to be fair, there is so much about this country that I love, but I really am just in the mood to complain so I compiled a list of the 10 things I hate about life in South Korea. This post was inspired by Brit from Life of Brit - if you’re interested in someone else’s perspective you can check out her article HERE!

(Disclaimer***I don’t think that these things are necessarily bad, just different! I’m not used to a lot of things here, and these things probably don’t bother people from Korea! )

(Also— don’t worry, the list of the 10 things I love the most about Korea is definitely on the way! I don’t want to be a Debbie-downer but sometimes the truth is necessary. It’s not all sunshine and rainbows.)

The Crosswalks

The amount of times I’ve come out of the metro, gotten my bearings, and realized that there’s 6 seconds on the “walk” crosswalk sign of the road I’m trying to cross and absolutely HAULED my booty to the other side of the road is actually ridiculous. Only one set of cars is typically permitted to go, and so even if all the cars on one side of the road are going straight through the intersection, the cars on the opposite side who also want to go straight don’t have the green light. Because of this, the pedestrians are left to wait through an entire traffic cycle, which can sometimes take a solid 5 minutes. Add this to the winter when it’s absolutely freezing outside and it gets old really fast - trust me.

To make matters worse, most roads have dividers down the middle so even when the coast is clear you can’t make a dash for the other side even when you’re not at an intersection. Imagine struggling to find an available taxi in person or on the taxi app, them pulling up to the other side of the road, and then them cancelling on you because crossing the road takes so freaking long they thought you weren’t coming. It’s SO frustrating.

It seems like such a mild inconvenience but believe me when I tell you: It’s literally THE number 1 things I hate about life in Korea because it’s truly just that annoying.

Navigation

Going hand in hand with crossing the road, navigation here is simply ~impossible~. Between Kakao Maps only really working if you know the business title in Hangul (the Korean alphabet), Naver Maps only really working when you type in the Korean-ized English name (Gym in Tomorrow is Jimintomorrow in Naver maps, just so that you have an example), and the directions in google maps being banned in the country, getting around is definitely a struggle. I use all these apps plus the Kakao Metro app to get to where I’m going. Typically, the process is as follows:

Find the location on Google maps, cross reference with Kakao maps and drop a pin. Once you know the Korean name of where you’re trying to go (or at least the general vicinity) head to Naver maps and plug that into the search bar. From there, you can see the bus schedule or which subway train you need to take. Then hop over to the metro app to determine how many stops you need to take. Naver maps to decide what exit to come out of. Google maps to get you the rest of the walking distance. You get the idea.

When my boyfriend encouraged me to try out a few different gyms before signing a contract for the one that I had found I simply burst into tears bc the EFFORT of it all. 0/10

Garbage Can Shortage

I’m 100% exposing myself on this one - and all I have to say is I NEVER used to litter - okay? And I still really don’t. But I do sometimes “accidentally” leave my empty coffee cup on the bench at the metro stop because the odds of me even seeing a trash can in public that day are not in my favor. They’re a little bit crazy about recycling and garbage here, so even when you do dispose of trash at your own house, be prepared to separate food waste, general trash, soft plastics, hard plastics, styrofoam, glass, cans, and paper. The first time I tried to take my trash out I got yelled at by an old Korean lady. I still don’t fully have it down pat.

But in public, because of these intense trash disposal rules, they don’t really have public trash cans for fear of people mixing all the different trash and them having to sort through it. Having 8 trash cans at any given street corner would be a bit much after all so although I understand, I am definitely not a fan.

Cheese, bread, and fruit

Oh Cheese, how I MISS you. I am such a cheese fanatic. I eat cheese sticks for snack nearly every day back at home, and I put feta on my salads, cheddar in my eggs, parmesan on my pasta, etc. I probably don’t go a single day without cheese. Since moving here, I’ve had cheese maybe twice? And I savored every second of both occasions. Cheese at the grocery store is just obscenely expensive, so I don’t ever buy it - thanks to my teachers budget. And even when you do get cheese….it’s just not the same. There’s something off about it, and I’m desperate to get back on my cheese-every-day grind.

As far as bread goes, you have one option: White. No sourdough, no sprouted bread, no pita, no whole grain, no ANYTHING. It’s white bread or white bread. So I literally just don’t buy bread, especially with how much rice is in the diet here! I’m getting the sense that I’m going to leave here a couple of pounds heavier than when I arrived LOL!

And I am not even kidding you when I tell you that I was in the store yesterday and saw a bunch of grapes - like, a singular cluster of grapes - being sold for 10,000 won, which is roughly 9 USD. I pay 3 dollars per apple here, 10 dollars for a bag of frozen blueberries. I can’t live without fruit so I suck it up but SHEESH can a girl catch a break? Definitely one of the things I hate most about life in South Korea.

