u/Famous_Edge2664

Is there any secret trick to escaping Korean verification hell ?
I finally got an ARC and a local number only to discover that my number previously belonged to some random ghost user (pjy****). Now whenever I try linking my Climate Card to T-money GO (bikes) the app insists to login as “pjy**** “ profile.
Obviously I can't reset the password because I'm not them.
I called the 120 English helpline for help. First I got routed to a Chinese speaker then got told to call back in 10 minutes and ultimately got hung up on. Groundbreaking customer service.

Small update: I think I finally understood a part of the situation !!
First I checked our old Kakao messages and realized I misunderstood him about poker. He worked as a dealer (!) and he knows a lot about it. but he actually told me he isn’t very interested in playing right now. My fault.
Also the “grumpy” behavior the last few days had a much simpler explanation. He contacted me and apologized for being quiet because he has been sick and in pain. I saw him today and he explained he has bad pain around his jaw (teeth) and has been taking medication.
So some Reddit user created a gambling addiction drama and I treated it as a cultural communication mystery while the poor guy was just sitting there with tooth pain 😭
Thanks to everyone who actually tried to help me understand the cultural and communication differences. I learned something from it.

Can someone please explain what’s going on ???
I (female) live in a shared house in Korea. One guy (Korean) lives here too takes care of the house and is usually very nice.
He had a difficult past and some problems with gambling. I don’t judge him. I was actually interested in poker so he bought cards and said we could play.
But whenever we planned to play he suddenly had to leave or meet friends.
We also talked about poker rules on Kakao. We simulated poker situations and my training was to guess who would win. Once we disagreed about a situation. I checked with Gemini Ai and my understanding was correct. He said he felt embarrassed after that.
Since then things feel a bit strange so I stopped asking to play.
He also bought an air fryer and blender and said everyone could use them.
Today I was using the air fryer and he told me it doesn’t work. I told him I cleaned it because it had been stored for a long time and it actually works. I asked him to have a look but he refused and just said no it doesn’t work.
I am European and I am confused by this behavior.
Is there something cultural I am missing?

Small update: I think I finally understood a part of the situation !!
First I checked our old Kakao messages and realized I misunderstood him about poker. He worked as a dealer (!) and he knows a lot about it. but he actually told me he isn’t very interested in playing right now. My fault.
Also the “grumpy” behavior the last few days had a much simpler explanation. He contacted me and apologized for being quiet because he has been sick and in pain. I saw him today and he explained he has bad pain around his jaw (teeth) and has been taking medication.
So some Reddit user created a gambling addiction drama and I treated it as a cultural communication mystery while the poor guy was just sitting there with tooth pain 😭
Thanks to everyone who actually tried to help me understand the cultural and communication differences. I learned something from it.

Can someone explain me what’s going on ???
I (female) live in a shared house in Korea. One guy (Korean) lives here too takes care of the house and is usually very nice.
He had a difficult past and some problems with gambling. I don’t judge him. I was actually interested in poker so he bought cards and said we could play.
But whenever we planned to play he suddenly had to leave or meet friends.
We also talked about poker rules on Kakao. We simulated poker situations and my training was to guess who would win. Once we disagreed about a situation. I checked with Gemini Ai and my understanding was correct. He said he felt embarrassed after that.
Since then things feel a bit strange so I stopped asking to play.
He also bought an air fryer and blender and said everyone could use them.
Today I was using the air fryer and he told me it doesn’t work. I told him I cleaned it because it had been stored for a long time and it actually works. I asked him to have a look but he refused and just said no it doesn’t work.
I am European and I am confused by this behavior.
Is there something cultural I am missing?

