Honest Seoul

I want to discuss daily life in Seoul, South Korea. The good, the bad and the strange. 23/F

[honestseoul]

The Racist Korean - Korea Storytime

Meeting friends. I'm trying to know people here but i keep picking some wrong-un's by mistake. This will be a short story because as quick as the interaction started i was soon to end it.

I started talking to a guy seemed chill as they all do, we had decent conversations some laughs and jokes and talked a fair but throughout the day and had similar views.

Eventually we decided to meet in Itaewon where he worked and lived, honestly I hate Itaewon so I wasn't looking forward to it.

It was a hot summer day and i was dressed too warmly and sweating my little 158cm ass off and managed to meet him he was same height as me and tatted up. We walked to a local restaurant and things started normal, nice conversation and so on and then a young Middle eastern man walked past, and the dude let out a racial slur that I dont feel comfortable typing. Honestly i think my eyes popped out of my head it took a second to realise as my brain was praying "please god he didn't just say that" and "If he did please say the other guy didn't hear" we walked on and I told him I did nit think what he said was appropriate but he went on to express more hatred about them to which i butted in due to my family being of mixed race and close family friends being middle eastern or have family members who were. I also watched my closest friends be bullied for her skin colour and the fact she was a Muslim so I don't tolerate such serious comments made towards anyone of any colour. He seemed not too taken back by it and just mainly shook his head at the comment i made about my family as if mixed race wasnt supposed to happen.

Honestly in my head I still wonder if he was joking but the next part makes me highly doubt it.

We sat down for food, I just wanted to leave but honestly I was worried he'd make a little scene or get pissed. I sat on my phone despite having 0 internet connection as I didn't want to interact with him.

And somehow I dont know how it started he dropped the N word, I was quick to say not to this as I know you dont use that especially in the way he was using. He kept saying it stating "If they can use it why can't I?" And he was completely ignoring me when i told him he was using it in a derogatory way and proceeded to say how he used it in front of black men and they laughed. Well yes I suppose they would find a dude like him trying to act tough hilarious because they probably could tell by looking at him he was all mouth. I have no issues with guys if the same height as me but he did seem to have a case of little man syndrome.

He kept saying the N word countless times despite my protesting then proceeded to say "im going to make you a racist" and telling me to say the N word which again I refused, this was all heppening in a busy restaurant too, in that moment god could have struck me down and i would have been thrilled, just to be out of the situation.

I worried every time someone of colour walked past, incase he commented on them.

Also amongst this he asked if my Russian ex was a skinhead, and if I was a nazi....honestly I couldnt if he was joking. I just wanted out he clearly wouldn't listen to my protesting.

What perplexed me about this also is the fact he lives in Itaewon, which is known for high density of foreigners. If you hate them to such a degree why would you stay there?

More happend after but nothing more racist.

Needless to say this dude got blocked that day.

Never. Again.

Oh he also said he once took a black girl out and made her cry for things he said. I believe he did this, and if the girl is out there just know hes worthless and people will realise it.

Edit- I forgot after the restaurant whem we left we passed a foreign woman with a dog, not a huge dog but as we passed it he acted afraid despite owning a dog and said her dog was dangerous and too big and he wanted to kick it and mentioned her being Ukrainian and said something offensive in relation although the women never spoke she walked on so i can only assume he assumed where she was from and then proceeded to say he could kill a dog to which I told him to just shut the fuck up. The dog was well behaved on its leash and didnt do anything wrong, just a cute dog

[honestseoul]

Lonely Cafe Man - Korea Storytime

I used a lot of online things in the past to create friendships here in Korea I find its a good opportunity to meet people. But more often than not i end up with problems and this is a story about one of those problems.

Using a language exchange a man who we will just call "CafeMan" as to use real identity is rude and despite everything he said I will not ever reveal this.

