Travel to Japan or Korea for College year abroad?

7 comments

1. A lot of your questions depend on where you will actually go in the country. I hear a lot about Korea being quite boring outside of Seoul, but I’m not sure about that. Tokyo can be great, but from my experience and what I’ve heard, Japan outside the big cities is enjoyable as well so long as you can back it up with some Japanese ability. Many universities that take in international students have quite good foreigner groups around despite their distance from major cities.

   Korean is a far easier language than Japanese because of hangul. Harder to speak initially, far easier to live with.

2. I believe you are going to have a better time in Japan if foreigner-friendliness is important to you. You are going to be a minority and experience a bit racism in both countries, but it’s going to hit you worse in Korea. Korean blood and staying away from foreigners (especially southeast Asia and China but it applies to Westeners as well) is still very much a thing. And parents not allowing their children to date non-Koreans is pretty normal. Korean culture is generally more aggressive in voicing their opinion so all this will be more in your face, while in Japan it’s more subdued because Japanese won’t voice their opinion publicly.

   However, you are going to have an easier time using English in Korea than in Japan. I’d say both languages are about equally difficult because their grammar is nearly identical. Someone who speaks one fluently can quite easily learn the other in about a year. But Japanese has the additional difficulty of Chinese characters.

   As for nightlife, both countries have very diffetent cultures when it comes to partying and it just depends on where you’d fit in more. Japan has probably more of a hookup culture than Korea, if that’s what you’re trying to ask.

3. >I am entering college soon, and taking a year abroad is something I really want to do.

   So this is the important question here. Are you planning on taking this year abroad *before* college or *after*.

   This is important because if you’re planning on staying in Japan for more than 90 days you’ll need a visa, and most visas will require that you’ve got your degree.

   As you’re from the USA you’re not elligible for a working holiday visa for Japan. However you *ARE* elligible for a working holiday visa for South Korea. Which means if you’re planning on going *before* college, then South Korea is your better bet.

   If you’re talking about *after* college, then you’ll have more visa options. Both countries have quite a lot of options for college graduate kids to spend a gap year or two teaching English.

4. All of my answers are based mostly on what Japan is like in Normal Times, which will hopefully be mostly back by the time you do your study abroad (which I assume would be your junior year, so maybe 2.5 years from now):

   >-Nightlife and enjoyableness for a College student who wants a healthy balance of partying and work.

   I guess it depends on how much partying you want to do and what your expectations are. Tokyo, for example, has tons of stuff to do at night – restaurants, bars, hundreds of live music venues, sporting events, museums/attractions, and of course clubs, but clubbing can get **expensive** if that’s your preferred method of recreation and the scene’s taken a big hit b/c of the pandemic. In any case, if you are bored in Tokyo you are doing it wrong.

   But if you’re going to a university out in the countryside, your options will decrease *significantly*, so that should be a factor when choosing a program.

   >Foreigner friendly, what I mean by this is which country is more openminded to foreigners. I intend to make friends with local people from either nation and whichever nation is even just slightly easier to do that in makes a difference for me.

   I’d say Japan is probably better; you may not be able to have conversations with the average person sitting at the bar – this is a cultural thing as much as it is a language thing – but the tourism boom of the 2010s and the Olympics led to a lot of infrastructure improvements and it’s much easier for foreigners to get around these days. And again, hopefully, people will be more open once we get closer to Normal.

   In terms of friend-making I would suggest you shift your expectations… don’t go in thinking “I’M GOING TO ENDEAR MYSELF TO THE LOCALS” because that’s a big cringe, and don’t assume you’re just going to ignore your fellow study-abroaders and do your own thing. It’s healthy to have a mix of both.

   >-Attractions, things like Changdeokgung Palace and Himeji Castle are places I want to visit. Even though a lot of it will probably be studying and drinking, I want to understand the history of the nation better.

   Japan has [25 UNESCO World Heritage sites](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_World_Heritage_Sites_in_Japan) and some of the stuff that isn’t on the list is just as good. Japan also has the advantage of the world’s best public transit network; if you live in Tokyo you are no farther than ~3 hours away from anywhere else in the country. You can do weekend trips every other weekend and still not see close to everything.

