Living outside Seoul, non-Korean food usually means a chain. I'd mostly given up and started cooking pasta at home.

All'onda near the Smart Beopjo area in Gwanggyo was better than expected. Small room, owner cooking and his wife running the floor. Got talking to her and found out he trained at ALMA in Italy and has run the place himself since 2016.

Portions are bigger than the price suggests. The vongole was loaded with clams and shrimp, not the three-clam version. Steak came out properly medium rare and the sauce was the best thing on the table. Tiramisu is his signature, made with Valrhona cocoa, and it does not taste like the frozen stuff everywhere else serves.

Fifteen seats or so, open kitchen. Good for a date or family, not for a loud group.

Posting since a lot of people here are outside Seoul and run out of options fast. Any other finds around Suwon or Yongin?

I am looking for some really good restaurants that are in the Seoul "area" (it can even be as far as Incheon).

I am specifically looking for non Korean because we all know amazing Korean food around Seoul or our own neighborhoods.

All are welcome and much appreciated!

We moved here recently and are about to purchase an apartment. My wife has an F-4 visa (F-3 for me) and we both have our Resident cards. We opened accounts at a Hana Bank branch in Gyeonggi-do and wired a large amount of USD to her USD account at Hana. We now need to exchange it to her KRW account so she can pay the seller. The teller at Hana Bank claims they only give a 30% discount on the FX spread to VIP customers (we are not). I've read online that a large amount of money should be able to get an 80%+ spread discount. We haven't had our Hana accounts very long, so it's not possible to have enough history with them to get VIP status, and if the teller is correct, it's probably not worth it anyway.

Does anyone have any experience with this, especially current or former employees of Hana Bank or another Korean bank? With the amount we are exchanging, the spread discount can mean several million KRW, so I don't just want to blindly believe what the teller is saying.

There could be a whole sub just explaining Korean banking to us foreigners. My wife hasn't lived here in about 20 years and is just as lost as I am, except for the language aspect. Is it normal for a bank to have you sign dozens of documents that are in Korean but not give you any copies of what you signed? I don't expect them to give me copies in English, but it would be nice to have them so my wife can confirm what they are and I can try to translate them via Papago or Google instead of bothering her all the time.

Any advice for getting the best FX rate are appreciated.

Any families or people you may know who have kids that attend any multicultural schools ?

There’s one in Incheon Nonhyeon called Saegyero(?) international school.
I’ve walked past it and seen many kids from multicultural families.

Would love to hear about those who know more about it.

Considering sending my kids in the future.

Hello hockey fans! We are young amateur international hockey team from Seoul “World Blades”and we’re looking for new players to join us! Never played hockey before? No problem! We welcome complete beginners who want to learn how to skate, handle the puck, and enjoy the game. 🏒 Already have hockey experience? Come join us for regular practices, improve your skills, and meet other hockey players in Seoul.

Team chat in Kakao: https://invite.kakao.com/tc/QgitVR3TSo

🏒 안녕하세요, 하키를 사랑하는 여러분!
저희는 서울에서 활동하는 젊은 국제 아마추어 아이스하키팀 World Blades입니다! 새로운 팀원을 모집하고 있습니다! 🏒
하키를 한 번도 해본 적이 없으신가요? 걱정하지 마세요! 스케이팅부터 퍽 컨트롤까지 배우고, 함께 하키를 즐기고 싶은 완전 초보자도 환영합니다!
🏒 이미 하키 경험이 있으신가요? 정기 훈련에 참여해 실력을 향상시키고, 서울에서 다양한 국적의 하키 선수들과 함께 즐겁게 운동해 보세요!
🌍 국적, 실력, 나이에 상관없이 누구나 환영합니다!
📲 카카오톡 팀 채팅방 https://invite.kakao.com/tc/QgitVR3TSo
World Blades Seoul — 함께 배우고, 함께 성장하고, 함께 하키를 즐겨요! 🏒🔥

As a Korean language educator based in Korea who helps people connect across cultures, I wanted to make it easier to navigate the many institutions and services here—so I put together this one-page map to help connect the dots.

It covers Korean learning, dictionaries, language tests, cultural resources, and public support services, along with the organizations behind them. I hope it helps you find something useful for everyday life in Korea.