Lack of regard for personal space

IDK what it is about this place but I think I’m in for a shock when I come back to the United States. I’ve become so accustomed to slamming shoulders into someone while trying to cross the street, turning and expecting an apology, and being met with nothing but a glimpse of the back of their head as they continue walking, that I’ve begun to do the same! Everyone in the United States (in my experience) is always so cautious about personal space, about saying sorry or excuse me as they squeeze by you in the subway or in the grocery store aisle. — that is not the case here! I’ll literally make direct eye contact with a group of 4 girls walking shoulder to shoulder and taking up the entire sidewalk and them simply refuse to move. I’ll either stand my ground and run straight into them out of spite or take a step into the road. It’s just so frustrating sometimes.

It’s going to be an adjustment when I go back, I feel like I’ve grown insensitive in that way just from living here and experiencing the way everyone kind of lives in their own world, and I hope that I’ll remember to hold the door for people or remember to apologize when I bump into someone!

Cafes don’t sell actual food other than cake

I cannot tell you what a struggle finding a lunch spot is here in South Korea. In the United States, you can simply pop into a cafe or a coffee shop for something casual like a salad or a sandwich. Here, that is not the case. With the exception of a few incredible cafes, I have found literally no cafes or coffee shops that serve savory food in addition to all their sweets. It’s 1000% easier to find a slice of carrot cake than it is to find something casual for lunch. It’s also frustrating to go to a cafe to get some work on the blog done (or if you love to do homework in cafes I’m sure you know what I’m talking about!), and after a few hours of work, lunchtime or dinner rolls around and you literally have to pack up and leave in a search for actual sustenance.

Don’t get me wrong, I love the sweet-tooth culture they have going on here, but sometimes you just need a freaking sandwich. It’s gotten to the point that ME, the queen of sweets herself, is not even excited when I see cake. I’ll always get excited for cookies but cake just doesn’t do it for me anymore and I’m SAD about it. I find myself craving savory things instead of sweet and I don’t even recognize myself LOL!!

Water

The water here is absolutely terrible, plain and simple. I didn’t even think about taking a shower in my apartment before making a run to Daiso to get a shower filter. There are memes on every Korean Expats facebook page that make fun of people who start to go bald 6 months after moving to Korea. Not even locals drink the water (I found this out last week RIP), and I’ve resorted to washing my face with BOTTLED. WATER. It wreaked havoc on my skin and my hair is falling out slowly regardless of the water filter, and its rivals the crosswalks for the thing I hate the most about life in South Korea.

Why is the water so bad? Why are filtration systems not better? This country is so modern, why is my hair falling out. Why are people still boiling the water. These are the questions I have. It simply does not make sense to me.

Air Quality

A common phrase that never used to be a part of my vocabulary that has slowly taken over is: “omg look how pollution-y it is outside.” Sometimes I’ll go on my weekly Sunday morning walk down to the hill to Haeundae beach - which, normally I can see all the way to Gwangalli beach and its iconic bridge - but some days I can’t even see anything through the thick layer of smog that coats the whole entire city.

My coworker and I were walking one day and he randomly turned to me and said, “Do you feel like you get more boogers here than back home” and I was like YES thank you for saying something. I literally thought it was all in my head but turns out it’s from the poor air quality!! It’s not actually that bothersome in my day to day life but if you ever decide to go hiking, make sure you check the visibility because I have hiked all the way up a mountain only to have zero view whatsoever thanks to the amount of pollution that day.

Oh, and I have to blow my nose like 10x a day.

Mosquitos

The mosquitos here are ANOTHER BREED. I don’t know where they came from or how all of them get into my house, but I still have scars from the summer, and even in the dead of winter I just killed a massive one in my bathroom.

All the kids I teach literally hate summer; winter is their favorite season. When I ask them why they don’t like summer, the only answer they give is: Mosquitos. One time a mosquito flew into my classroom and they all screamed and hid under the table shouting, “TEACHER. THE MOSQUITO IS HERE TO HURT US.” Their bites are so bad, one kid didn’t come into class on day because he got a bite on his eyelid. I’m not kidding you - the mosquitos here are so freaking bad. Will not miss them.

Work Culture

If you thought 9-5 was bad, it would be very difficult for you to adjust to life in South Korea. Typical work hours are 9-6, although many corporate employees leave work at 7. The work culture here is so toxic in my opinion! People are so overworked, and lots of people frequently don’t even get holidays off. People live to work here, the only other places I’ve lived are the United States and Spain, and while work culture is predominant in the United States, it’s definitely not to this extreme. Spain is a completely different story! So being here and working 9 hours a day is quite jarring, and to be quite honest I had a breakdown this morning before work - not because I don’t like work, but because I’m so freaking exhausted!

Winter break is next week, and it could not have come at a better time.

So there you have it!

Life in Korea is great; I love lots of things about life here! But sometimes you just need to know what you’re getting into - so that when it turns out to not be quite what you expected, you’re not completely let down. I hope that if you’re planning on moving to Korea, whether it be for study abroad or to teach English, that this has given you some insight and that you’re not caught off guard when you arrive! Don’t let this deter you whatsoever - there are good and bad things about everywhere in the world. None of these complaints are deal breakers in the slightest, this is just a fun way to share some complaints and vent a little bit about minor inconveniences:(

Stay tuned for the 10 things I love the most about life here in South Korea!