- Chen Teng left her corporate job in New York to move to South Korea in 2016.
- Her initial two-year stay in Seoul has since extended into eight years and counting.
- Now, she lives in a cozy loft and pays 870,000 Korean won, or $640, for rent each month.
Feeling trapped at her digital marketing job in corporate America, Chen Teng made a spur-of-the-moment decision to quit and move to a different country.
The native New Yorker, whose family is of Taiwanese descent, had always wanted to live in Asia, and it finally felt like the right time for her to make it happen.
“I was working in New York in the typical office, and I just felt a bit trapped in a way. It was suffocating for me,” Teng told Business Insider. “And I decided I really wanted to do something that was almost like a challenge for myself.”
In 2016, she packed her bags and moved to South Korea alone, never mind that she didn’t know anyone there or speak a word of Korean.
“At the time I didn’t know anything about Korea really except for K-Town in New York. And the only thing I knew was that I liked the food, which was pretty much it,” Teng said. “I came here on vacation for about a week. I was like, ‘all right, it’s a vibe.'”
It took a few months for her visa to be processed, and off she went. But what was meant to be a two-year stint in Seoul has since stretched into eight years and counting.
Apartment-hunting in Seoul
However, Teng, now a freelancer and model, has only been living in her studio — near Mok-dong in the western part of Seoul — since May. Her previous neighborhood had been slated for redevelopment, and she needed a new home.
She knew she wanted an apartment with lots of natural sunlight, preferably in a newer building, and definitely near a subway line.
While many landlords in South Korea operate under a rental system known as “jeonse,” where tenants pay a huge lump-sum deposit instead of monthly rent, she was looking for a place that would accept “wolse,” which involves paying a smaller deposit and a monthly rent, instead.
Her budget was 10 million Korean won for her deposit, and then under 900,000 won a month for rent.
The househunting journey wasn’t smooth. There were landlords who weren’t keen on showing her places because she was a foreigner — even though, by that time, she had become fluent in Korean.
Teng says she looked at more than 30 apartments over the span of a month before she found her current home.
Loft-style living for under $700
Teng’s studio apartment has a loft-style design: The main living area, kitchen, and dining space are downstairs, while her sleeping quarters are upstairs. The only downside to the loft space is that she can’t stand up straight because of the height of the ceiling.
Her rent is 870,000 Korean won, or $640, each month, and Teng paid a deposit of 10 million Korean won for the apartment. This is in addition to a monthly maintenance fee of 90,000 Korean won.
Her residential neighborhood is surrounded by convenience stores, restaurants, and shops. There’s also a huge supermarket nearby that she frequents, even though “as long as you’re in a central metropolis, anything can be delivered in Korea,” she added.
Her favorite spot is her little workspace by the windows; it’s where she spends most of her time.
“This view, I’m not looking at a river or anything, I’m just looking at buildings. But it’s really cute because I like people-watching,” she said.
Back in New York, Teng was still living with her family in their Brooklyn apartment. Her then-commute to midtown Manhattan — where her office was — took a little over an hour. She is now happy to have a space of her own.
“When I started working, at entry level, I didn’t understand how people in New York could afford rent and food and to do things,” she said.
“Even last year, when I went home to New York, I was looking at Zillow for fun. I’m not even paying $700 for this space, and in New York, I could pay double that and get nothing,” she added.
According to a May report from Zillow, rents in New York City grew more than seven times as fast as wages from 2022 to 2023. A single person in NYC would have to make about $140,000 to live comfortably.
Building a life in a foreign country
Although Teng has since built a life for herself in South Korea, it took her some time to adjust to her new environment.
Thankfully, it wasn’t too hard for her to get to know people in Seoul. Since she first came on a government-run visa program to teach English, she was able to meet new people through it.
All the other friends she made were a result of putting herself out there.
“I was in my early 20s, so I went out all the time. I just got lit all the time,” she said. “It’s really hard if you’re an introvert. I’m an introvert, but I made myself an extrovert because if I don’t take the initiative to talk to someone, no one has any reason to talk to me.”
Missing milestones while living abroad
Although Teng has considered returning to New York, nothing’s set in stone. Moreover, if she does return, she’ll have to start off by living at home again because the cost of living there is so high.
“I think the difficult thing about living abroad is that you miss so many milestones. I’ve missed weddings, I’m missing baby announcements. I am missing a lot of things. And you do feel a sense of guilt for not being there,” she said. “But I’ve created a life here as well.”
Although it was a challenging journey, Teng has no regrets.
“I would’ve never lived this lifestyle had I not moved to Korea. And that can be a good or bad thing. I don’t know where my life would’ve necessarily ended up otherwise,” she said.
“My biggest thing was when I was working corporate, I looked at my boss, and I was like, do I want your job in X years? And I was just like, no, I don’t want this job now,” she continued.
While it was a good job, the working environment wasn’t for her.
“Now, what I love is I make my own schedule essentially,” she said.
Have you recently built or renovated your dream home? If you’ve got a story to share, get in touch with me at agoh@businessinsider.com.