Imagine signing up for what you think is a $16 a month learning trial only to wake up to a sudden $218 charge on your card.
That exact nightmare happened to me with Brilliant.org. The signup page made it look like a free trial of 30 days and afterwards a regular monthly plan. But the second my free trial ended my card got slapped with an $218 fee.
Panicked I logged in immediately to cancel. But their website trapped me in an endless glitch loop. The cancellation page literally would not work.
I messaged support within 24 hours explaining their own site broke. They did not care. They hid behind robotic script templates claiming payments are non refundable and only offered a partial refund.
I felt so cheated and helpless.

Imagine signing up for what you think is a $16 a month learning trial only to wake up to a sudden $218 charge on your card.
That exact nightmare happened to me with Brilliant.org. The free trial signup page made it look free 30 days experience, after the first month a regular monthly plan. But when my free trial ended my card got slapped with an $218 annual fee.
Panicked I logged in immediately to cancel. But their website trapped me in an endless glitch loop. The cancellation page literally would not work.
I messaged support within 24 hours explaining their own site broke. They did not care. They hid behind robotic script templates claiming payments are non refundable and only offered a partial refund.
I felt so cheated and helpless.

Imagine signing up for what you think is a $16 a month learning trial only to wake up to a sudden $218 charge on your card.
That exact nightmare happened to me with Brilliant.org. The signup page made it look like a regular monthly plan. But the second my free trial ended my card got slapped with an $218 annual fee.
Panicked I logged in immediately to cancel. But their website trapped me in an endless glitch loop. The cancellation page literally would not work.
I messaged support within 24 hours explaining their own site broke. They did not care. They hid behind robotic script templates claiming payments are non refundable and only offered a partial refund.
I felt so cheated and helpless.

I think Korea's identity verification system might actually be my villain origin story. I spent my whole morning at the subway station trying to apply the Youth Discount on a physical Climate Card. I have never felt so defeated by technology.
First off you can’t just walk up to the kiosk and select the youth rate. The machine blocks it unless your card is pre registered on the backend. So I went looking for the station safety center around 10:30 AM to see if a human worker could help out. Naturally the booth was dead empty.
So then I try doing it on my phone via Chrome. This is where the real “fun” starts. To log in or register anything it forces you through mobile identity verification (⁠본인인증⁠). Toss actually says verification completed on its end but when switches back the T money site sends an error saying registration not completed. It is an endless browser loop where the app confirms you but the website rejects you anyway.
Even when you manage to click around the T-money site the menu layout pushes you to the multi child document uploads …requiring attachments via mail.

I finally gave up and paid the standard pass at full price

I recently met a Korean guy who has been around poker for a long time and worked mostly as a dealer. Talking to him made me want to get more into poker myself.
I played on poker apps for around 6–8 months but only with play money. I know the basics but want to learn more and practice properly.
Does anyone have tips on what I should focus on next?
Also looking for beginner friendly places or poker groups in Seoul where I can meet people and have a fun poker night without it being super serious. Would love some recommendations :)

I recently met a Korean guy who has been around poker for a long time and worked mostly as a dealer. Talking to him made me want to get more into poker myself.
I played on poker apps for around 6–8 months but only with play money. I know the basics but want to learn more and practice properly.
Does anyone have tips on what I should focus on next?
Also looking for beginner friendly places or poker groups in Seoul where I can meet people and have a fun poker night without it being super serious. Would love some recommendations :)

I recently met a Korean guy who has been around poker for a long time and worked mostly as a dealer. Talking to him made me want to get more into poker myself.
I played on poker apps for around 6–8 months but only with play money. I know the basics but want to learn more and practice properly.
Does anyone have tips on what I should focus on next?
Also looking for beginner friendly places or poker groups in Seoul where I can meet people and have a fun poker night without it being super serious. Would love some recommendations :)

I would like to spend some of my free time helping animals.
Does anyone know a rescue shelter or animal welfare organization that needs volunteers or any kind of support? I’m especially interested in helping abandoned or rescued dogs but I’m open to wherever help is needed.
Would really appreciate any recommendations or contacts.

