Pickup Korea Podcast: Neighborhoods of Seoul + Is Speaking Korean Important?

Summary

Highlights

• Gangnam blends business, fashion, and nightlife, attracting a diverse crowd. 🌆
• Itaewon contrasts with Gangnam by offering a vibrant nightlife, especially for English speakers. 🌜
• Hongdae's university atmosphere provides a lively social scene and creative attractions. 🏫
• Less-known areas like Jamshil and Silim present unique cultural and social experiences. 🌏
• Learning Korean opens up more opportunities but is not required for social success in Korea. 🌟
• English is widely spoken, so foreigners can get by without fluent Korean. 🤝

Key Takeaways

• Gangnam is the 'Manhattan of Seoul' with a mix of everything, from clubs to beauty clinics. 💃
• Itaewon is great for nightlife with more international party bars. 🌍
• Hongdae is the hub of university students and youthful energy, a good spot for day and night activities. 🎓
• Jamshil offers a massive shopping experience and relaxed lakeside vibes. 🏙️
• Learning Korean is beneficial but not necessary for living and socializing in Korea. 🗣️
• Many Seoul residents can communicate in English, making it easier for non-Korean speakers. 🇰🇷

Overview

Chapters

• 00:00 - 00:30: Introduction and Listener Questions This chapter introduces the podcast episode and addresses a couple of frequently asked listener questions. It focuses particularly on discussing the various areas within Seoul, highlighting differences in those areas for day and night activities.
• 00:30 - 05:00: Neighborhoods of Seoul Overview The chapter provides an overview of Seoul's neighborhoods, focusing on Kangnam and Hongdae as the two most renowned areas. Kangnam is highlighted as the premier neighborhood on the south side of the river, while Hongdae, located up north, is known for its universities. The chapter aims to provide a detailed exploration of these and other various neighborhoods where people live, visit, and socialize.
• 05:00 - 09:00: Gangnam District The chapter titled 'Gangnam District' highlights the diverse and developed nature of the area. Known for its wealth, it is a hub for numerous businesses, companies, and hostess bars. Additionally, it hosts various academies where students study. Unlike other districts that may specialize in one thing - such as only businesses, universities, or nightlife - Gangnam is praised for its mix of everything, showcasing a well-rounded development.
• 09:00 - 11:00: Itaewon Contrast In this chapter, the author explores the dynamic and diverse nature of Itaewon, a district in Seoul. Often compared to Manhattan in terms of its vibrant atmosphere, Itaewon offers a unique blend of cultures and demographics. The district is described as a melting pot that encompasses people of different age groups, types, and backgrounds, presenting a contrast to other areas such as Gangnam, which is more centralized around major stations like Gangnam Station, Shin Non-Hyun Station, and Shinsa. The author highlights the importance of recognizing these differences to fully appreciate the cultural tapestry of Seoul.
• 11:00 - 15:00: Hongdae Overview The chapter provides an overview of Hongdae, highlighting its vibrant and trendy neighborhoods. It mentions Garosugil, described as a more upscale and fashionable area with many nice shops. Apgujeong Rodeo is also discussed, noted for its recent growth, becoming a hotspot for lounges, bars, clubs, and pochas, which are Korean-style hunting bars. These areas are depicted as full of exciting and diverse attractions.
• 15:00 - 23:00: Jamshil and Surrounding Areas The chapter explores Jamshil and its surrounding areas, highlighting the upscale nature of the area. It mentions a significant indoor shopping mall, COAX, which offers convenience and comfort during adverse weather conditions. The area is described as having a vibrant nightlife with clubs as well as other recreational amenities. Additionally, Gangnam is mentioned as a location that encompasses a variety of attractions, making it a bustling and comprehensive entertainment hub.
• 23:00 - 29:00: Shilim and Silim The chapter discusses the allure of the Gangnam neighborhood in Korea, known for its high foot traffic and attractive residents who put effort into their appearance. It highlights that Gangnam is considered a premier, affluent area with many beauty clinics, fashion shops, and a modern atmosphere. The chapter notes that many people who stay in Korea for over a year wish to live in Gangnam, though it depends on personal temperament and preferences.
