Make New Friends! : Meetup in Seoul
Make New Friends! :Meetup in Seoul
Meetup is the largest network of local group in the world. It has over 19 million members, almost 180 thousand groups in 176 countries, with over 490 thousand meetings per month.
This project is willing to make it possible for anyone to organize a local group or find people that already are meeting somewhere. The goal is to revitalize local community and also help people around to self-organize. It works for personal interests or to help people around you.
Here in Seoul, you can find many kind of groups. Language Exchange meetings, hiking events, yoga, volunteering groups and events, travel, sports, food, etc etc. You can select your main interests and the website will show you meetups available.
I have been to two different meetups so far: “Help Foreigners speak Korean”, which consisted on Korean volunteers helping foreigners (from all different levels of Korean) practice the language.
This is a 2 hour weekly Tuesday night meeting that happens in a coffee shop in Itaewon. Since the coffee shop offer the space, you are supposed to get a drink to get in. Normally you get paired up with a Korean person who will talk to you freely or use a script provided by the staff.
When the first hour ends, you switch partners and continue your Korean practicing. After the two hours, people are welcomed to go for a second round, join the staff for drinks and more of group talking. It is quite interesting and a good chance to practice Korean.
Another meetup experience I had was “Let’s help children”. This was a volunteer work meeting, a visit to the Myungjin Children’s Welfare Center. This Center is a home to 90 parentless children and is located in Gubeundari Station (Subway Line 5).
The meetup happens twice a month, on Sundays afternoons. There, you just spend time with the children, using music, art, leisure, craft and doing educational and recreational activities. And of course, have fun with them. Usually volunteers work with a group of 15 to 20 kids, from pre-schoolers to 5th grades.
After the meetup, they usually have a social time between volunteers at a coffe shop or restaurant nearby. It was a very nice experience to me, personally recommend!
For more information about this meetups and many many others, check the website: http://www.meetup.com/
