The Internet, Phones and Getting Around

Internet & Phone
Korea has the best roll-out of broadband in the world. This means that a high speed connection is available virtually everywhere on the peninsula.

There is an internet café on every corner so if you don’t bring your laptop with you it will still be easy to stay in touch with home. If you do bring your laptop with you or buy one while over there, getting a connection into your apartment is relatively easy and cheap, for help with this ask a Korean colleague or your supervisor.

The majority of internet café’s will have head-sets, so for free calls home be sure to get yourself, family and friends signed up to skype or a similar provider.
Cell phones are everywhere in Korea as it is a very technologically minded country. The students in your class will have the latest of everything from computer consoles to mp3 players and cell phones.

For a new teacher getting a cell phone soon after arrival is a must, as it will help you stay in touch with your new circle of friends and with home. International calls from your mobile or a landline is expensive but international call-cards are available and are great value. After touching down in Korea please remember to ring home and let them know you have arrived safely…

Cell phone shops are plentiful and brand new or a second hand phones are available. They come pre-paid or billed, we would recommend pre-paid because there is no documentation needed and you can simply top-up with call credit and dial.

Korean cell phones will not accept or send international SMS messages and they do not operate with a sim-card, so bring your current phone if you think you will need numbers from it. You can make and receive international calls to your Korean cell phone and the international country code for Korea is 00 82.

Some apartments will come with landlines already fitted, local calls are free but you will be charged for all others. Here is a list of the city area codes that you may need if you are ringing friends or businesses outside your city.

Getting Around
Korea has a great infrastructure, making travel fast and inexpensive. There is a comprehensive bus intercity network, with buses of differing levels of comfort and directness depending on price.

The KTX, a high speed train, that operates between Seoul and Busan via Daejeon and Daegu. It can complete the journey in 2 hours 40 minutes and is pride of the Korean transport system. There are also slower and cheaper trains available to almost everywhere on the peninsula.

Taxis are an inexpensive option for city travel but city buses and the subway are cheaper again. The Seoul Metropolitan Area, Busan, Daegu, Incheon and Gwangju, all have their own subway systems. City buses are numerous and they go almost everywhere the only trick is finding out which one to take and when to get off.

Another transport option is to purchase a moped, which more-or-less have the run of the roads and footpaths. They’re cheap and you can usually pick one up from a departing teacher. Just a word of warning, this is Asia and they have a different approach to driving so it’s not something to be rushed into.