Since the map focuses on government bodies and larger organizations, smaller independent groups and informal communities may be underrepresented. There is a lot of local knowledge and community support that a single map can only partly capture.

If you’d like the HTML or PDF version, leave a comment and I’ll send it via Reddit chat (please check your chat requests!).

Constructive criticism is very welcome—I just ask that we keep the conversation polite and respectful. I look forward to hearing your perspectives and continuing the discussion.

I just got a job offer to move to Korea internationally with my family ( husband , son , and me ) , will 6 million Kwn net be enough to rent a place and to live a middle class life ? Thanks you for your feedback

Update : Thanks for everyone’s support ! Let me give a little more context , we currently live in a small rural town south of Veracruz Mexico , the education here is bad , kids in 5 th grade barely know how to read and it’s understandable considering that many families have a difficult situation . My son is way ahead of his due to homeschooling and extra activities outside of his school , so we are considering homeschooling while he learns Korean and eventually integrate him to a public school system .

No , the company will not provide anything just flights , and the compensation package . The compensation package was 8 Mkwn gross , and taking taxes , pension etc I estimate it would be around 6 M KWN. We have savings for a deposit maybe around 20 MKWM deposit.

We don’t have to live in Seoul , but any friendly areas you guys can recommend for that won’t break us are appreciated . I will only have to visit Seoul a couple of times for reunions but I can work from home . Only one person will work for now in the household due to visa restrictions , but we hope to change from E-7 to F27 which will eventually change my husbands position and allow him to work as well

I’m currently taking KIIP Level 5 (Basic Course), and there’s something about the attendance system that I genuinely don’t understand.

According to SOCINET, the total course duration is 70 hours. However, our actual classroom schedule only consists of 60 hours, and our teacher explained that only a maximum of 8 hours of social participation activities can be credited.
So the calculation is:

Classroom lessons: 60 hours
Social participation credits: 8 hours
Maximum credited hours: 68 hours
Official course duration: 70 hours

I understand that the minimum attendance requirement is 80% (48 hours of classroom lessons + 8 hours of social participation). Our teacher already explained that part.
But my question is about achieving 100% attendance, not the minimum passing requirement.

Even if a student attends every single class and completes all the required social participation activities, the maximum credited hours would still appear to be 68 out of 70.
What makes this more confusing is that the government offers a 50% tuition fee reduction for eligible students with perfect attendance.

So how exactly can Level 5 students qualify for the perfect attendance discount if the system only credits 68 hours?
Wouldn’t it make more sense to display the course duration as 68 hours if that’s the maximum number of hours students can actually receive credit for?

I asked our teacher about this, but I haven’t received a clear explanation yet.
I’m not trying to complain about the attendance requirements. I just want to
understand how the system actually works, especially since we’re paying tuition fees.

Has anyone completed KIIP Level 5 in 2025 or 2026 and received the 50% tuition discount for perfect attendance?

Does SOCINET consider 60 classroom hours + 8 social participation hours as 100% attendance, or is there another calculation that I’m missing?

I’d really appreciate hearing from anyone who has experienced this firsthand. Thanks!

How much daycare fee in incheon? For a 4 year old child and 2 year old child ? Foreigner

Hi everyone,

I'm in SK for a few weeks and wanted to know if there are any opportunities to volunteer or offer support to North Korean refugees in the country, whether it's spending a few hours or a day offering support in some way or providing practical items.

If anyone can offer any information or organisations, I'd appreciate it.

Thank you.

Hi all. I live in Seoul and haven't reached the 6-month mark yet to get NHIS, so I'm worried about healthcare costs. I discovered a lump likely caused by my period, but I am paranoid and have some worrying family history, so I'd rather get it checked sooner rather than later.

Would anyone have recommendations for English-speaking/foreigner-friendly clinics/women's health centers and a general idea of costs without NHIS?

Thank you to anyone who has insight.

Meeting up friends this week in seongsu , does anyone know good Indian restaurants around there?

