Expat Advice: Relationships in Seoul, Korea

What is the name of the city or town that you are reporting on?

Seoul

What is your current status? Are you single, dating, in a long-term relationship, married or divorced?

Married to a Korean man and have 2 kids together, dates 2 years, married 7.

What is it like in your country of residence for someone with your relationship status (married/divorced/dating)? If you're single, how do you meet other people? Do English-speaking people tend to gravitate to certain parts of your city?

As a working person, I have my own social network and friends. Wives are generally expected to mix with other wives and moms if they don't have a job. It is very easy for singles to make connections. Finding guys to date (both expat and Korean) was easy back in the day.

If you have children, what advice would you give to others making a similar transition to your country of residence?

If you are willing top put them into Korean public school, come over. If you are willing to shell out 50,000 dollars a year for private school or after school classes, come over.

If you do not have children, do you generally spend your social time with other expat couples? If not, what else do you like to do as a couple?

There are more things to do in seoul for couples without kids. The night life is on 7 days a week. The bar-filled neighborhoods are cuontless. You could crawl from one to the next all night.

If you are married or in a relationship with a person of another nationality, how has this experience enriched you as a person. What kind of challenges do you face?

I should write a book. The Korean concept of marriage is quite different from the Candian concept. What I thought I had to do was not appreciated, and what my husband tried to do was not appreciated either. We had to learn new roles (not what we knew to be the role of a husband or wife) and also learn to accept the other for what we are.

What would be the best advice you could give someone with your relationship status that lives in your country of residence? Any other thoughts?

Try to make connections with couples with kids the same age so that you can do something fun. There are not many places you can just take kids like you can back home. For example, an aquarium near my place costs 30,000 per person, take an hour to get to because of traffic and parking (don't forget you will pay heavily for that parking), and is overcrowded and stuffy, and actually not that great... even the kids will lose their enthusiasm half way through. I think organizing our own events would be better. When I am not so exhausted... I will. (>.<)