Teach English
in South Korea

   'I lived in Daegu for a year and a half, and had a fantastic time. There's a huge community of expats, college students, and English-speaking Koreans to connect with. There's no shortage of cheap, delicious food in any part of the city, and the downtown area is always extremely busy on the weekends.  It was the perfect place to do day/weekend-trips from, being right in the middle of Korea. I was able to take trips to Pohang, Andong, Gyeongju, Namhae, Gumi, Busan and Seoul, all while living in Daegu. The cost of food and living is also much cheaper than Seoul, and travel times inside Daegu are much faster than in Busan, because it's less spread-out.

Daegu is surrounded by nature and mountains, so you can go hiking up Mount Apsan or have a picnic in Duryu Park. It can get very hot in the summer, which I personally enjoyed. In general, living there was very convenient; the public transport is super fast, cheap, and well-connected, especially the subway. It truly is a huge city, and there are districts and neighborhoods of it that I still hadn't explored by the time I left.

Some locations -

- Hello Foreigner, Gogos, and Los Cubanos; bars downtown where you can meet tons of fellow English speakers, foreign and Korean alike

- Communes, a bar with a more relaxed atmosphere and live music played by regular patrons

- Noriteo, a board game cafe/bar with lots of seasonal events/parties

- Chicago, a bar in the Beomeo area which often plays live jazz music

- Yutaro, for high-quality Japanese ramen

- The Box and the YMCA, two places where you can take Korean classes with native speakers

- E-World, a theme park with a spectacular number of cherry blossoms in the spring, which can be seen from an observation deck/tower

- Beomeo Library and Suseong Library, which have large collections of English books and are perfectly quiet

- Keimyung University and the surrounding area - there are lots of restaurants and bars with a huge variety of styles and tastes [including a delicious Vietnamese restaurant] The university also has a huge musical theatre.

- Kyungpook National University campus - a huge green campus, perfect for walking, which also has lots of cherry blossoms in the spring

- The Beomeo general area houses multiple delicious Korean-fried chicken, zzim-dak, dakgalbi, tteokbokki, sushi and barbeque restaurants. Worny Chicken was a favorite among everyone I knew, as well as an all-you-can-eat beef barbeque place.

- There are escape rooms, board game cafes, video arcades, and PC cafes all around the city. Once you make a good group of friends, you will likely visit these regularly. Also, a million coffee shops and bubble tea places.

- Multiple art supply outlets, musical instrument stores, and anime merchandise shops, all with helpful owners [I've gotten discounts more than once]

- The Gundam Base

- Kyobo Books [very big with a bit of everything]

- Shinsegae mall [good food court]

- The downtown area has a fashion district with lots of old/vintage stores where you can haggle, as well as more unique and up-to-date brands. Daegu in general is considered a good place for clothes shopping.

- The riverbank path leads through some interesting and atmospheric neighborhoods.

- Yeongnam Jeil Gwan, a huge historic gate surrounded by a pretty quiet, peaceful area spattered with historic monuments.

- Suseong Lake

- Daegu Opera House [they have English subtitles]

- Samsung Lions Baseball Park, home of Daegu's baseball team

- DGB Daegu Bank Park, home of Daegu FC soccer/football team

- There's a beer and chicken - 'Chimac' - festival in the summer.

 

All of these are places are personally visited and enjoyed when I was working in Daegu.

Overall, if you haven't heard much about Daegu compared to Seoul or Busan, I can definitely tell you that I was never lacking in things to do. Once you settle in and get to know the layout, Daegu becomes a really busy and dense city, and a great place to live.'  A.D.