Charlie Usher - Expat in Seoul, South Korea
Charlie Usher is a 32-year-old expat in Seoul, South Korea. He is a writer and an English teacher. Mr. Usher is originally from Wisconsin, USA. He moved to Korea after finding out that his school, the University of Wisconsin, had a teacher-exchange program with Gyeonggi Province and sent recent graduates to teach English in their public schools. “I knew nothing of the place, but I’d never been to Asia and was intrigued by the idea of spending a couple years there,” he added.
Mr. Usher noted that life in Korea is very modern and safe. “By and large I find the Korean people to be pretty great,” he said. “They’re generally welcoming and very appreciative of any interest you might take in their country; they’re respectful and community minded – rates of violence and crime are incredibly low; and they’re admirably hard-working.” However, he noted that the hardest aspect to his expat experience involved learning the language. “It’s a big challenge and something I’m still working on, but not speaking Korean is not going to significantly hamstring one’s ability to live in and enjoy living in the country,” he said. Mr. Usher also said that the main negative side of living in South Korea involves the overly-frenetic pace of life and the high levels of stress that people here cope with. “Relaxing can be a big challenge,” he said, citing that South Korea has some of the longest working hours in the OECD and happiness ratings in the country are some of the lowest. He also added that dark-skinned expats have faced racism and that the country needs to improve when it comes to gender equality.
It is a common situation for expats to find themselves adjusting to life where another language is spoken and where aspects of the local culture take some time to get used to. Expats who want to take on the challenge of mastering the local language spoken may be able to find opportunities to learn and practice by joining several clubs and associations around the area they are living in to meet fellow expats who could help them learn the local language. Additionally, expatriates who may have gone through negative experiences related to sexism or racism while living overseas may be able to find support from their local embassies when it comes to handling such issues.
Find out more about Charlie Usher’s experiences in South Korea in his full interview below.
Q: Where are you originally from?
A: I’m originally from the States, born and raised in Wisconsin, where I lived until graduating from college.
Q: What made you move out of your home country?
A: I’d studied abroad in university and following graduation I was pretty keen to live overseas again for a while, for no other reason than that I thought it’d be fun and I’d have a chance to travel more.
Q: Where are you living now?
A: I’m living in Seoul, South Korea, where I’ve been for the better part of the past nine years.
Q: How long have you been living in South Korea?
A: I’ve been here a total of about seven years now. I lived here for my first two years after college before leaving to backpack around Asia and live in New Zealand and Australia for a bit before finding my way back. I’ve been in Seoul continuously since 2009.
Q: How did you come to choose this new country of residence?
A: A shrug of the shoulders. I had no intention of coming here, but just before I graduated I found out that my school, the University of Wisconsin, had a teacher-exchange program with Gyeonggi Province, sending over recent grads to teach English in their public schools and bringing Korean teachers to the university to study. I knew nothing of the place, but I’d never been to Asia and was intrigued by the idea of spending a couple years there. Also, the application form was only two pages.
Q: What has been the most difficult experience you've had when you were new in South Korea?
A: Oh man, that was almost a decade ago so it’s a bit hard to remember. Honestly, nothing in particular really sticks out in my mind. I was lucky enough to arrive together with about three dozen other people from my university, so I had a built-in support group, and I have a pretty easy-going, adaptable nature that helps with settling in to a new place, so I don’t think I had any particularly difficult experiences. I think the biggest challenge of my first year was just living in a really small town and, not knowing any Korean, having to figure out what to buy at the local grocery store – a pretty universal expat problem. I ate a lot of spaghetti that year.
Q: Would you say that formalities like getting visas or work permits and international health insurance was particularly difficult in your host country? What was your experience with these?
A: What was your experience with these? For people like me who come to Korea on English teaching visas the formalities are generally quite straightforward. Most of the time employers provide a lot of support when it comes to visas, health insurance, and housing. I can’t speak from first-hand experience, but I believe that expats who come to Korea to work in fields other than English teaching generally receive similar support, though starting a business as a foreigner is considerably more difficult.
Q: Are you living alone or with your family?
A: I live alone.
Q: Was it easy making friends and meeting people? Do you mainly socialize with other expats in South Korea? How did you manage to find a social circle in South Korea?
A: I socialize with both other expats and Koreans, and they’re people I’ve met through work, writing groups, and introductions from mutual friends. I think that it’s generally pretty easy to meet fellow expats and make friends with them, and it’s becoming increasingly so as the expat population grows and the attendant clubs, performance groups, restaurants, and expat-focused events do as well. Making friends with Koreans is generally less straightforward thanks to very different social dynamics between Koreans and Westerners in that regard. Koreans generally aren’t comfortable forming a new social relation unless there’s an intermediary – a mutual friend, for example – to provide an introduction. If you work with Koreans, they’ll usually happily take you into their social group, and things like language exchanges are good ways to make connections too. Once you do find that initial connection, though, Koreans form tight bonds rather quickly.