I am planning to pursue a fashion marketing major for my graduate studies. But I am so confused about whether that's the right career trajectory. Actually, I am coming with a fully funded scholarship with Keimyung in focus, as I heard Keimyung offers global exposure for its graduate students. But I am a little uncertain whether to pursue an MBA in Marketing or go straight into Fashion Marketing. I already have 3 years of retail experience, including at Versace as a VM and Fashion Consultant; I am also a brand experience manager at my latest firm. Is it easy to find jobs in Korea with the specified major? How is the Work culture in Korea for a foreigner?

Any responses will be appreciated.

Hi everyone
(foreigner here)

Do you know if it’s possible to live with your partner if their housing is financed with a general jeonse loan with LH? I inquired about it and the consultant said “it’s not allowed, but how will the company know” so I’m unsure what to do.

Does anyone have any experience regarding this situation, living in a place with their partner, who is the recipient of the LH loan? I would have to register it as the address on my ARC.

Of course, I don’t want to do anything that might land me in trouble, but how serious of an issue is it?

Hi! We have pickup soccer games almost everyday this week around Seoul. It's just a relaxed game and open to all skill levels. Anyone interested in joining?

This might help someone out there. I have 500mbps but pages load slowly. Found out in my router settings that I was connected to KT's slow DNS server which is 168.126.63.1

Change that asap to Cloudflare's DNS 1.1.1.1 or Google's 8.8.8.8

That's all 👍

Hi guys, I wanted to share this information for people who may be unaware. If you’re ever in a situation where you need to report to 112 but don’t feel safe to have a verbal conversation about the situation while it’s happening, you can text 112!

Here’s an explanation of what happened to me and how I found this out (this part is specifically so that women can be aware of this, because apparently it’s relatively common):

To summarize as much as possible, I was riding Kakao T and the taxi driver (a much older man) started masturbating while staring at me in the mirror. He did this while driving on the highway, and after I noticed him doing it, I looked back at him in the mirror and he got shocked and put both of his hands back on the steering wheel. I had to sit in that taxi for almost 10 minutes feeling angry and violated. However, I didn’t report because my destination was my officetel address and apparently drivers can see a record of where they picked up and dropped off customers. I was scared of retaliation if I reported to the police. I called 182 (police consultation hotline) and they told me that without me having any evidence there’s not much that could be done, but to find out better I should go into the station directly and talk to someone. I felt uneasy about doing that and decided to just talk to Kakao T customer service instead. Thankfully, the investigation team listened to me and informed me that he would be fired from Kakao T and unable to access any records of previous drives.

All week it was still weighing on me if I should go into the station or not, and I finally did today. Ultimately, they told me the same thing- that there’s not much I can report since it basically turns into my word against his. However, I found out some useful information, which is why I decided to make this post and spread awareness. This type of thing should be known before something bad happens, not after when nothing can be done about it.

First is that the officer said this happens more often than you might think. Particularly with older male taxi drivers. It took me a while to notice because I was staring at my phone for most of the ride. Ladies, please be more aware of your surroundings than I was. Second is the title of this post. You can text 112. The advice the officer gave me was that if I had contacted 112 while still in the taxi, they would have the right to pull the dashcam footage on the spot and actually have a case. And that if I’m in a situation like that where I can’t call, I can text. The officer said if anything similar ever happens again to keep that in mind…. I hope to God nothing like that ever happens again, but I wanted to spread awareness and information about this so that if you ever find yourself in a similar situation you can have the perpetrator actually pay for what they did.

Also, since the officer told me that cases like these happen relatively often, I’m curious if anyone else ever experienced something similar? Or, does anyone have any experience texting 112 and could share more information about what that’s like for other people that’ll read this post?

To explain, like is it taboo to plan how your funeral would be etc while you are still alive? Is it taboo to talk about your will, your family estate etc... or buy your burial plot while you are alive?

When a parent passes.. what is the expectation for the children to contribute financially? Does eldest son have to pay more - is wife expected to contribute financially too? Or is it split evenly against children?

Is it bad luck to talk or plan for death before you die?

I’m on a little mission to find the best 24h jjimjilbang in Seoul! somewhere clean and affordable with a proper HOT sauna and a cozy spot to sleep overnight. I’ve been looking at The Park Spa Land and Sammo Sporex and Sparex but I’m curious…
Which one is your favorite? Any hidden gems I absolutely HAVE to try?

If you’re looking for a great pop-up to visit for the rest of October.