• 29:00 - 31:00: Express Bus Terminal This chapter, titled 'Express Bus Terminal,' discusses the vibrant social scene in the Gangnam district. Known as a major hub, Gangnam attracts diverse demographics due to its heavy foot traffic, making it an ideal spot for social activities during the day. With the lifting of corona restrictions, nightlife has also boomed, as bars and new clubs have reopened alongside existing ones, creating a dynamic entertainment district.
• 31:00 - 33:30: Emerging Neighborhoods This chapter explores the emergence of new neighborhoods that are distinct from areas typically known for their international or foreigner-focused nightlife. Unlike places like Itaewon, these emerging neighborhoods have fewer of the international party bars where foreigners congregate, seeking familiar environments with English-speaking patrons. The chapter likely discusses how these areas offer a different cultural experience and perhaps cater to a more local or diverse crowd.
• 33:30 - 37:30: Myeongdong Recovery The chapter focuses on contrasting the areas of Myeongdong and Itaewon, particularly in terms of social and nightlife dynamics. During the daytime, Itaewon is described as somewhat lackluster, with minimal foot traffic and not many attractive individuals present. However, the nightlife scene in Itaewon is highlighted as vibrant and appealing, featuring numerous bars and lounges. These places attract many attractive people and offer both Korean-style venues and other popular nightlife spots.
• 37:30 - 44:00: Yeouido and Office Areas The chapter titled 'Yeouido and Office Areas' discusses the social scene in Itaewon, particularly focusing on the presence of international party bars. These bars, which cater primarily to English speakers, are described as having an eclectic mix of people, sometimes with attractive individuals from various backgrounds. The narrator reflects on their experiences with friends at these venues, noting the social diversity compared to other areas like Gangnam and Apgujeong Rodeo, which may have different social dynamics and appearances. Despite some contrasting observations about appearances, Itaewon's charm is highlighted by its good mix of people.
• 44:00 - 50:00: Language Importance in Korea This chapter discusses the allure of different entertainment venues in Korea, particularly those that cater to foreigners with English-speaking staff and an amiable atmosphere. Itaewon is highlighted for its vibrant nightlife appeal but noted as less engaging during the day for social activities, especially street approaches.

Pickup Korea Podcast: Neighborhoods of Seoul + Is Speaking Korean Important? Transcription

• 00:00 - 00:30 welcome to the pick up korea podcast and today i have a couple listener questions that i thought were really good and uh they actually get asked quite often in person but i haven't really covered them in the podcast or really that much on blogs so the first question actually is talk a little bit about the different areas of soul so if you're going out for day game night game or just in general what are the differences in the areas of
• 00:30 - 01:00 seoul so as i mentioned before really the two two really famous areas are kangnam and hongdae so you have kangnam on the south river you have hongdae up north where all the universities are but there are a lot a lot of different areas that people go to people live in people hang out in so i figured today we can go a little bit in detail about that so first i'll go over kangnam so kangnam really is the uh premier neighborhood really it is uh
• 01:00 - 01:30 it's the richer area it's very developed huge volume everywhere right a lot of companies a lot of businesses a lot of hostess bars a lot of academies where students study so it really has a whole mix of everything right like some districts might be only businesses some might be only universities or hogwans quote unquote academies some might be only you know bars and clubs or what have you but the kangnam area is good because it's developed it's
• 01:30 - 02:00 richer uh it's like the manhattan so to speak of seoul but it also has a mix of everything right you have a mix of all different sort of uh demographics i guess you would say age groups types of girls and venues and everything right and so it's important to understand that kangnam itself is not there is gangnam station which is like the major major hub but it is a district so you have kangnam station you have shin non-hyun station you have shinsa
• 02:00 - 02:30 a really nice area called karoskil which is sort of the uh what would you say it's sort of the um like fancier posh area with lots of nice shops you have apgujeong rodeo which has really really blown up in the last couple years with nice lounges and bars and clubs and all kinds of cool pochas which are like korean style uh like hunting bars i guess you would say right and so there's all kinds of cool stuff there it's also very uh a lot of
• 02:30 - 03:00 models hanging out there it's very um posh so to speak and uh you have all kinds of other areas you have coax which is a huge indoor shopping mall so really good place to go when um you know it's rainy or snowy or just extremely hot outside you want some ac you can actually walk around in comfort right and so with gangnam you really have you know really everything you have the clubs as i mentioned you have indoor places to go you have uh different stations that have a lot of people so huge you know huge
