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SCHOOLSPublicerat av Kevin 🇨🇦 Canada · för 1 dag sedan
Busan instead of Seoul — bad idea for learning?
seoul is expensive and busy. busan looks cheaper and i like the sea.
but i'm worried about the accent and about fewer foreigners meaning fewer language exchange options. anyone studied outside seoul
but i'm worried about the accent and about fewer foreigners meaning fewer language exchange options. anyone studied outside seoul
10 kommentarer
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Korea local tips · Seoul
Busan is a genuinely good choice and the accent worry is overblown. The fewer-foreigners point is real but it cuts the opposite way to what you expect.
On the accent: Busan speech (경상도 사투리) differs in intonation and some endings, but classroom Korean at the universities is standard Seoul Korean. Your teachers teach standard, your textbook is standard, and TOPIK is standard. What changes is what you hear on the street — and being exposed to a regional accent while learning standard is a benefit, not a handicap. Students who only ever hear Seoul Korean struggle the first time they leave Seoul.
On cost, the difference is real: rent runs 20 to 35 percent below Seoul for equivalent quality, tuition is typically 200,000 to 500,000 won less per term, and eating out is cheaper. Over a year that is a meaningful amount of money.
On fewer foreigners — this is the part worth reframing. Fewer foreigners means fewer people who will switch to English with you, fewer foreigner bubbles to fall into, and more situations where Korean is the only option. Most students who have done both say their Korean improved faster outside Seoul for exactly this reason. Language exchange partners exist in Busan; there are just fewer of them, and they are keener.
What you actually give up: the density of Seoul. Fewer schools to switch between, fewer part-time job options, fewer events and meetups, and you are further from Incheon for travel. If you want a big city with everything at 2am, Seoul is that and Busan is not.
And the thing people underrate: Busan is by the sea, it is warmer in winter by several degrees, and it is a noticeably calmer place to live. For some students that is the whole argument.
On the accent: Busan speech (경상도 사투리) differs in intonation and some endings, but classroom Korean at the universities is standard Seoul Korean. Your teachers teach standard, your textbook is standard, and TOPIK is standard. What changes is what you hear on the street — and being exposed to a regional accent while learning standard is a benefit, not a handicap. Students who only ever hear Seoul Korean struggle the first time they leave Seoul.
On cost, the difference is real: rent runs 20 to 35 percent below Seoul for equivalent quality, tuition is typically 200,000 to 500,000 won less per term, and eating out is cheaper. Over a year that is a meaningful amount of money.
On fewer foreigners — this is the part worth reframing. Fewer foreigners means fewer people who will switch to English with you, fewer foreigner bubbles to fall into, and more situations where Korean is the only option. Most students who have done both say their Korean improved faster outside Seoul for exactly this reason. Language exchange partners exist in Busan; there are just fewer of them, and they are keener.
What you actually give up: the density of Seoul. Fewer schools to switch between, fewer part-time job options, fewer events and meetups, and you are further from Incheon for travel. If you want a big city with everything at 2am, Seoul is that and Busan is not.
And the thing people underrate: Busan is by the sea, it is warmer in winter by several degrees, and it is a noticeably calmer place to live. For some students that is the whole argument.
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10 kommentarer
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Busan is a genuinely good choice and the accent worry is overblown. The fewer-foreigners point is real but it cuts the opposite way to what you expect.
On the accent: Busan speech (경상도 사투리) differs in intonation and some endings, but classroom Korean at the universities is standard Seoul Korean. Your teachers teach standard, your textbook is standard, and TOPIK is standard. What changes is what you hear on the street — and being exposed to a regional accent while learning standard is a benefit, not a handicap. Students who only ever hear Seoul Korean struggle the first time they leave Seoul.
On cost, the difference is real: rent runs 20 to 35 percent below Seoul for equivalent quality, tuition is typically 200,000 to 500,000 won less per term, and eating out is cheaper. Over a year that is a meaningful amount of money.
On fewer foreigners — this is the part worth reframing. Fewer foreigners means fewer people who will switch to English with you, fewer foreigner bubbles to fall into, and more situations where Korean is the only option. Most students who have done both say their Korean improved faster outside Seoul for exactly this reason. Language exchange partners exist in Busan; there are just fewer of them, and they are keener.
What you actually give up: the density of Seoul. Fewer schools to switch between, fewer part-time job options, fewer events and meetups, and you are further from Incheon for travel. If you want a big city with everything at 2am, Seoul is that and Busan is not.
And the thing people underrate: Busan is by the sea, it is warmer in winter by several degrees, and it is a noticeably calmer place to live. For some students that is the whole argument.
On the accent: Busan speech (경상도 사투리) differs in intonation and some endings, but classroom Korean at the universities is standard Seoul Korean. Your teachers teach standard, your textbook is standard, and TOPIK is standard. What changes is what you hear on the street — and being exposed to a regional accent while learning standard is a benefit, not a handicap. Students who only ever hear Seoul Korean struggle the first time they leave Seoul.
On cost, the difference is real: rent runs 20 to 35 percent below Seoul for equivalent quality, tuition is typically 200,000 to 500,000 won less per term, and eating out is cheaper. Over a year that is a meaningful amount of money.
On fewer foreigners — this is the part worth reframing. Fewer foreigners means fewer people who will switch to English with you, fewer foreigner bubbles to fall into, and more situations where Korean is the only option. Most students who have done both say their Korean improved faster outside Seoul for exactly this reason. Language exchange partners exist in Busan; there are just fewer of them, and they are keener.
What you actually give up: the density of Seoul. Fewer schools to switch between, fewer part-time job options, fewer events and meetups, and you are further from Incheon for travel. If you want a big city with everything at 2am, Seoul is that and Busan is not.
And the thing people underrate: Busan is by the sea, it is warmer in winter by several degrees, and it is a noticeably calmer place to live. For some students that is the whole argument.
0
did a year in busan. my korean got better faster than friends in seoul precisely because nobody switched to english on me. that's the actual difference
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seoul is genuinely too easy to survive in without korean. that's the trap
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that's a completely different framing than i had, thank you
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the accent thing is not a real problem. classes are standard korean. you'll just pick up some 부산 intonation which honestly people find charming
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i came back to seoul saying 뭐라카노 and my friends lost it
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rent difference is real. i had a proper one room in busan for what a goshiwon costs in sinchon
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downside is fewer part time jobs and fewer schools if you want to switch. it's a smaller pond in every sense, good and bad
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and further from incheon for travel, which adds up if you fly a lot
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busan winter is several degrees warmer and by the sea. if you're from a warm country that is not a small thing
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Liknande frågor
SCHOOLSYonsei KLI eller Korea University KLC — vilken för att prata?SCHOOLSÄr tiveckorstempot verkligen så brutalt som folk säger?SCHOOLSÄrligt talat, vilken nivå ligger man på efter ett år?Ställ en fråga
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