Honestly I recognised his face but didnt think much of it until he found my Instagram and messaged me there too. I had seen previous chatlogs to which I remember one specific thing he said "Are you pretty?, korean guys are superficial they only have sex with pretty foreigners" I need to add here we never spoke about this subject and it made me extremely uncomfortable so I promptly stopped talking. I explained that I remember the conversation but due to the insta deletion option he quickly deleted it stating he didnt remember nor do it, and he was previously hacked.

I gave him benefit of the doubt....well I still assumed it was him but decided to move past it. We talked a lot, he mentioned his ex who was a foreigner who moved to Korea, he did everything for her and she apparently left him to do some job and become famous. I can get more specific but due to privacy again i will not. I genuinely felt bad he seemed like a nice guy.

But talking to him we butted heads a lot first being about tattooists, for context we were talking about foreigners who have the kpop/oppa hunter mentality who try to sleep with Korean guys in hope of this romance starting and he dropped a bombshell (I have screenshots of these interactions I may post later I just dont want him ever finding this) he written "Some of my friends they got AIDS for korean guys in hongdae" as you can imagine this caught me off guard maybe sick curiosity but I wanted to know more. So I asked questions and replied guys with tattoos so i asked further what he meant and he said "Half of girls get AIDS from sex with tattooist in hongdae" as I know some tattooists in Hongdae personally I was immediately ready to jump to defence. Because the way he worded it implied all tattooists I cannot confirm or deny that one tattooist actusally did do this but i dont like the generalisation of the professionals I know who are trying to make good reputations.

He went on to correct himself stating semi professionals or cheap tattooists but Im unsure if he only did this because i jumped at their defence but it was initially a bold statement to make. And then stated he knew a Netherlands girl who only wanted tattooists for free tattoos, again I cannot validate. But if true she is in the wrong too.

Time goes by and I'm in Korea. He repeatedly asks to meet but due to circumstances (with family/house hunting) I cannot and I explain this calmly but he gets increasingly annoyed but I assured him we would meet after a certain date as that was the day I would have no more stress and i meant it. But he still seems to get angry with me.

I had some house hunting issues and he offered me some help with a friend, which is nice and all but i politely declined as my friend was helping me, taking time away from her own work ao I didn't want more help because it would feel like I'm turning my back on her when she was trying so hard.

Also if I happened to log into a language/friendship app i had met him on he would find my acc screenshot the log in and like accuse me of meeting friends and not him, like it was weird since we didnt know eachother well and at that time usually I clicked in app like force of habit not with any intentions at that point, such as opening facebook and scrolling when you have nothing to do.

I would complain or vent about my situation in finding a place a lot. This is my bad i shouldnt complain, but i was stressed and sad, its my first time renting a place anywhere let alone a foreign country. And he kept stating and laughing saying i did not do anything to change my situation which wasnt true, I was skipping on on showing my family around korea so I could tend to these issues but he didnt see it that way. But he kept saying I denied his help and again I explained everything and some personal issues that where making the situation worse to which he said "ok lets stop talking about it" and we did for the time being.

And then the big issue happend he kept going on and on at me so I explained my deep personal issues which i dont feel comfortable saying to anyone, but I told him because he didnt seem to understand where my behaviour came from which is understandable in a sense I dont expect people to read my mind or just put the peices together thats no ones job but i went into details on hows and why and what. And he said he went through same thing but stated "I acted like only miserable person in the world" yes i was sad and vented but, i never went out and said i was always sad or i was only one going through stuff and before this moment i never ever mentioned what i was dealing with because i dont want to use it or people to know. He stated that i post on insta like a bitch so he didnt follow me. Yes i post on insta, either selfies or "photography" (i use it quotes as its just some shitty photos im not a photographer by profession) i failed to see how it was bitchy, was i more confident in this online world? Yes. But arent most people, i think this mentality is so common in the modern world it borders on stereotypical. The fact he didnt follow me didnt bother me (i wasnt followimg him) but he seemed to try and use this as ammunition to hurt me I suppose because I knew he didnt follow, it wasnt a point worth mentioning. Despite he posted himself as a model which he genreally wasn't he did like one shoot maybe in another country but hardly professional but also stated to me he wasnt a model previously and thought of it like prostitution but still tagged everything as model. But i never brought this hypocritical comment up.

