WanderfulAdventuring
15 Insanely Useful Facebook Groups for Expats in Korea
If you are currently living and/or working in South Korea as a foreigner, these are some extremely helpful Facebook groups that you should join right away!
I will break these down into categories: Giveaway & Donation Groups, Buy & Sell/Flea Market Groups, Event Groups, Women’s Support Groups, ESL Teacher Groups, and Misc. Support or Niche Groups
Giveaway & Donation Groups
In these groups you can either giveaway your own items for free or organize a meeting to take home someone else’s used items for free. The purpose of these groups is to decrease the amount of waste and to help expats in need.
These groups are quite active and very useful, as the turnover rate of expats moving to and from Korea is quite high, so there are always items being posted for giveaway and people ready to take them. It can be helpful for you whether you are just moving into a new apartment, or soon moving out of one.
There are just a few caveats, however. The first is that since everything must be free, the only method of retrieving the items is by picking them up either at the poster’s home, or the nearest subway station. This can be quite tricky for wanting to take anything larger than you can carry. It also becomes much harder if you live outside of Seoul, as the majority of these posts require pick-up near subway stations in Seoul. Lastly, these sites are so popular (and growing everyday), that regardless of what time of day it is, listed items are usually claimed within a few minutes. It’s like waiting for a concert ticket sale, without knowing when the sale is or which concert it will be for.
- MONA – Less Waste, More Impact – This is my favorite group for the message they spread and their great moderators. They now have an app as well where expats can even get leftover food delivered from partnered restaurants! They also host #FreeFriday in which members can post asking for specific items that they may be looking for each Friday.
- Free Things and Giveaway Korea – This functions quite similar to MONA and is still fairly active. I always check here after looking at MONA.
Buy & Sell/Flea Market Groups
If you are looking to sell some of your used items, rather than give them away, or perhaps look for some higher quality used items, then these groups will be useful to you!
Here anyone can post their used items for sale (so long as they follow the group rules and guidelines). People may also claim the items by first commenting on the post of corresponding picture, and then arranging it with the seller directly.
The great thing about these sites is that, for smaller items, the seller usually offers to ship the item at the buyers expense. Although it is totally up to the seller obviously, and they still may require pick-up.
The most common way to pay or get paid is via cash or bank transfer. This means if you don’t have a Korean Bank account yet, it could get a bit tricky. There are apps like Wise that may work for you (for my Americans- it’s similar to Venmo or Cash app, but more international).
It’s important to remember that these are independent people selling items, and there is no form of insurance built-in. However, I have never seen any long-running scams on these sites and everyone seems fairly genuine.
- Expat Women in Korea – This group is going to show up again in a later section, but I had to mention it here because it really is my number one place to find good used items for sale frequently.
- Expat Women in Korea Buy and Sell – This one is also good for buying/selling and is more organized since it is focused on acting as a marketplace only. That said, I don’t see as many items posted here, or perhaps it’s just not items I am interested in. I seed mostly fashion related things here.
- HBC/Itaewon Buy/Sell Board – I live nowhere near Itaewon, but this group is fairly active and I’ve seen many items I wish I could have gotten from this page. I would say most of these items require pick-up, though.
There are more Market Boards that are also bigger, but I find them a bit less trustworthy, or they seem to include ads.
Event Posting Groups
I have found so many amazing things to do and events to attend through these Facebook groups. I have seen and attended cheap government-sponsored countryside tours, foreigner-Korean mixers, magic shows, drag shows, restaurant specials, holiday parties, and more using these Facebook pages!
- All Events in Korea – As the name suggests, this group posts all kinds of events fairly regularly. However, I have noticed there tends to be some ads you need to sift through.
- Expat Women in Korea – Once again this group makes the top three in a category. It was here I found groups such as Korea Travel Mate and Funday Korea which provide government sponsored tours and events for foreigners for cheap or in exchange for reviews. I’ve also found many foreigner related events all over Seoul here.
- Korea Events – This is another good option to browse the various events in Korea. You will see a lot of crossover, but also some unique posts.
Women’s Support Groups
These are hands-down the best and most supportive groups on this list. It is a safe space where women offer advice, support each other’s small business, ask questions, and build each other up. My life would genuinely be different (and more difficult) without these groups.
- Expat Women in Korea – If you couldn’t tell already, this is my favorite group on this list. It has everything from shared advice, to event posting, to listing items for sale, and even arranging meet-ups and cafe dates for when you need a friend. It dominates every category. You NEED this page if you are an expat woman living here!
- Girl Friends In Seoul – This group is also super cute and I love what they are doing. They also post events and create a space to arrange meet-ups. However, it tends to include a lot of girlies who are just traveling to Korea, so it’s not exclusively expats.
- Expat & Immigrant Women in Korea – This one is similar to the first one, just slightly less popular. It’s always useful to have options, though!
ESL Teacher Groups
These are specifically helpful if you are teaching English in South Korea, or if you are looking for an English Teacher job. I would say the majority of posts in these groups are for teaching positions, but even while I’m not currently looking for a new job, it helps to know what the market is like to be able to compare to my current position.
- English Teachers in Korea – I like this one because it is a bit of a mix of everything from job listing to teacher advice. People can ask questions about the legalities of their contract here and commenters always seem very helpful at providing resources or advice.
- English Teaching Jobs in South Korea – If you are looking for an ESL job, I would say this is the most active group I have found. Also, the comments usually call out scams or bad offers, which is helpful in deciding which positions are worth pursuing.
- Online ESL Teaching: Recruitment, Mentoring, & Support – Now this one is by far the biggest group, but it is specifically if you are looking to or already teach English online. I still thought it worth including as it is very active and many teachers wish to transition to online or tutor online as a side hustle (**be careful with this, as outside work violates an E2 contract**)
General Expat Support Groups or Niches
There are so many groups for various needs, so choosing just three for this category will be difficult. Just know that even if I didn’t list something, there is probably a niche group for it if you search.
- Seoul Expats – This is just your general expat support group. You will see postings about events, things for sale, jobs, and advice. It is quite active, with over 30k members.
- Seoul Expat Forum – Similar to Seoul Expats, just a bit smaller at 10k.
- Opportunities for Foreigners in Korea – This one is kinda geared towards finding influencers to partner with or promote a product, so if that’s your vibe, this one will be useful to you
