Informational handbook

Shopping

Shopping will take more time than would be the case in the U.S. One or two initial shopping expeditions in the company of a Korean or an experienced Fulbrighter is recommended. Whether a colleague or one of your students, a guide will be very helpful in selecting the better stores and advising you on the price and quality of the items available. Frankly, at first you'll need someone who reads Korean just to tell you what the item is, or you may confuse salt with sugar! If you are a lecturer, a student assistant may be assigned the task of helping you to make these critical discriminations. It's not unreasonable to ask your assistant to serve as a shopping guide on several occasions during the settling-in period, but you shouldn't make a habit of it unless the assistant specifically offers to help out on a more regular basis.

At the top of the line are the big department stores, many of which have branches in cities other than Seoul: Shinsegye, Lotte, Hyundai, etc. Most foreigners consider them very expensive. Myongdong is another expensive place, a very fashionable shopping area with clothing boutiques, coffee shops and bars, which is located right in the heart of the city. Less expensive major destinations for shoppers in Seoul are the South Gate and East Gate markets, which are immense areas selling everything from camping supplies to export clothing to silk and pigs heads, mostly wholesale. Near the main U.S. army post in Seoul there is a shopping district known as Itaewon, which caters as much to tourists as GIs these days. As Itaewon is Korea's most famous shopping and notorious nightlife district, it's not likely that you'll leave Korea without visiting it on more than one occasion.
Except in the Itaewon district, especially at first, communication problems will hamper your shopping. Fortunately, the pointing and pantomime method will work most of the time. More than anything else, however, the practical limitations of this method will convince you of the need to master at least some simple Korean conversation, and in particular, counting in the two different systems used in Korean.
Bargaining in Korea has changed from the old days when you bargained hard on everything, and is quite different from the countries of Southeast Asia. Department stories have frequent sales, but no bargaining. Supermarkets have fixed prices that are scanned at the checkout. Even old-fashioned farmers selling vegetables from the back of a truck do not bargain. Nobody bargains for small things at convenience stories. In South Gate or East Gate market or other markets, sometimes you can ask for a "DC" (discount) on something that is not a daily consumable, and see what they say. If you are spending over W100,000 ($80) on an item, you might be able to negotiate a discount. Only in Itaewon is bargaining common, and even there it seems to be because the Koreans think the

foreigners expect it.

Sightseeing

There are a hundred good places to go see in Seoul, and a thousand in Korea. One of the dangers of Fulbrighters in Seoul is that they don’t get to see the rest of the country, particularly not the countryside (granted, it’s sometimes hard without a car.) But it can be done, and it should be on your priority list.

It is a good idea to visit the website of the Korea National Tourism Organization (KNTO) at http://www.knto.or.kr. You can pick up various ideas of what people think is good to see in Korea. The KNTO offices are also worth visiting after you arrive as you can get very interesting booklets and brochures and view some excellent complimentary slide and movie presentations as well. KNTC also provides useful information about travel within Korea. You can buy tickets and make other travel arrangements there.
For guided tours, your best bet is the Korea Branch of the Royal Asiatic Society (RAS) http://raskb.com. A membership application is available online, and you can obtain additional information by emailing the RAS office at [e-mail] or calling them at 763-9483 after you arrive. You are urged to consider joining the society, which offers a regular semi-monthly lecture series as well as excellent tours. The RAS bookstore is also a good place to shop for books of all kinds on Korea, everything from scholarly publications to popular guidebooks. Members receive a discount on book purchases and tours.
You can also do a great deal of sightseeing on your own, in such places as the Gyeongbok Palace, the National Museum, or Insadong. We recommend you read the article entitled “Seeing Seoul” in the appendices, written by Prof. Clif Hood, Fulbrighter in Korea in the spring of 2001.

Finances and Banking

All grantees must open a Korean bank account as soon as possible after arrival to facilitate deposit of their stipend. Though KAEC uses checks, most of Korea has skipped the "check-writing" stage completely and gone to "on-line" payments, which are cheap, efficient, reliable, and universal. But to receive such deposits, you will need a Korean bank account. You should open one in a branch near where you live or work, one you walk by often during the hours it is open.

All payments of Korean currency which are due to you under the terms of your award will be deposited to your Korean bank account automatically by KAEC, once your account is opened and you have informed our accountant of the bank and account number. All payments of U.S. dollars which are due to you under the terms of your award will be paid to you in the form of U.S. dollar checks drawn on an American bank, and normally those will be held for you to pick up in person from the accountant unless you have made other arrangements. You will find that U.S. dollar checks are difficult to cash in Korea, period. KAEC does not do electronic deposit of any funds to U.S. accounts. However, it is easy to mail your dollar checks for deposit to a dollar account in the U.S., so we recommend you do not close your account at home.
Korea is a still largely a cash society. Although credit cards are more widely used in Korea these days than they used to be, unless the card is issued by a Korean bank it may be refused. Major hotels and their restaurants will raise no question (at their prices, they shouldn't!) Smaller restaurants sometimes won’t take out-of-country credit cards - you are wise to check before you eat. Some smaller stores do not take credit cards at all, and if they do they may charge you a 4% surcharge. Other than in restaurants and large stores, the use of credit cards is not yet routine in Korea. Korea is a CASH society!
Though the Korean Won is not quite an international currency, it may be taken out of the country or converted into U.S. dollars. Anyone with a U.S. passport can use Won to purchase up to US$10,000 in dollar travelers' checks per trip, so Fulbrighters are unlikely to face difficulties in repatriating their Korean currency.
As of March, 2006 one dollar was equal to 974 won.