Q: What are the best things to do in South Korea? Anything to recommend to future expats?
A: Seoul’s got 10 million people; whatever you think is the best thing to do you can almost certainly find a place to do it and people to do it with. That said, Seoul is blessed with a number of mountains in the immediate area, and Koreans are big, big hiking enthusiasts, so any expats with similar interests will consider themselves lucky. Seoul’s nightlife is really vibrant, with plenty of clubs and a sometimes overlooked but pretty lively indie and live music scene. Most bars and clubs stay open until the early morning, so if going out is your thing Seoul’s a great place to do it.
Q: How does the cost of living in South Korea compare to your home?
A: It varies a bit depending on what exactly you’re talking about and where you are. Real estate in Seoul is really expensive, but in smaller cities it’s often incredibly affordable. When going out to eat, foreign food tends to be on the expensive side, but Korean food is usually pretty cheap. Public transportation is almost criminally inexpensive, especially in comparison with how good it is. Coffee in Korea is pricey, despite the fact that you’ll usually find at least one cafe on any given block. Most drinks are probably between about $4 and $7 USD. For meals in inexpensive restaurants, simple Korean lunch joints can be as low as $3 or $4 for a decent-sized meal. For dinner you can eat very well for less than $10. For a meal in an expensive restaurant, most expensive Korean restaurants would probably be about $20-40, but can of course be much more, while dinner at a non-Korean restaurant will probably start and $15 and go up from there. Wine prices are maybe slightly higher than prices in the U.S. but aren’t too bad. I don’t smoke, so I’m really not sure about cigarettes, but I think they’re pretty cheap.
Q: What do you think about the locals?
A: I’ve got complaints, same as every expat everywhere, but by and large I find the Korean people to be pretty great. They’re generally welcoming and very appreciative of any interest you might take in their country; they’re respectful and community minded – rates of violence and crime are incredibly low; and they’re admirably hard-working. For Westerners, though, Korean attitudes can seem a bit provincial and conservative. Racism is a problem that a lot of darker-skinned expats have faced, gender equality is something the country has to improve, and attitudes toward homosexuality are less than welcoming, though these seem to be changing, albeit slowly.
Q: What do you think are the positive and negative sides of living in South Korea?
A: It’s a very safe place to live. Its public infrastructure – transportation, tech, and telecommunications – is probably some of the best in the world. The country, and Seoul, in particular, is a very exciting place to be – things are constantly changing, there’s always something going on, and there’s a sense that this is really Korea’s moment in the Asian spotlight, that some of the most important things on what’s arguably the 21st century’s most important continent are happening here. The main negative that I (and a lot of others) would cite is the overly-frenetic pace of life and the high levels of stress that people here, especially Koreans, must cope with. Working hours are some of the longest in the OECD and happiness ratings are some of the lowest. Relaxing can be a big challenge. The aforementioned attitudes about race and sexuality can be a problem as well.
Q: Do you miss home and family sometimes?
A: Of course, though I really enjoy living in Seoul and feel very comfortable here. There are two times when the pangs are usually the strongest. One is during the Major League Baseball playoffs. (Korea has a pro baseball league and it’s fun, but it’s just not the Majors in October.) The other is during U.S. election periods, when I most feel that I’ve made the mistake of leaving behind the place where the really important things are happening and I’m in some way missing out on being part of the American Narrative.
Q: How do you cope with homesickness?
A: Delving into that stuff on the internet and commiserating with other expats. Honestly, though, homesickness doesn’t strike very often.
Q: Do you have plans to move to a different country or back home in the future?
A: I’m terrible at forming any sort of long-term plans, so I couldn’t tell you if in a year from now I’ll still be in Seoul or back in the States or somewhere else.
Q: What has been the hardest aspect to your expat experience so far?
A: I honestly think that living in Korea as an expat is a pretty easy thing to do. It’s different enough from my native culture to always be curious and intriguing, but not so different as to be alienating. Learning the language is a big challenge and something I’m still working on, but not speaking Korean is not going to significantly hamstring one’s ability to live in and enjoy living in the country. I guess if I had to pick one thing it would be that age-old Existentialist Expat dilemma – the ever-present suspicion that being in this place somehow isn’t the right thing to be doing and that you really should be somewhere else, maybe back home or maybe in a different country altogether.
Q: What tips can you give other expats living in South Korea?
A: I think this is pretty true for any country, but goes double for a place like Korea, where so much is often hidden by the language or by the thick line the culture draws between insiders and outsiders: The more you put into your time here, the more effort you expend to explore, understand, and interact with the culture, the more you’ll get out of it. Also, drink your soju while it’s cold. The warmer it gets, the worse it gets.
Q: Do you have favourite websites or blogs about your host country?
A: The Marmot’s Hole is a good one-stop-shop for the latest happenings