I told him i deal with my issues in my own way (i didnt state how its not his buisness) as I do because i went and got help and learned whats good for me.

He then stated I was making my problems his and they werent his. I wasn't i just wanted him to know because he would constantly mock me for not doing what he wanted or said. He got offended by me declining and stated "Helping people is Korean culture and if you dont want help you should live alone in Korea"

After explaining how much guilt i felt for my friend helping me and dealing with my mentality (currently she doesnt know my personal problems either) I told him i was wrong for complaining and i wouldnt do it again and he said "you can complain" but that was where the problems began in the first place.

Thats where i cut him off, I didnt think the friendship if you can even call it what was healthy for either of us. We clearly didnt see eye to eye and thats fine, not everyone is the same. Not everyone gets along its life.

He tried to contact me 3 times within the last month i think, once on Kakao which was first saying "Lol bye", I had blocked him on Insta to save the drama and he went onto his works insta and messaged me there (I have screenshot)

Saying "lol you block me hahahaha bye" and he swiftly deleted it but i had already seen. Then once very recently he messaged me again on another social media saying "why'd you block me lol".

I responded to none of these, why? What good can come from it, it would only lead to arguing of some sort as it did when we tried to keep a friendship. I don't believe its worth the attempt. I am not the good guy in this, I did plenty of this wrong as you can see and its taught me sometimes you just cannot fight for some friendships as they're just not meant to be.

Ive been made aware by a mutual he has gone on to post stuff thats says "you are lonley you need internet friends. Well I have real friends get fuck out if my life I don't need that" I wont deny he has real friends but to complain at people who meet online when you spoke to me twice from Insta and Language app which are both online which is a contradiction to his statment. He then made another post saying why he could be a bitch or rude and people are stupid. I cant be bothered going into it and these may not be worded exactly but as I was shown by my friend as i do have him blocked.

- Its been a over a week since i written this, as I do go back on forth of if I should post this even though i don't give away any privacy of the individual in question.

But again all the stuff he said on his posts about people making online friends needed to get out if his life has since been removed and a renaming of his instagram. Due to the previous mutual friend I have the original post screenshots of these before he removed them but I am debating if posting is wise as people may recognise the posts even with the name of the acc removed and anything that would relate to his identity. Maybe I'm overthinking but if anyone has an opinion if i should show screenshots or not I'd be happy to discuss it. And sorry its so long winded, i didnt want to miss much as most are vital points or so I believe.

10th August update - despite the long rant he had cussing people out about making online friends he has tried to ince again add me on on of the friend/language exchange app. I thought i seen him 1 day prior but I wasnt so sure as the name didn't match and photo was difficult to see. But today I saw his old photo but under a nee name.

[honestseoul]

Korean Visa Application H-1

I want to try and be as in depth as possible when writing this but its been a while since i started the visa application so it may be a bit. I want to start by saying my overall visa application cost me around £420, from forms I needed to collect and mailing fees, all of that good stuff as i had a deadline for when i wanted to be there i needed everything fast tracked. And I'm writing it from UK application guidlines as I know other countries differ. You will not receive any of these documents back, only your passport will return if accepted. If you have queries the Korean embassy in your home country can answer some, in the UK they have an email address you can contact if like me you hate phone calls

Lets start with thing that were needed for application

• Application form

• Activity Plan

• Medical statement issued within last 3 months

• Passport

• Return flight itinerary

• Bank statement showing £1,500 in the last 3 months

• Criminal Background check with an Apostille

• Visa Fee

Application form is readily available for download on the Korean Embassy site along with the Activity Plan template.

