After some serious consideration, I have decided that man's best friend -- on this side of the world, at least -- is not a dog or a puppy or some other furry friend. Man's best friends (and woman for that matter) is a pocket-sized piece of plastic and shiny metal usually found attached to the ear, mouth, or hip pocket of said man or woman. That's really not a slam. It's the truth. And after becoming the proud owner of a slick and shiny LG-KH1600 Cyon slide mobile phone, I'm pretty sure I'll be keeping mine close at hand as well.
Here's the low-down. Getting a mobile phone in Korea is not such an easy undertaking for foreigners. Although we have the legal right to live here and work here, owning anything (a cell phone, an apartment, a house -- even for foreigners married to a Korean citizen) is a no-go. Enter Harrison, answer to my every problem.... Harrison and I went cell-phone shopping today, after returning from the Korean Immigration Office in Daesan (story for another time). A new shop just opened right down the street from the local grocery store right across from the post office, pretty convenient. He had heard that there were some special promotions going on, and I figured it was worth the investment to get connected while here in Korea.
The good news about mobile phones abroad is that, in most countries other than the good ol' U.S. of A., incoming calls are FREE to you. Which means that I only have to pay for calls I make. The second piece of good news is that text messages are ridiculously cheap (about ₩20 per message, or about 2 cents). No wonder teens are typing and texting ad nauseum all over the place. And the third piece of good news is that virtually every plan is a pay-as-you-go type of deal. So for a basic fee of $13, I've got a mobile number and free incoming calls. And from there, I'll pay only for the calls I use. Oh yeah, that, and my phone was free.The catch? Of course, there's a catch... Every mobile provider alive has a deal to hook you and a catch to sink you with. I wouldn't expect any different in Korea! The phone is free with a 2-year contract, and if I cancel early my opt-out is the full cost of the phone, about ₩200,000 (~US$200). And for the first two months, I'm obligated to enroll in some kind of premium service (internet capability, which I don't expect I'll get much use of, as the browser is configured in Korean). Nonetheless, for ₩50,000 (US$50) to set up my account and ~₩9,000 ($US9) for my SIM card, I was out the door with my shiny little sidekick.
I spent some time last night getting to know my little Cyon. She's a beauty, but this phone is much more than just skin-deep :) Inside her Tools menu, are some pretty powerful features... especially for a foreigner such as much. Not only is there a calculator, stopwatch and world clock, but a unit converter useful for Won to USD (and a slew of other currencies), inches to meters, Celcius to Fahrenheit, pounds to kilograms, you name it. There's even a map of Seoul's metro hidden in here. My favorite feature, by far, however, I think will prove to be worth its weight in gold. Built into my mobile is an English-Korean dictionary... type in the word of your choosing, and its Korean equivalent will pop back in a millisecond. This is gonna be a great tool for me, a pocket translator on-the-go! Of course, it translates single words only, and I'm gonna have to get a handle on hangul (the Korean writing system). But from there on out, little Cyon and me are gonna go places!
After some serious consideration, I have decided that man's best friend -- on this side of the world, at least -- is not a dog or a puppy or some other furry friend. Man's best friends (and woman for that matter) is a pocket-sized piece of plastic and shiny metal usually found attached to the ear, mouth, or hip pocket of said man or woman. That's really not a slam. It's the truth. And after becoming the proud owner of a slick and shiny LG-KH1600 Cyon slide mobile phone, I'm pretty sure I'll be keeping mine close at hand as well.
Here's the low-down. Getting a mobile phone in Korea is not such an easy undertaking for foreigners. Although we have the legal right to live here and work here, owning anything (a cell phone, an apartment, a house -- even for foreigners married to a Korean citizen) is a no-go. Enter Harrison, answer to my every problem.... Harrison and I went cell-phone shopping today, after returning from the Korean Immigration Office in Daesan (story for another time). A new shop just opened right down the street from the local grocery store right across from the post office, pretty convenient. He had heard that there were some special promotions going on, and I figured it was worth the investment to get connected while here in Korea.
The good news about mobile phones abroad is that, in most countries other than the good ol' U.S. of A., incoming calls are FREE to you. Which means that I only have to pay for calls I make. The second piece of good news is that text messages are ridiculously cheap (about ₩20 per message, or about 2 cents). No wonder teens are typing and texting ad nauseum all over the place. And the third piece of good news is that virtually every plan is a pay-as-you-go type of deal. So for a basic fee of $13, I've got a mobile number and free incoming calls. And from there, I'll pay only for the calls I use. Oh yeah, that, and my phone was free.The catch? Of course, there's a catch... Every mobile provider alive has a deal to hook you and a catch to sink you with. I wouldn't expect any different in Korea! The phone is free with a 2-year contract, and if I cancel early my opt-out is the full cost of the phone, about ₩200,000 (~US$200). And for the first two months, I'm obligated to enroll in some kind of premium service (internet capability, which I don't expect I'll get much use of, as the browser is configured in Korean). Nonetheless, for ₩50,000 (US$50) to set up my account and ~₩9,000 ($US9) for my SIM card, I was out the door with my shiny little sidekick.
I spent some time last night getting to know my little Cyon. She's a beauty, but this phone is much more than just skin-deep :) Inside her Tools menu, are some pretty powerful features... especially for a foreigner such as much. Not only is there a calculator, stopwatch and world clock, but a unit converter useful for Won to USD (and a slew of other currencies), inches to meters, Celcius to Fahrenheit, pounds to kilograms, you name it. There's even a map of Seoul's metro hidden in here. My favorite feature, by far, however, I think will prove to be worth its weight in gold. Built into my mobile is an English-Korean dictionary... type in the word of your choosing, and its Korean equivalent will pop back in a millisecond. This is gonna be a great tool for me, a pocket translator on-the-go! Of course, it translates single words only, and I'm gonna have to get a handle on hangul (the Korean writing system). But from there on out, little Cyon and me are gonna go places!
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