• 03:00 - 03:30 amount of foot traffic you have very attractive girls that really care about their appearance because it's more of the premier neighborhood right and a richer neighborhood a lot of plastic surgery your beauty clinics fashion shops and what have you and so yeah a lot of people who stay in korea like over a year almost all want to live in gangnam not everyone i mean it depends on your temperament but guys that are really into um really want to live like in a more modern area with like the most attractive girls pretty
• 03:30 - 04:00 much all congregate to gangnam so that's a major major hub major area and so yeah it has a good mix of also day games so really one of the best places for day game because in the whole district just tons of foot traffic and different demographics and then in terms of night game now that corona is over there's just bars are open all the bars are back open tons of new clubs are opening again and the old ones are reopening so you have all the clubs and everything so it really isn't missing
• 04:00 - 04:30 anything other than there's not as much of the foreigner type bars like not as much of the um you'd almost call them like international party bars right where you go there and it's like all girls that speak english and it's all foreigners congregating there there are a few places here and there that you can go like that but um it's not as uh popular there's not as many as in a place like itaewon right so i guess we
• 04:30 - 05:00 can contrast with itaewon which is just dog [ __ ] for the most part in the daytime it can be okay there's some a little bit of foot traffic not much a little bit of attractive girls in the daytime but it's really not that great overall you know if you're actually trying to go out whereas at night time it's just one of the best places overall you have you know just tons of bars lounges and um there are more korean style places or places where you know attractive girls hang out but there also
• 05:00 - 05:30 are a lot of those sort of like what you would call like international party bars right where they're just all english speakers um some attractive girls hanging out there sometimes not something you know um most students or most friends that i go sometimes will hang out there and then you go over to like a club in gangnam or um like a nice area like i mentioned like apgujeong rodeo and like the ugliest girls like the hottest girl in those international party bars in itaewon right but but the good thing about itaewon you do have a good mix you
• 05:30 - 06:00 have different um you know different lounge bars that have attractive girls as well and you have different kinds of venues that are almost western friendly right more english speakers which is good and so uh it is a place that people really like hanging out especially foreigners as well and so itaewon really like i mentioned maybe very high on the night game radar very low in raiding on the day game going to actually hang out there in the daytime and do some street approaches
• 06:00 - 06:30 and then another neighborhood as i mentioned is hongdae so hongdae you have kind of like kangnam you have a big a good mix of like day and night like a lot of people walking around huge hub of universities and some businesses and things like that but you do have a lot of foot traffic so it is a good place for the daytime to go out approach um as far as the demographics go whereas in gangnam you had a mix of you know night workers
• 06:30 - 07:00 hostesses um you know girls that work at all kinds of companies from samsung to hyundai right you have all those big companies you have students with all the english academies the math academies um you have really everything right whereas in hongdae it really changes over to mostly university students right which can be a good thing because it's sort of a little bit more specialized right if you're into the students and also on the other hand too a lot of them have to learn english and have to study at least
• 07:00 - 07:30 a basic level of english right and so you have that not that all of them can speak english but there's you know with the younger crowd a lot of them can speak at least some basics right and then of course you have you know english majors and girls that lived abroad and what have you and there are also a lot of the bars there and clubs there that sort of are more of the international style right you have like places like thursday party hockey's pub they're more catered for foreigners uh very foreign style you
• 07:30 - 08:00 have like beer pong and darts and all the kind of usual things you might be used to in austin texas or you know boston or wherever wherever you're coming from right and so uh yeah so hongdae is overall good as i mentioned demographics are students good for day good for nights um good mix of different kind of venues um but i would say if you compare that to kangnam less diverse [Music] and less
• 08:00 - 08:30 uh what would you say less like posh less fancy right and so and with itaewon you have kind of a mix of uh kind of a mix of everything you get students you get workers and a lot of girls who lived abroad more internationally minded girls i guess you would say and so we have itaewon gangnam and hongdae so those are the three ones that really i've written on you can actually look up on the blog i have some writings on it and uh those are the three places a lot of people go and hang out but there are
