Your experience of culture shock in South Korea

Generally I do not recommend living in countries with too extreme cultural differences to people who arrived single for unlimited time.

It is good to live in South Korea, for the first 2- 3 years the country is interesting and strangers are usually nice.

But you need to make sure that you brought your beloved ones with you. Making deep real bonds, bonding with people in a way I am used to in Central Europe, is almost impossible here.

I met a lot of people who considered themselves my friends. But I never visited them at home and they declined invitations if I wanted to invite them home as well. People meet rather in big groups and they drink really a lot.

Another thing that got me really upset was inability to clearly refuse sth or keep the word. For me a given word is sacred - this means if I promise sth I promise sth. I ended up in a lot of situations when I was left alone with a situation because a person did not arrive.

Luckily at Ajou university we had local assistants associated to us and for the first month they really did their best to help a lot.

But right now I live in Ukraine and I feel really at home. I have friends that fulfill their promises, I bond with people easily and I know that if I have emergency and sth happens to me there will always be a person to be there for me. I never felt this way in South Korea.

Summarizing? I recommend for families or young marriages to experience foreign culture for certain period. I recommend South Korea also as a place for diplomatic service destination ot for a limited contract in corporation, but very definately not for a life. Unless you get married and settle down, as only a husband or a wife would really take care for you in times of need.