Looking to help an animal rescue in Seoul/Korea
I would like to spend some of my free time helping animals.
Does anyone know a rescue shelter or animal welfare organization that needs volunteers or any kind of support? I’m especially interested in helping abandoned or rescued dogs but I’m open to wherever help is needed.
Would really appreciate any recommendations or contacts.

I’ve been trying over an hour to order an overseas item on Coupang… and I’m losing my mind.
To get a PCCC I have to use the UNI-PASS website but it feels like it is fighting me.
I keep getting errors saying I need to re enter the CAPTCHA even when it is correct. Then it says pop-up windows are blocked even they are not. Sometimes it just loops back and nothing happens.
I’ve tried different browsers turned off pop-up blockers and refreshed a million times. Same result.
Is this website just broken or is there some secret trick everyone knows except me?

I swear every time a bus stops it’s like the Hunger Games.
Today a grown man literally pushed people out of the way just to get on first. I pushed back and suddenly he turned around puffed out his chest and tried to act like some tough guy. He literally screamed at me and wanted to hurt me.
The funny part? The second I took out my phone and started recording all that macho energy disappeared. Instantly.
Meanwhile the bus driver didn’t say a word. Nobody stepped in. Everyone just carried on as if this was perfectly normal.
I’ve been seeing this more and more lately: grown adults pushing, cutting in line, invading personal space then acting aggressive when someone doesn’t just accept it.
So… is this normal in Seoul ??

I wanted to write this post to share my current nightmare experience with Hanyang University’s Institute of International Education (국제교육원) to warn anyone thinking about applying here. Long story short: they treat language students strictly as an ATM and completely deny you basic student ID… will literally increase fees to cover up their own fundings.

1. The 50k KRW extra Tuition charge for any student even though they already paid in advance
Some of us international students paid already for 1 year in advance, so now we must re REGISTER after EACH SEMESTER, only to find ourselves to pay more ?! Yes, and we got an ultimatum to pay or lose our Visa.

2. You Get ZERO Student Benefits (Unlike Sogang or Yonsei)
If you come to Hanyang as a language student you are treated like a second-class temporary customer-not a student !

3. No Student ID Card
They completely refuse to issue physical student ID cards to language students.

4. Banned from Campus Festivals
During Hanyang’s famous music festivals, regular degree students get wristbands for the front stage. Language students are barred from the student zone entirely and forced to stand blocks away even though your tuition helps fund the event.

5. Clueless Administration
The admissions office is heavily staffed by young, temporary student workers who have no training, make constant financial errors or wait till a supervisor shows up. One day they say this and the next day they say something else, it’s messy and disorganized.

My honest Advice to future Students:
choose Sogang or Yonsei !
If you want to be treated like a human being and a real member of a campus do not come to Hanyang.
Other top schools in Seoul actually care about their international students. For example Sogang University automatically issues you a student ID and you can join regular campus clubs…full library access and even free after-school K-Pop dance and speech classes. Yonsei University partners with Woori Bank to give language students a fully integrated debit card/student ID that unlocks everything on campus.
Hanyang just uses international language students as a cash cow to fund their main campus engineering labs while giving you absolute zero in return. I am legally stuck here for this term because of my D-4 visa. But if I could turn time back I would 100% transferring my visa out to Sogang or Yonsei.
Save yourself the financial frustration and administrative gaslighting, apply somewhere else!

Just a warning to other Hanyang students !!!

I paid ₩3.8 million for two semesters through Firefly but Hanyang recorded only ₩3.6 million. After I submitted my original payment receipt they corrected my account and issued a new receipt that my balance was cleared.
After this, this week alone I have received two more emails asking for more payment and warning that I could be kicked out if I don’t pay.
Now that the university is also requesting an additional ₩50,000 tuition fee from all students I think everyone should carefully double check what they paid in total and collect all receipts to compare !! This is extremely bad organized from Hanyang university. And I lost my faith in this school after they started to continue to ask for the extra money which was paid since past April. Watch out folks