I'm planning to go on a solo trip in Korea this July for my birthday. It will be for 4 days and 3 nights. I really want to go but the problem is the fact that I will be alone in a foreign country with no friends or anything. What's even worse is that my Korean language is quite limited. I know the basics but I get them mixed up if someone starts talking to me in fluent Korean. Also, I would really like to meet Korean friends. I have already been in Korea for 2 times with my family but I have never made even a single Korean friend. Koreans are definitely nice. Really. But I just don't know how to befriend them in the way they usually do. ㅠㅠ
What do Koreans expect from a foreigner? Are there any words or actions that shouldn't be said or done?
Thank you in advance! :)
If you are going to see the country and afraid to be on your own. My suggestion is join a group tour, that way you will not be alone. What I mean as group tour is that you book with a travel agency in Manila that will arrange your hotel accommodation and sightseeing tours wherever you want to go. The travel agency in Manila will have a travel agency or tour company based in Korea to take you around which we call in the hotel industry as ground handler, meaning a local tour company like Hana Tours.
It will be you or 1 or 2 others and a tour guide to take you around. It is actually good because the tour is tailor made for you.
If you are going to Korea solely to meet Koreans, then, that is a completely different story.
With all due respect, and, with that mind set, I don't think it is a good idea. To put it bluntly, the connotation is not good.
Definitely join a tour group. You can make friends there but they'll probably be foreigners with yourself.
I don't know how Koreans are with foreigners wanting to be friends with them. It's gonna be pretty hard due to the language barrier. For your next trip, try finding an online pen pal or language partner and then you can plan to meet up
Hi ! I'm a foreigner living in korea and if you want to make korean friends, I strongly recommend you to check out meetup.com. It's a website where people can organise meeting around a common interest in Seoul and Korea (movie, hiking, language exchanges...) There are even weekend trips ! You will get to meet koreans who speak english and foreigners living Korea. It helped me a lot first time I came to Korea and I made long time friends durings these meetups :)
I wouldnt sweat it too much. I did seoul -> daegu -> pusan -> jeju -> Incheon -> home a few years ago over a 3 week period, with only some pretty basic phrases.
The only time I was defeated, was asking for salt, which wasnt on the table ... :) (couldnt for the life of me think what the word for salt was).
Seoul central is pretty much dual sign posted in english anyway. Most ATM's, railway ticketing systems, all dual language. Further out in the countryside, less so.
If you need to catch a cab, make sure you have a printed brochure you can show them.
Find eating places with pictures on the menu. Point and hold up 1 or 2 fingers, depending how many.
Lot's of people will speak at least basic English, but not all. Be polite and dont assume that they can or want to.
Where in Korea are you going to stay?
As for making friends with Koreans, have you heard of couchsuring.com? Sometimes, you can meet up with locals on that site.
Good luck!