• 08:30 - 09:00 tons of other places that i haven't really mentioned and that guys go out to and so i figured it'd be a good chance to introduce some uh what would you call them like hidden gems i guess or not really hidden so much if you live here but even for some guys who are here they really only go to those three places so uh yeah they could still be considered hidden i guess right so a couple other places so there's jamshil which is uh about 15 minutes from gangnam and it is a very major hub as well you have
• 09:00 - 09:30 a lot of people that live there it's one of the richer districts because it's pretty much you know pretty close to the gangnam area but they have this huge tower called lotte tower it's about 124 floors like the fourth biggest in the world and what's good about it is it's this huge like massive complex of underground shopping mall connected to a department store connected to an amusement park which is called lotte world which is like the disneyland right and then you have that huge tower like fourth biggest building in the world and then a huge like sixth floor
• 09:30 - 10:00 mega uh shopping mall latte world mall connected to it so it's almost like walking around this massive huge airport complex almost like so yeah you can go there all day and just approach all day and there are a lot of um i've been noticing a lot of korean guys out there approaching because number one the traffic is really good and number two um it's a good mix of different kind of girls as well different quality as well so it is a pretty good place to go hang out and approach and behind it there's a
• 10:00 - 10:30 big lake that people like to go hang out at like they walk around hang out have coffee or drink so it's a little bit more laid back there as well called sukchon hosuh so you got jamshil uh an area to look into for sure what i noticed is that a lot of the whereas in gangnam a lot of people live here hongdae a lot live there but oftentimes also it's people going to hang out in those areas whereas in jumpchill i notice you get a lot of either like people that work there or people that live in that it's called songpad district so
• 10:30 - 11:00 so it is somewhat uh you get almost of a different crowd of more of uh like local people to that area so it's a little bit of a different thing and you do get a mix of different ages and what have you and so that's an area and then not far away from there you have the gun [ __ ] or gunday i think it's konkuk university k-o-n-k-o-o-k university in english it's kind of hard because a lot of these korean names it's
• 11:00 - 11:30 called uh gandhi in korean so like the pronunciation is pretty different but you should be able to find it with that english and uh i'll write all of these the places i'm mentioning in the show notes so you can check them out in english and korean and so uh yeah gunday is really good because you have like really really you know it's almost like another version of hongdae i guess you would say but um it's uh i almost feel like even younger crowd even if a younger
• 11:30 - 12:00 like yeah i feel like hongdae you get like 20 to 26 27 you know maybe something like that whereas in gunday you get that as well but i feel like there's a more concentration of like 20 to 22 year olds for some reason and so from what i've heard it's because not only do you have the universities in that area but also it's kind of a place where like the young people of eastern seoul hang out right so that area is called eastern seoul and yeah there's a whole district on that side and it's sort of the main hub where they go drink and hang out and go
• 12:00 - 12:30 shopping so you do have a couple shopping malls there smaller ones you do have a lot of restaurants and like tons of bars and poaches not really like nightclubs like you would see in hongdae or kangnam or itaewon but a lot of bars and pochas more korean style places and pubs and things like that a lot of volume so it's a good place as well and you also have the han river park close by which is pretty cool and those are speaking of the han river
• 12:30 - 13:00 park very underrated places to go hang out because there's a few of them in seoul and when the weather is good which i was there this weekend uh there's the bampohan river park there's the tuksam yunji han river park so people just go there when the weather is good they get mats they order chicken and beer they hang out all day you know you have two girls two girls three girls couples um so it's really good to just like walk around or just go hang out and you can approach girls walking by or go approach girls at the mat on the uh on the grass right and
• 13:00 - 13:30 a lot just you know walking around or hanging out with friends jogging riding bikes or just chilling reading a book or just hanging out in general so it's more of a laid back kind of atmosphere it's really cool so i will include those two as well banpo and took some ung so cool places to hang out when the weather is good and so yeah that's an advantage of gun days you can hang out there you can walk over to the river park which is you know that's one of the
