By John Redmond
For many foreigners living in Korea, coming to terms with cultural, social and linguistic differences is a daily challenge that many soon come to meet half way, all in the name of survival.
On the other hand, there are certain situations that seem more irksome than others. These can range from every day occurrences such as motorcyclists using pedestrian crossings, to more practical issues like how to get an Internet connection without having to get a Korean colleague to do it for you.
Here at The Korea Times we are looking at the viewpoints of our readers and will attempt to shed some light on certain matters.
A popular starting point is language. Making yourself understood and hoping you'll get a straight answer.
The language barrier, although still a problem in remote regions, is nowhere as tricky as it was a few years ago. Ever since the 2002 FIFA World Cup, Korea has improved in English language ability in leaps and bounds.
Having said that, there are still a few taxi drivers out there who really need destinations written in Hangul, with very precise instructions and the phone number of a Korean colleague at the other end.
The other side of the coin being when a foreigner speaks in Korean, only to be misunderstood to be speaking a really bad form of English. This has happened to me several times and it's not down to pronunciation. The person in general thinks your speaking some form of gobbledygook English.
``I deal with Korean's all day,'' says Vit Ivanovitch, a Russian leather trader who speaks fluent Korean, ``But every now and then I'll just get a blank stare.''
Language problems aside, the bigger issues are the practical situations, such as getting a regular phone account.
A majority of foreigners in Korea generally only stay for a short period of time, during which it is also likely that their address will change a few times. Thus a mobile phone is the practical solution when it comes to staying in touch with friends, family and work.
Foreigners purchasing mobile phones in Korea is easy. Getting a regular monthly billing phone plan is also now possible. Hanging on to that phone number when changing companies is an entirely different matter.
``I've been carrying around two phones for about two years now,'' said Shawn Bendell, an English instructor from Australia living in Seoul. ``I'd bought the new one thinking I could transfer my number, no worries.''
Up until very recently, foreigners were restricted to purchasing a phone from a dealer, registering the phone and number under their name, using a residence card and passport as proof of identification-both forms of idea were required-and then prepaying for phone credit, usually in 10,000 won amounts.
In some cases, rather than purchasing credit from a scratch card, the money could be paid into a bank account, which was fine as long as the owner didn't run out of credit over the weekend.
These systems seemed to function reasonably well until it was time to leave the country. Most people would then give, or sell, their phone to a friend. For the friend this was fine as long as they didn't mind owning a phone registered to someone else.
However, if that phone was lost, damaged or very outdated, the only option was to buy another phone, get it registered, and start again with a new phone number.
Once a phone is registered to an owner, it is possible to keep that number when changing phones. When changing carriers, it's a different kettle of fish.
Nowadays, `Show' phone service offer foreigners a monthly rental payment package just like any other rental agreement. All that's required is some id (passport and registration card), credit details, (local and foreign credit card or a Korean bank account book) and purchase of the phone.
For about 120,000 won, foreigners can own the latest phone and be on a monthly payment plan. As for hidden costs, there's bound to be some.
The drawback with this package is having to change phone numbers. An existing phone number can be transferred but a representative informed me that it could cost anything up to an additional 300,000 won and could take up to two weeks depending on the carrier.
For newcomers to Korea this is the best news so far when it comes to getting hooked up. For others, it's still a case of hanging on to the old phone and hoping that companies loosen the restrictions on transferring phone numbers.