moving to korea

For those of you who have been learning Korean by religiously following Chad Meyer’s and Moonjung Kim’s illustrations here is your opportunity to own some of these illustration and read it at your convenience or gift it to someone who is learning Korean.

I’m home. Phew. That was a long flight.

I’m ecstatic to be home. Everyone said it would be weird and strange and that reverse culture shock is a monster, but honestly it’s been pleasant so far. Perhaps it is because my family has been amazingly supportive, I have so many friendships to catch up on and a few babies to meet (New people arrived while I was away!), and I am super busy networking and job searching.

While I read this article on married couples doing US taxes while abroad I found it didn’t apply to me completely as my spouse is not a US citizen. And while they provided links and great information, I’ve been unsettled to do my own taxes as I really didn’t want to end up on the naughty list of the IRS especially as we were getting ready for my wife’s US visa.

When I had to move to Korea, it was pretty simple, I cleared my interview, got my visa, packed my bags and within 2 months I was in Seoul. I did not have to think much about relocation as I was single when I moved to Korea. I just had to convince my parents that I would be safe in Korea.

But then I get many a queries from expats who are married with a working spouse and sometimes kids that go to school. When they ask me whether they should accept the job in Korea, I normally say yes to them, keeping my experience in mind. But then I have realized that I am not the right person to give advice to married couples about moving to Korea for work. I find it very difficult when they ask me queries like -

As per Mercer’s Worldwide cost of living ranking 2012, Seoul is at the 22nd spot in the list of the most expensive city in the world.

Mercer releases its Cost of Living rankings annually and measures the comparative cost of living for expatriates in 214 major cities. They compare the cost of over 200 items in each location, including housing, transport, food, clothing, household goods and entertainment. They use New York City as the base city for the rankings and the US dollar as the base currency.

If you are wondering which city tops the list then its Tokyo, which has emerged as the most expensive city for expatriates both in Asia and globally. The top 31 most expensive cities in this list has 10 from the Asia Pacific region including Tokyo at number 1, followed by Osaka at number 3, Singapore at number 6, Hong Kong at 9. Nagoya (Japan) at 10, Shanghai at 16, Beijing at 17, Seoul at 22, Shenzhen (China) at 30 and Guangzhou (China) at 31.