In Seoul, the UN of flophouses thrives

Posted on : 2015-04-28 17:30 KST Modified on : 2019-10-19 20:29 KST
People from all over the world form community at inexpensive accommodations in Seoul’s flophouse district
 staff reporter)
staff reporter)

“We don’t have civil service exams in France. Needless to say, we don’t have flophouses for exam takers, either.” - Olivia Girade

“We have studio apartments like this in Nigeria, but they’re much bigger.” - Nuhu Yahaya

The rooms, 16-26 square meters in size, with an area for preparing simple meals and a small bathroom: basically the same as any other flophouse, with a monthly rent of 350,000 to 400,000 won (US$326-$373).

But among the cluster of flophouses in the Gwangak district of Seoul is one flophouse where the majority of the tenants are foreigners. At Taekhakgwan, which has been in business for 25 years as of 2015, 20 of the 33 rooms at the flophouse are occupied by people from nine countries - including an Iranian couple, a Chinese mother and daughter, and a German who is in South Korea looking for work - share the building with South Koreans cramming for tests.

Foreign students taking classes at Seoul National University, migrant laborers lured by the affordable price, and even backpackers have found their way to Taehakgwan on the recommendation of their friends.

Sbetilana Kim, 33, an ethnic Korean from Uzbekistan, living at Taekhakgwan with her husband and her son, who is in elementary school, moved here from Ansan, Gyeonggi Province.

“My father is Korean, and I came to Korea because I wanted to learn Korean. I like this place because it‘s not just foreigners living here, so I can hang out with South Koreans as well,” said Kim, when the Hankyoreh visited Taehakgwan on Apr. 26.

The tenants at Taehakgwan may represent a diverse blend of nationalities and ethnicities, but they spend their time together, painting murals on the walls of the flophouse or grilling pork belly on the rooftop. This is the UN of flophouses.

“Aside from the fact that, as a Muslim, I have to eat Halal food, there are no inconveniences about my life here,” said Nuhu Yahaya, 36, a student from Nigeria.

For these foreigners living in South Korea’s most famous flophouse neighborhood, it is fascinating to see young South Koreans staking their future on the civil service exam.

“The Korean students are very ambitious. They believe that they have to study all day and challenge themselves to accomplish something,” one foreign tenant said, diplomatically describing their view of this phenomenon.

Taehakgwan began to transform itself from a run-down flophouse with lots of vacancies to an international community after Lee Woo-jin, 35, the son of the building owner, became the superintendent. Lee had spent seven years working at the Korean branch of a foreign corporation. But last year, he quit his company job and showed up at Taehakgwan. He has been putting up online ads for tenants, welcoming anyone regardless of their nationality, and helping the tenants to adapt to their life in South Korea.

“These flophouses look fascinating to foreigners, and I‘d like to turn them into cultural content. The civil service exam system will disappear soon and become little more than a memory, but I’d like to preserve it as culture,” Lee said. He is laying plans to create a cultural space in the area that preserves the history of the flophouses as they are, and not as guesthouses.

This is also the reason Lee insists on maintaining the shabby sign and entryway of Taehakgwan exactly as they have been for the past 25 years.

 

By Kim Mi-hyang, staff reporter

 

Please direct questions or comments to [english@hani.co.kr]

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