Everything You Need to Know About Living in Gongju (Kongju) South Korea From an ESL Teacher's Point of View

I am an expatriate, English-as-a-second-language teacher who lives in Gongju (Kongju), South Korea. I am in the middle of my one-year English teaching contract with the Chungcheongnam Province Public Schools. Before I came to Gongju (Kongju), I tried to research the city on the net but didn't come up with much information that wasn't about Gongju's (Kongju) historical significance in South Korea. I hope to remedy this lack of information about daily life in Gongju (Kongju) and answer some questions you may have about Gongju (Kongju) with this article. Just for starters the population of Gongju (Kongju) is approximately 130,000 people.

How many other foreigners (English Teachers) live in Gongju (Kongju)? There are approximately 30-40 expat foreigner English teachers currently living in Gongju (Kongju). Although the total population is small here in Gongju (Kongju), we are lucky to have 2 universities, approximately 10 hagwons (private English Academies), an English teacher-training center, an English Village and the public school system. All these places employ foreign English teachers for their staff, and the foreigner English teacher population seems to be growing at a steady pace.

What will my apartment in Gongju (Kongju) be like? One of the advantages of being and English teacher in Gongju (Kongju) is that you will have a bigger apartment. When you are an English teacher in Seoul, you usually are given a small studio apartment to live in. I have been in many foreigner apartments here in Gongju (Kongju) and 9 out of 10 English teachers have multi-room apartments with a bedroom, living room, kitchen, and Korean style patio.