   For context, South Korea has [15](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_World_Heritage_Sites_in_South_Korea) and I’m sure they’re fine too.

   >-How pretty the country is. This is more of a relative question. In your eyes what is beautiful about x country? The trees? Mountains? City at night?

   This all depends on what you find beauty in – but again, the advantage of living in Tokyo is that even within Tokyo itself, you can be right in the city center and get on a train for an hour and all of the sudden you’re surrounded by forests and mountains – while you haven’t even left Tokyo. Whatever beauty you’re looking for, you can find it in Japan – and in Tokyo, even – pretty easily.

   I’ve been to Seoul a couple times for work and could never live there, it just doesn’t resonate with me even though I miss the food. I’m sure there’s something pretty there… somewhere. Maybe.

   >-Easier language to learn. I want to be able to speak as much of the native language as possible before I go. That would be studying for 2-3 years worth consistently, through courses and free time.

   The [Foreign Service Institute](https://www.state.gov/foreign-language-training/) rates both Japanese and Korean as “super-hard” Category IV languages, which take the most time to learn, along with Arabic, Cantonese and Mandarin. So really it’s up to which language you vibe with more.

5. It’s overall cheaper to live in Seoul – especially for things like trains. So you might want to consider living in Seoul, while taking a few trips to Tokyo. It’s only a 2 – 2.5 hours flight (depending on the direction), and flying from Gimpo to Haneda makes things very easy.

6. Just as background, I’ve spent over a year of my life in Korea (over many different trips, longest one was around 3 months) and maybe about a month visiting Japan. I can also speak Korean but not Japanese.

   * Nightlife – both Seoul and Tokyo have great nightlife but Seoul’s is somewhat cheaper especially for a college student. You can buy a bottle of soju for around $2 at a convenience store, maybe $4 at a restaurant, and 2 bottles is more than enough to get you drunk. In Tokyo I think you’d still have to pay around $3 minimum for a drink (not a bottle) at any kind of normal bar (maybe there is some sort of 50 yen promotions or something geared towards college students that I’m not aware of). Also you don’t have to worry as much about catching the last train in Seoul because taxis aren’t nearly as expensive.
   * Foreigner friendly – both countries will be pretty similar, have the same pluses and minuses. I think it’s slightly more common in Japan for restaurants / bars to actually have a sign up saying “no foreigners”, or they reject you at the door / when you try to make a reservation because you can’t speak Japanese. But I think that happens to some extent in Korea too (I wouldn’t necessarily be the right person to know). I think if you’ll end up learning either language to a similar level you’d have a similar experience in both countries.
   * Attractions / natural beauty – as you said it’s subjective, but I think Japan beats Korea hands down here.
   * Language – Korean is easier to learn simply because there’s only 1 alphabet, and it’s phonetic / easy to learn. I’d imagine it’s comparable to the difficulty of learning Japanese if you only had to learn hiragana and none of the other alphabets.

   Some other factors you might want to consider:

   * Price – as I alluded to earlier, I think in general Seoul is cheaper than Tokyo especially if you’re on a college student’s budget. Stuff like rent, food, going out etc. will all be cheaper in Seoul, and the stuff that is potentially more expensive (large electronics, fruit etc.) probably won’t be day to day expenses for you. I would look up public transportation costs though – off the top of my head not sure which city is more expensive.
   * Personal interests – one of the reasons I was able to keep my Korean language skills at a decent level is because I happen to enjoy watching Korean dramas, Korean twitch streams etc. (streams are especially good since you can’t have subtitles, you have to force yourself to learn from hearing / reading words in the original language). If you have a personal preference towards Korean or Japanese media, or specific interests that are more popular in 1 country (eg. PC games like League in Korea – I actually made some friends in Korea by joining my cousin’s weekly League PC bang gaming group…) that can help a lot in terms of picking up the language.

7. Tokyo. Source: just trust me, bro.