This is just a question to anyone who has been there or live/lived there. How much would it cost to move there? As in cost for a plane ticket from to finding a small apartment to live in and a good dojang?
Check out http://forums.eslcafe.com/korea/ for all sorts of good information and ideas. To answer your question, flight + housing + living can add up pretty quickly. As a foreigner it can be difficult to rent a place without a huge deposit ("key money") and there are restrictions on the types of jobs you can hold (as well as on entry visas). If you have a 4 year degree and plan to stay there for at least a year, you may look at the ESL teacher job market.
I'm interested in living anywhere as long as I get to continue my TKD training. I'll do any type of work that isn't illegal. And I'll live anywhere I have to. Also thanks for the link.
What do you have for education (degrees) or trade certification? If living in Korea is something you want to do, you will need to look at the vias requirements and possible jobs you could do. Once you are there and have a place to stay and money, finding a school is not that hard.
You could go to Korea on a travel visa and spend some time training and travelling. Of course, you won't be generating any income there though. Tourism visa info http://www.visitkorea.or.kr/ena/GK/GK_EN_2_1_1.jsp Work visas are tougher and you will generally need to have a job in Korea before you can get the work visa. http://www.koreajoblink.com/korea/advice/visa.asp My advice would be to consider a trip to Korea to spend some time travelling about and trying the training. If you like it, you may try to get a four year degree and return as an ESL teacher. That's about the easiest way for long term stays.
You have been getting some good advice, of which I think is also very important to actually travel there, see what it is like, as a tourist, so you can get a better feel for what it is actually like. If you still have this desire after having some actual experience, then you can do your homework so you can make it happen. Please understand the tensions between the 2 Koreas are at a all time high. In March SK reported that their Navy ship was sank, killing 46 sailors with only 58 surviving. Their investigation just announced that it was a torpedeo fired by a NK submarine. NK has gone on record stating that they will wage all out war if even sanctions are put on them, never mind an attack. NK maintains that they were not responsible. Keep in mind the man in power in the north is unstable & the man elected in the south has taken a hard line approach with the north. This is a crisis. Also if you want to train in TKD in SK, you must understand that you may find it hard to find a school that you may find suitable. You must understand that in SK, TKD is considered a sport AND it is considered a children's activity. Many adults find it strange when adult visitors still "play TKD". It seems the few adults still involved in TKD are those that studied it as a major in college & now make a living doing it, or are elite players that earned scholarships & fight hard for a spot on a team. Remember SK has a noce pension or stipend that they pay to any player who wins any Olympic medal & they pay it for their lifetime. However if it is a MA you want to study there, you will find other MA schools with adults training for SD. I doubt you will find a TKD school there to fullfill that purpose up to your expectations. It will be very hard for you to find an ITF TKD school there, even thought ITF TKD was the original TKD developed in SK, as many in SK view that as communist TKD from NK
I was able to find "good" adult programs for Taekwondo but it definately took some searching and patience. Granted, I was living in fairly rural areas so I would presume a large city like Seoul or Pusan would be a bit easier. There were many more good "adult" Hapkido schools around than Taekwondo. As far as the NK-SK conflicts go, I really didn't worry about it too much. Every year or so, there was a marine conflict (much like what's going on now) or a submarine washing up on the shore or a commando attack. In general though, it really didn't seem to affect safety or living issues in Korea. I really wouldn't worry too much about that. Good luck.
i wouldnt worry about the NK-SK conflicts either. the 2 been technically still at war and theres always incidences going on, many of which dont make mainstream news. the ideo of NK being able to take out Seoul or even measure up to the South is very mythical and a bunch of media hype. for training it is not hard to find a TKD school, theres many schools that are foriegner friendly. if you live in Seoul near the Kukkiwon, that would be a cool opportunity to train there, many foriegners train at Kukkiwon. theres more of a chance training at a quality school than ending up at a mcdojang and although theres the sport side, one will be also learning the SD/ art side of TKD as well as virtues and philosophy each instructor has thier particular way of sharing this. the more your in the Seoul area, the more options you have, theres TKD, Hapkido, Taek'kyeon (which i highly recommend if u have chance), Ssireum, Kuksoolwon, Gong Kwong Yusul, Chinese Martial arts, Japanese martial arts, Sambo, Yudo/ Judo, MMA, Kickboxing, Muay Thai, Brazilian Jiujitsu etc which makes for good crosstraining.
Interesting, I wasn't too worried about the NK SK thing either. I just want to do training, and I am very interested in Taek'kyeon, I have see videos and it seems like a great art, I guess I'll have to go and see with my own eyes before I make up my mind.
Ok here is the view of someone would wrote this for TKD Times. He has lived in SK since 2000. "There’s some good news and some bad news. First, the good news: There are more dojangs per city block than in any other country in the world. Some buildings house two or three. There is no limit to the number of schools from which you can pick and choose. In some cases you may even get special consideration for being a foreign martial artist or mu-sul-in. If you want to add a belt or two to your resume or make a relationship with an association, you have a great chance. Next, the bad news: You may find certain styles hard to find. For anything exotic, you’ll need to look in Seoul or the port city of Busan. Also, while there are some amazing instructors here, there are many young people who opened a school because they did too poorly in school to get a “real job.” This is not my opinion, rather the opinion of most people in Korea. It’s a neo-Confucian society that considers military arts suited for play for children. So many schools are “kidified” and have little to offer to hard core martial artists. That is not to say there aren’t really good schools. You just need to be a bit fussy and have patience till you find the right master for you."
I dont agree with some of the stuff in the bad news part and that comes from a different perspective. theres alot of schools that are kidified, but if your teaching kids then yeah thats typical. some are kiddie and some schools with young ones have some very hardcore training that adults would not be able to keep up with if they are not on thier A-game. the vibe I get from people concerning martial arts isnt one of play....but of goals and ideals the schools / artists from the circles I train with that follow those ideals like Yong-In for example: [ame="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L3l9L91Jxoo"]YONGIN UNIVERSITY TOTAL MARTIAL ARTS SYSTEM WORLD YONGMOODO - YouTube[/ame]
