10 Things to Bring to Korea

Dear Future English Teachers,

You’ve seen a million and one YouTube videos, TikToks, Instagram posts, and blog entries about what to bring with you to South Korea. Or maybe, you’re like me. The person who looked at nothing and then realized that hindsight is twenty-twenty.

Either way, here are my top ten picks for what you should bring with you to South Korea. This isn’t meant to be an exhaustive list of everything you need, but just to give you a few ideas.

First, is what I wish I had brought back in February 2022.

Second, is what I thankfully did bring.

Now, congrats your new move abroad. You’re amazing for taking on a new challenge across the world, just don’t forget to pack your medication.

What I Wish I Brought

• A Huge Bottle of Pain Killers

Here’s the thing. South Korea does sell your typical OTC pain relievers like Tylenol. But only in packets of 10 pills at a time and only in pharmacies. Now, you could technically just purchase a couple of the small boxes for your pain needs. But you tend to get weird looks from the pharmacy clerks. I’ve also had a pharmacy outright refuse to sell me more than a single box.

If you’re like me, aka a haver of occasional sinus headaches (thanks allergies), it is just a little annoying to realize you’ve run out your pack of 10 pills when you need one.

So, do yourself a favor and bring a huge Costco size bottle

• Cold Medicine

In your first months of living in Korea, you will get sick at least once. There’s really no avoiding it, with the stress of moving, the new environment, the new people, and the continually new variants of Covid-19.

However, a fair amount of cold medicine is prescription only in Korea.

There are some OTC cold medicine, like Theraflu, sometimes even with the same name as their western counterparts (hello Konglish). But, the last thing you want to do while sick is try to figure out what that Konglish name is and how to say it with the right Korean pronunciation so that the pharmacy clerk will understand you.

Save yourself some stress in your first few months, bring some cold medicine.

• Eye Drops

Eye drops—or “artificial tears” in Korea—are usually sold at pharmacies. Again though, some eye drop brands are also prescription only.

You can go to the pharmacy and ask for “인공눈물 (in kong neun mul)” to try your luck for ones without prescription, but do some research first! A lot of Asian brand eye drops (in Korea or elsewhere in Asia) have menthol in them for a “cooling” sensation. If you like minty eyes, this will not be a problem for you.

For everyone else, I’ve heard good things about “프렌즈 아이드롭 순 (purenju eye du rop su)”, specifically the pink bottle, from others.

Now, are eye drops 100% necessary for everyone to bring? No.

But when I arrived in February, Korea was dry. From the winter air to the maxed out heaters, everything seemed to dry out my eyes. Having eye drops on hand as I settled in was a small comfort.

• Lotion

Speaking of small comforts, let’s talk about lotion.

If you will arrive in Korea during winter, lotion is a must. You can buy a bigger bottle once you’ve settled in, but a small bottle is necessary for your first week or two.

Again, Korean winter is dry. The average humidity is around 30-40% in the early months of the year. The cold, usually around 20-40F depending on the day, doesn’t help. TMI, but I’ve never had my knuckles crack until I came to Korea.

Your hands will thank you, take some lotion.

• Sim Card

*Preface: Unlock your phone prior to sim card usage.

This one, is a bit of a no-brainer. Unfortunately, I was temporarily without a brain last February. A sim card was the one thing that slipped my packing list. But it is one of the most important things to have when you come to Korea.

You need a Korean phone number for everything, from setting up your bank account to online shopping.

However, phone providers in Korea only accept your physical “Alien Registration Card (ARC)” or maybe if you’re lucky a photo of the physical card, for proof of ID.

Getting your ARC though, takes an eternity.

Immigration is slow in any country, but given the Covid-19-induced work backlogs, it’s even slower in Korea. I was lucky to get an immigration appointment a few weeks after I landed, but others I know waited months for one. Then, it takes at least one more month after the appointment to even get the physical card.

Therefore, it can take anywhere from 2-4 months to get a permanent Korean phone number after you’ve arrived.

In the meantime, a temporary sim card is necessary to get by in life.

Things I’m Glad I Brought

Now, here’s what I’m grateful to past me for bringing.

• Money

Like everywhere else, money is very important to have and to have access to in South Korea.

I suggest you bring at least $300 USD worth of South Korean Won. The exchange rate will fluctuate depending on when you exchange, but over the last few years USD has been appreciating in value relative to KRW.

I also suggest, if you haven’t already, to apply for a “No Foreign Transaction Fees” credit card. If you don’t know, “No Foreign Transaction Fees” means exactly that, you won’t be charged the usually 2-4% transaction fee on your purchases while abroad.

(Also, make sure to ask your banks for their international SWIFT codes. South Korea uses a 8-11 digit format for SWIFT codes.)

It’s a life saver while you wait for your Korean bank account.

Re: The Eternity of Wait Time for the ARC

You need an ARC to create a functioning bank account. Banks will simply not accept any other form of ID, passport or otherwise. After your immigration appointment, you will get this “ARC Confirmation” document, however, this is not a substitute for your ARC like a temporary printed driver’s license.

But, if you get a nice bank clerk, they may accept it to just create a bank account. You won’t be able to use it at all (e.g. no withdrawals, no debit card created) but you will be able to receive deposits to it.

• Ziplocks

This is more of a shout out to my mom, who insisted I pack a variety of ziplock bags ranging from gallon size to snack size, and that I have at least ten of each. They will endlessly come in handy.

A bottle got roughed up during your flight? Ziplock it. You received dozens of documents with no way to store them? Ziplock it. Dirty clothes during your moving process? Ziplock it. Unfinished snacks? Zip. lock. it.

Ziplock bags. Brand or generic, doesn’t matter. They’re super useful. Bring them.

• Bath Towel

So bigger bath towels have become more available in Korea, you can buy them at places like Costco, Ikea, or get them online. Still, most in-person stores sell what western countries would consider face towels or hand towels.

There will also be no towels in your accommodations when you first move in. For me, having a bath sized towel on your first night is way better than doing yoga poses with a hand towel.

Any full sized bath towel will work, and just one will be fine for settling in. Your future self will thank you.

• Allergy Medicine

Let’s track back to my points on medicine above. You need it? You know what works for you? Pack it in your bag. I regret not bringing Costco painkillers. I regret not bringing cold medicine.

I am so thankful I brought allergy medicine.

Korea sells allergy medicine, yes! But personally, I’ve developed pretty bad seasonal allergies in the past few years. So, I wanted to bring something that I knew worked for me, especially given that South Korea is pretty infamous for all the “yellow, fine dust” it gets in the spring.

If you are a fellow seasonal allergy victim, bring a big bottle of a brand that works for you.

• Apple’s adapter kit (If you have Apple products)

Did you know that Apple sells an adapter kit for your chargers?

Now, there are a couple of Apple stores in Seoul and that’s about it to my knowledge. While there are official retailers like Frisbee, they’re often only sell iPhone chargers in store. As for Macbook chargers, they’ve been sold out every time I’ve tried one of the Seoul Apple stores.

Now, you can order Apple products through the Apple website, where you are guaranteed to get the product you want, and shipping is pretty fast too. But I was gifted the adapter kit right before my flight over, and it was nice that I didn’t have to buy a ‘Korean’ charger to charge my devices once I got off the plane.

. . .

Alright, those are my short best picks. I’ll be posting my full extensive packing list as well, for anyone who is more detail paranoid like me. Best wishes on your upcoming move!

Sincerely,

Kon