My Korean Life #25: House Hunting Part 1 - Before You Go

This mini-series within "My Korean Life" will document me finding a one-room (studio apartment) here in Korea. <NOTE: There is something called the jeonse (전세) system in Korea but normally that requires $80,000 - $125,000+ upfront, I will not be addressing this system>

Part 1: Research and Preparation

Research where you want to live first of all. Then you can start to look online or visit the windows of real estate agents and browse possible rooms. In Korea there is a very popular app called "직방" which I used to find some open rooms. They may not show you the exact apartment you saw online or the app due to the heavy turn over but they will show you similar properties or whatever is in your price range. Most every room has a negotiable price. Prices published online are normally what the building owner prefers but that is not set in stone.

If your Korean is...still in development...then feel free to bring along a Korean friend with you. I did on my first two visits to agencies but honestly (and my Korean friend said this to me) she didn't need to be there. My Korean was good enough. The 3rd agent I visited speaks English well so we talked mostly in English.

First thing you should KNOW (not a maybe and not an "I don't know") is the MAX you are willing to pay for both the security deposit (보증금) and monthly rent (월세). They will also ask you when you want to move in (an estimate is fine). I gave about one or two weeks out. You also don't want to go to the real estate agency too soon (maybe within 2-4 weeks of you wanting to move unless you need more time to plan or want to look at multiple areas of town).

They may also ask what is important to you or what size of room you want. They may reference an old area measurement called pyeong (평). If looking at one-rooms I suggest at least 6 pyeong (~213.5 sq.ft. or ~19.8 sqm).

They may also ask you about the options you want, this means what is included when you rent the apartment. Most will come some furniture like a desk or wardrobe. MANY DO NOT COME WITH A BED but sometimes this can be negotiated into the contract options. Just check with the real estate agent on what the options are PER PROPERTY.

If you visit multiple properties in the same neighborhood, remember where you have been as real estate agents may share regions, neighborhoods, or property building listings.

Checklist (pre-visit)

• Preferred location
• Max Deposit and Max Rent Amount. Most properties are negotiable.
• Preferred size (in pyeong or square meters)
• Preferred options (bed, desk, refrigerator, wardrobe, etc)
• Move-in Date
• Term of lease (Normally 1 year but some can negotiate less than a year or more than a year depending on the building owner)

Part 2 will cover visiting properties.

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My Korean Life #20: 4급 and such

[4급]
I've now been in 4급 for two weeks. This is when the format of class changes from the format that is presented in levels 1-3.

Writing class is basically a mini-review session of the previous days listening/speaking/reading material with a writing task added in. Many times we write about the material we studied or write about some related topic. For example we learned about Korean money in reading class and for writing we wrote about our home country's money. What used to be just speaking is now listening+speaking for 2 hours. Normally the first day of a new chapter we listen to a dialogue or audio track and also study the new grammar that was introduced. The second day of a chapter we have another listening exercise plus some dialogue or vocab/grammar practice.

The reading class is basically the same levels 1-3 but really since they expect you to preview all the material before class the value added is hard to measure. I often don't get to preview a lot since we also receive a ton of homework so I'm reading the passage for the first time in class and also getting exposed to the vocabulary for the first or second time. Our teacher also speaks at what is probably considered 'normal' pace which for my brain is blazing fast. Class always seems to be rushed to complete all the listed tasks for the day. This is in contrast to my listening/speaking block of time where the teacher seems to take more time to explain things even if we don't plow through the chapters assigned tasks as quickly.

My writing teacher was one of the original teachers who helped compile material for the 1st publication of the level 4 book which is currently being revised. The book we actually use for class is one that is self-produced and currently not fully published. It's all in black and white and lacks the color and photos that the level 1-3 books had.

My thoughts on level 4 now is that even if I had done level 3 all over again (which I almost had to do) I'm not sure that would have better prepared me for level 4. The format for level 4 is different, the grammar and vocabulary is basically all new (many similar grammar patterns to what we've already studied as well to further crowd and congest the mind), and I thought I had a lot of homework in level 3 but compared to now it doesn't seem like it was that bad.

[...and such]
The weather now is consistently cold, snowing every now and then. Regardless of how cold it has been, there are still plenty of folks out on the weekends at all the hotspots around town. I want to try to go skiing here in Korea although I'm not sure of the best way to go about doing so. I believe there are a number of buses or packages one can buy to get to a ski resort but I just haven't done the research yet.

I'm also planning a number of trips for next spring since I know I'll still be residing in Asia. I hope to make some more blog posts/videos about all of that come next year. I haven't really traveled all that much since moving to Korea which is in stark contrast to what my life was right before I moved here where I was traveling pretty much every month and sometimes multiple times a month.

We also have a class field trip this coming Friday so if I get any good pictures or blog worthy information I'll be sure to upload!

Until next time...

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