Bringing American DVDs (Region 1) to Korea: Will they work?

Here's the question:

Should I bring my US Region 1 NTSC DVDs to Korea? I thought I could use them not only as time killers when I'm bored, but also use them for class lessons for conversation class.I understand that South Korea is Region 3 and PAL.

Man, I wish I knew about this stuff when I first came over. I brought all of my Arrested Development DVDs with the same idea you have: that if I was bored or needed something familiar in a new country, all I had to do was pop in a DVD and I would be okay. Well, if you're bringing a computer from home, then you'll have no problems viewing the DVDs from its player. However, once here you'll realize that there are scores of DVD bootleggers on the streets selling decent quality movies and TV shows (4 or 5 for 10 bucks) and you're probably going to buy those and want to watch them. There's your problem.

I presume everyone knows what the topic is here, but just in case, each DVD is coded with a region in which they can be viewed. If you are from the US or Canada, you are in "Region 1" (UK: 2, AUS: 3, SA: 4). If you have a stand-alone DVD player, you should be able to change the regional setting with the remote control. If you're using you computer, then it is a little harder. You will either need to bring DVDs that are "Region 0" or try to hack the computer and change the configuration on the hard drive. Some computers allow you to change the region on your hard drive up to five times. Or you can just burn the DVD (and therefore add all regions) and watch them on any player. Most of my DVDs that I bought here play anywhere.

So, yeah. There's no reason not to bring them over. You will feel better if you have them and fail then if you don't have them at all.

As far as teaching a conversation class with them, I guess that would be fine depending on the topic and vulgarity of the movie, but simply giving examples of those expressions would suffice. Some students might appreciate the effort, but others will feel like you're doing something that many conversation teachers tend to do: teach their own life and experiences.

If anybody has any questions, just send me an email at asktheexpat@yahoo.com or leave a comment.

English Language Movie Listings for South Korea

Here's the question:

Is there an online ENGLISH resource for movie listings in the Seoul area? I can't read Korean yet and am really tired of going to the theatre, only to find out the movie is sold out.

Kate

I got this question about four minutes ago and can easily answer it because Brian had a post up today that mentions a website that I had never come across before. It's called Korea Movie Times. It's great and even lists most of the smaller city theaters.

Other than that, The Yeogiyo has some pretty good listings, but not as detailed or comprehensive at Korea Movie Times.

If anybody has any questions, just send me an email at asktheexpat@yahoo.com or leave a comment.