The Application form is pretty straight forward, asks the basic questions. The only part i got a little torn on was the reason for visit, it gives you multiple selections such as work, tourism, diplomatic, study, marriage and so on. Now as I was choosing Working Holiday I didn't know if Work or Tourism would be the one to select, so instead I used the 'Other' and specified the 'H1 Working Holiday Visa'. It must've worked.

I need to add when sending all documents off you must have a return envelope paid for too because they won't send it back otherwise...Not like you haven't paid enough already.

Activity plan is something I've seen mixed answers online for regarding how in depth you should be on them.

For me personally I put down 4 activities a month varying on what to do. I find a Activity plan hard to write out considering you dont know what you will do when there and how flexible your job and funds are but fill it out anyway, learn some history and show willingness to learn!

Medical statement, this was annoying I honestly thought this should be easy. I went into my doctors office to book an appointment and told them why and immediately they had no idea what i was talking about. In advance I brought forms stating what was needed (basic thing sahing I was in good health) so i was expecting a basic medical check. They told me to give them a week to talk to the doctor and search what was needed. And as theyre the professionals i assumed that they knew best. After a week they called back and said doctor had written a letter confirming I was in good health. No medical check at all... but got my letter cost £15.

Passport...I can't write much on this...just send it...oh but make sure you have sufficient time left from expiry date

Return flight Itinerary. Ok this annoyed me. I paid for a private company to get me return flight itinerary as far into future as possible as flights 1 year in advance do not exist. Only to find as long as you have sufficient funds in bank you dont need to do this. Something that the embassy does not tell you. Dont waste money.

Bank statement, before we begin if youre planning on living alone in Korea you need a lot more than this if you want to be in a main area. Deposits alone can be up to £6,600 (can be lower but expect higher rent). You can get cheaper but means going further from Seoul or from the main subway line. Most on the green line which connects to major points like Hongdae and Gangnam will be expensive.

I'm not even kidding. Stupidly expensive.

But this was easiest just go into local bank and they'll print it off for free my bank was nice enough to do a little more than 3 months to be on the safe side.

Criminal background check. This probably cost me the most and annoyed me the most.

Getting a DBS certificate is pretty easy you apply on the .gov site but you do have to enter many forms of identity and they said i didnt have enough so i had to wait to receive a letter but it came swiftly but it does cost to get this certificate.

Now I'd never heard of an Apostille previously this was a new thing so I searched on what was needed, i was tomd to see a solicitor and get them to verify the document then send it away for the Apostille. So i went to a well known big solicitor group they copied it and signed the copy stating the original was true cost £5. So i sent my it off with the original then it all come back stating it wasnt proof of originality so i took it all back to them and they said we will do it again now with the correct information. And they did do it again. But the same as first time, I told them that its safe as rejected one but they insisted they were correct. I knew I'd be met with same issues so i found a private solicitors and went in there. They admitted to never having to write on a certificate before but did it anyway for me as it was what was told to be done. She declared it as original and signed it giving all her information and dates done again costing £5. I am so thankful for her to listen to me unlike the others. Once this was done my Apostille was accepted. But cost a lot in one day delivery fees.

Visa fee, the visa is multi entry (£154 I think) you cannot pay by cash when you send this away. It has to be postal checks named out to the receiver. You can get these in the local post office when sending your application.

Collecting all the forms can be a tedious and pricey thing so make sure you have saved enough for it.

Sorry for any overlooked mistskes

If you have questions feel free to ask :)

[honestseoul]

Honest Seoul

I've recently moved to Seoul on a working holiday visa (Ive been travelling here for 3 month trips 2 previous years) and honestly I want to use this so if anyone is planning on moving here or working can have a realistic view on life here by showing daily life and issuess along the way including visa application. You may not run into problems I had but better to have an idea I guess. I also want to discuss some things i witness foreigners do here, I'm open to opposing opinions to my own :))