• 13:30 - 14:00 more popular ones right around the corner so that's a very very good area um one thing i would say is that from what i've noticed the gunday area kung kuk university the english level does seem a lot lower than gangnam or jumpshiel or hongdae or really anywhere else i've noticed for some reason so i guess you would keep that in mind you will meet english speakers anywhere in seoul but uh there definitely is a variation right so if you're in itaewon it's gonna be
• 14:00 - 14:30 very high if you're in hongdae relatively high kangnam it's kind of hit or miss you know you might get half that can speak basic half that can't right and then uh in gande i feel like from my experience although i speak fluent korean just going out there with other guys i feel like it's i don't know maybe twenty percent can speak english or something it's one of the lower uh like lower english areas i guess you would say so you have gun day area um also some other cool areas there's
• 14:30 - 15:00 another place called chilem which is it's really grown to become like the biggest area of like one room quote-unquote studio apartments where a lot of girls who move into seoul from you know different cities for work or to study they all get their rooms there because it's reasonably priced uh affordable cheap and also it's like newer used to be kind of slummy not exactly slums like you would think of in america or third world but just sort of one of the lesser developed areas but after recently going
• 15:00 - 15:30 there it's a lot more developed like nicer paved streets brand new shopping mall brand new buildings everywhere so what's cool about going there is that if you walk around and do day game it's mostly just girls living alone and who are from other cities so it's kind of the advantage of uh really just a high congregation of girls who live alone prob a lot of them single and from other cities so they're kind of happy to meet new people and a lot more receptive is what i noticed too a lot more receptive than other areas uh of
• 15:30 - 16:00 seoul so that's an area to keep in mind for sure very underrated uh hidden gem so to speak right and so uh yeah you got the shilim area or s-i-l-l-i-m in english um and so demographics like i mentioned mostly some of them are native soul uh native soul people but a lot of them are from busan guangzhou another city or maybe even like the outskirts of seoul but they want to live in the city and the advantage is it's pretty cool
• 16:00 - 16:30 because it is more it's like developing affordable but also the location is really good because it's on the major uh line number two is kind of the line that goes around the city goes to all the major areas so it is on line number two so it's only about 15 to 20 minutes from gangnam and about 20 minutes to hongdae so you're kind of in the middle you have uh you know you can get you can easily go to both places which is pretty cool uh so shilim yeah i would say overall to not as much uh older people but it's a
• 16:30 - 17:00 good mix of like from early 20s to like early 30s so you got that demographic and uh as far as the english levels go i think it's also hit or miss from what i've seen it's sort of uh um maybe a little bit lower than definitely probably a little bit lower than gangnam or hongdae but higher than a place like uh gande as i mentioned before and so yeah sheila is a pretty cool area
• 17:00 - 17:30 and then let's see some other hidden gems there's also the express bus terminal which is pretty cool because you have three major subway lines going through it you have a massive underground shopping mall with all women's clothing which is pretty cool and then you have um like different malls that are connected to it so it is also also like also like i mentioned in jump show it's almost like another huge massive indoor complex that you can walk around for hours and approach different types of girls some
• 17:30 - 18:00 of them are like richer because it's in the gangnam area some are just transiting through some are there just to go shop or hang out it's kind of cozy because they have ac inside or you know heater if it's winter time or whatever so yeah all kinds of cool venues bars craft beer pubs good restaurants in there department store uh cheap underground shopping for girls that want to buy cheap crap too so you have a good mix a little bit of a mix of everything and it is like a five minute walk from the river so you can go
• 18:00 - 18:30 to the bampo uh han gong river that i was mentioning the park there so it's a good little uh you can kind of uh combine those up as well um so that's another major area that people like to go hang out at uh let's see some other gyms that are other neighborhoods so we've mentioned so far gangnam district which includes obviously shinsa shinonyan other districts or other sorry other neighborhoods you have kangnam you have itaewon you have hongdae gande jamshil
• 18:30 - 19:00 express bus terminal uh shilim so i mentioned several several neighborhoods uh let's see any other maybe i can leave you with one or two more that i can think of uh some other ones that are pretty unique or pretty like up and coming there's a place called songsum which is kind of like popular these days really in recent a couple years they have some nice cafes there there it's really close to a place called seoul forest which is another one of those chill kind of places people like
• 19:00 - 19:30 to go hang out get some chicken and beer or chill or um yeah it's one of those more laid back places you can go hang out at and uh as far as like venues not really for nightlife at all that's one that i would say kind of like uh shilim as well the previous place i mentioned not really nightlife areas but good to go do some day gaming perhaps or go on dates things like that um so you have that then also one other district i wanted to mention uh is called actually myeongdong and i
• 19:30 - 20:00 think that it should be coming back this is a major area that we like to go to before because it always had crazy volume a lot of shoppers a lot of tourists too if you're interested in meeting japanese girls or chinese girls there's one place that we really really really um overall really like to go but it really got gutted out it really got bankrupt really became like a ghost town due to covet but i really see that now the borders are opening back up i really
• 20:00 - 20:30 think that it is gonna probably in the next i don't know maybe a month two three i could see it becoming another one of the major areas to go back to it's really good a lot of tourists that are traveling there alone or with their friend um a lot of motels nearby a lot of you know restaurants and places to go so it is a really really fun uh place to go hang out at and go meet some girls and some tourist girls that are just in town for a short time right and so yeah you have that
• 20:30 - 21:00 and then um another district i want to leave you off with one more another one that can be good is i would say okay another area that i want to leave you off with is called yoido and so yoido also they have um one of the three major han river parks which you go hang out at as i mentioned before but this is also one of the major business districts too so you have all these big companies
• 21:00 - 21:30 nice buildings you have really really attractive office ladies walking around so if you're into the office look that's one of the one of the best places to go for sure um as well as with the oksam which is near kangnam which is in gangnam basically so those two areas are really good for the office girls and uh it's just a different vibe out there you have the park the han river park you have just huge office buildings you also have the congressional building nearby so you have you know politicians and
• 21:30 - 22:00 people that work in that field too so just a good mix of like professionals i guess you would say so a lot of people like the more classy professional types you know driven business chicks so that's a pretty good place to go and of course there you don't really get kind of the opposite you don't get the younger um uh like hongdae kind of crowd or gunday crowd the university crowd but you get more of the later 20s mid to late 20s to early 30s quite a lot of those so a little bit more mature but
• 22:00 - 22:30 oftentimes very very attractive because in korea a lot of these major companies oftentimes they really want to hire uh more attractive like secretaries and staff in general there is definitely a discrimination against you know it's not that they don't hire ugly people but they they prefer to hire people with a similar they call it spec specs which are like you know university and what have you but uh these big companies often want to hire somewhat attractive girls in their office it's
• 22:30 - 23:00 definitely a thing here not as much in maybe the west or america or what have you but definitely a thing here so yoido is definitely an area to check out uh really really good all these places overall that i mentioned are really good for day game around 6 p.m when everyone's getting off of work or getting off of academy or uh going to meet friends for dinner you know you just have we call it like six to seven or really six to eight is sort of like a rush hour where you just have tons of people out and about so really really
• 23:00 - 23:30 good for volume and then again of course you know in the afternoons and after lunch you get more of the people that kind of work freelance or they have the day off so you have the advantage of maybe even meeting ones that are free and bringing them on an insta date or just having more uh relaxed interactions so they're good anytime but if you're looking for the volume really six to eight and then on top of that now that as of today literally as of today all the corona restrictions have been lifted uh besides the mask mandate
• 23:30 - 24:00 which i think is in two more weeks so now all the clubs in the gangnam area itaewon area hongdae area are going to be uh all night again or like a lot of them are like 5 a.m some of them go to like 11 a.m some maybe earlier like 4 a.m so um yeah if you're into the night game thing really korea starts a little bit late typically like you can go out at like 10 9 30 10 um and then it really goes until really depending on where you're going four or five a.m or the after clubs that
• 24:00 - 24:30 go to like 11 a.m so um yeah that's a big difference like if you're coming from california or somewhere like that where everything closes at like 1 30 or 2 uh you can actually easily go out in korea at like 1am start at 1am and you know do your whole night like that too so that's something to keep in mind i thought this would be good to cover the different areas that you can game in and if anyone has any questions on these specific areas maybe later on i can go into more detail on some of these
• 24:30 - 25:00 specific areas and so another quick question that i wanted to cover is that is korean really important do you need korean is it required is it necessary and so i did read a whole write a whole blog on this topic and so you can read that and uh actually i'll include that in the uh youtube link here for the podcast but i mean it's common sense is the language gonna help you yes because you can talk to more people you know if it's say say on the street if
• 25:00 - 25:30 10 people out of 10 people say six can speak english or five then if you speak korean then obviously you can talk to 10 out of 10 people right you can at least try to talk to them if you don't speak it then you might be more limited to half of them or the ones that are sort of uh you can kind of get by with your body language and speaking slow and uh working your vibe right using your sub communications which also works i've had plenty of students do that but of course
• 25:30 - 26:00 it's a tougher path right and so yeah does learning the language help yes is it necessary no because there are a lot of english speakers here so it's not like a place like taiwan where it seems like in taipei it seems like almost everyone speaks english there or maybe like uh try to compare let's see so taiwan has a lot of english speakers uh another place like um obviously singapore there's places in asia where english is like an official
• 26:00 - 26:30 language right so it's kind of an unfair comparison but um yeah in general a place like maybe taiwan where it's very high or taipei where it's very high and then a place like japan where it's like really really low right like like in some cities you'll walk around and uh like no english right like five percent ten percent maybe right so i'd say korea's right in the middle of that so it's not like everyone in taipei who speaks english it seems like or it's not like no one in tokyo or someplace like that where it seems like almost no
• 26:30 - 27:00 one a very low percentage speak english i would say korea is pretty much in the middle so if you're doing a volume of approaches 10 approaches it's fair to say like if you're moving around to different areas at least half of them could understand you could communicate and among those there's ones that are just absolutely fluent right they studied english since their third grade here they get tutoring they study abroad um they watch a lot of like american shows so speaking english is not a weird thing here it's somewhat normal but
• 27:00 - 27:30 it's definitely not everyone right and so um obviously learning the language helps also even if you don't really plan to learn the language i would say learning some phrases so for example in the pick up korea ebook which i'll link in the notes i include a whole section on like useful phrases and vocabulary and like sentence structures that you can use so even if you use like a few basics right like i'm going over there i got here from this place you look like this right like some real
• 27:30 - 28:00 real basic stuff that can help or even just you know some kind of basic expression like i'm hungry or i want to have a drink right now let's go over there even things like that and even if you're not good at korean but they see you trying they can kind of it's kind of they give you respect it's kind of endearing it's kind of cute in that regard too right and so um yeah definitely it doesn't hurt to learn it definitely helps to learn a little bit but is it necessary no because plenty of guys live here for years they
• 28:00 - 28:30 learn nothing they speak nothing and they you know some of them do very well some other students i've coached speak almost nothing or they speak literally zero and uh have gotten amazing amazing results right and so it's not something you need however it is um it does give you a boost in terms of not only how many people you can talk to but also you know relatability for some girls especially the ones that don't speak english right and connection with them and showing that
• 28:30 - 29:00 you understand their world right so it does give you that advantage for the non-uh native speakers and then even for the ones that speak english even if you speak just a little it almost you know a little i mean just like a handful of phrases that you can pick up quickly it will give you them like wow that's cute it gives them you know gives them sort of uh it's just kind of satisfactory or sort of endearing or something like that right and so yeah i would say that if you're here for a shorter trip
• 29:00 - 29:30 you know a week or two weeks or even a month i wouldn't really put much focus on it maybe a handful of phrases but um and they're not even necessary but it's just you know another thing to have to relate right to show you understand the world a little bit and respect korea but uh if you're here for a long term i would definitely recommend spending some time learning the language because ultimately it's just better for your life to know the language of where you're living and also um
• 29:30 - 30:00 one thing is a lot of really really hot girls like in gangnam consider that they have no motivation to learn english right because they're getting paid through their looks by doing modeling or working at a hostess bar or working in the beauty industry and so english was never uh you know something they needed to focus on something they really cared about right and so yeah just consider that and so i think that i answered both questions i got in the mail bag here so until next time