Korea's internet is the fastest in the world, but it's got a bunch of issues that are wrong with it, a bunch of things that other countries are doing right. We'll tell you about some of the things ruining Korea's internet in this week's TL;DR!
thank you for making this video! the restriction on mac users in korea is no joke... especially for internet banking ㅠㅠ while i was living in korea, i literally had to go to the bank in person every time i wanted to do anything (even something as little as checking my balance). you only really hear about the positives of korean internet until you actually experience it first hand. mac users beware!
In korea it's pretty much all 100% fibre optic so 100gigabytes+ but if everything is screwed. It ends up being pointless. Probably why star craft is really big there as you can lan everything, starcraft 2 doesn't allow you to lan so probably blocked
I'm in Australia too, and I agree... Or wired internet access is plenty fast, although maybe not our mobile data... But hey! I can bank online from anywhere with any device... Or do anything online for that matter! That's more useful to me than Instagram!!
Pretty happy that the UK apparently has superior Dominos pizza ordering services, you don't need to sign up for anything. Priories people. It's about priorities. Pizza comes first.
so this has nothing to do with anything, but if I can give you a suggestion Martina, can you try light lavender hair? I think that would suit you soooo well!!!!
M. Someone Thank you ...but i don't need them. I was just looking for the subtitles because they sayed they have them, but i couldn't see no German subtitles.
Well, there's still lots you can do, even if it has some speed bumps. I felt that I could do practically nothing in, say, Australia, even though the censorship there isn't the same
+Simon and Martina I really think that the *only* reason your internet was slow was because you were on an "abroad" plan that was probably significantly throttled because of the cost of that plan. Usually abroad internet plans are verryyyyy expensive and slow and do not speak for the normal Internet speeds in any way, shape, or forn.
Wow those laws are backwards. Especially when it's kind of obvious when some laws are in place just to keep the big companies happy. I love Asia but I'm starting to discover I completely loathe Asian politics.
You guys are wonderful human beings. If my identity had been compromised/stolen for a year and my bank failed to tell me this would be the most scathing video ever.
That's got to suck :/. Living in the US we don't have those restrictions and it's pretty fast but a lot of the time the internet will just randomly stop working (even though it still says it's connected) or will go really really slow and I would have to unplug and plug in the internet thing just hoping it'll fix, and sometimes it doesn't. Course now that I have to use my Universities internet...I can't exactly reset it like I did at home....gets annoying if I'm working on an online homework assignment and I suddenly can't work on it cause the schools wifi just decides to stop working properly for like 2 hours...
apsaaaan This isn't just change. This is de-evolution. If you're coming from a good internet infrastructure to the one SK has, then I would reconsider moving too. Security breaches, outdated programs, and dated laws and regulations are all valid reasons to not want to live in Korea. It's a change you should consider when deciding to move
AJ Arizola De-evolution? No this is change lmao, USA and any other country have constant security breaches. For you to say that it's de-evolution is like anyone in SK/ Japan saying America and other countries are primitive because they don't have as advanced technology as they do. But no, America as well as numerous other countries are actually very industrialized.
I totally wanna make Korean subs of this for the Korean audience. After all, it's the incompetent government's fault that made it a law to use only active X
Hi S and M. Can you talk about skintone in korea ? Exo make many jockes about Kai being dark skinned and somatimes, I feel like they're being offensive. Do Koreans with a darker skintone get picked on like that ? What about non-korean with darker skin ?
Lived in Korea for over an year, and I can totally relate to that. Is REALLY frustrating how advanced internet speed is over there but yet so limited. I was expecting you guys to talk about the web browsers limitation, like so many internet services won't work unless you use Internet Explorer (and usually old versions of it), even if ActiveX is not required. To register for classes on my university's website, for example, is only possible on IE, like so many other services such as ordering food, booking flight tickets and so on.
I'm in the US, and the main complaint I have with the Internet is here is that it is very expensive and some providers (I have Time Warner Cable) will actually throttle our speed if we use it too much. It can be "reset" if we unplug and replug our modem, but it is still ridiculous considering the price we are paying. And with Comcast (a shittier company) buying TWC, I am concerned that the may put data caps on us eventually. (we currently pay for unlimited data) My dad always says that if Google Fiber ever comes to us, we're going to switch immediately. He's so fed up with TWC.
Yeah this is a problem in my town where we have one major company that dominates the internet business, jacking up prices and providing shitty service.
xoxogeniexoxo That's how it is in pretty much all of the US. There are one or two companies that dominate the entire country. I don't understand how the government has allowed this obvious monopoly go on.
I live in Korea and I have a mac computer. registering for my school classes is a pain in the ass and just all around everything sucks. I'm glad you guys did a video on what it is actually like because i find that foreigners think that korea is the utopia for the internet.
How to survive the US Internet. Internet SLOWS unexpectedly? Go over to your Internet cable. Unplug it. Don't die from electrocution, and plug it back in. Internet STOPS unexpectedly. Go over to your Internet cable. Unplug it. Don't die from electrocution, and plug it back in. Screen freezes? Click or tap everything until it works or Go over to your Internet cable. Unplug it. Don't die from electrocution, and plug it back in. Get a virus? Go over to your Internet cable. Unplug it. Don't die from electrocution, and plug it back in. Can't watch porn because of restriction? Look at erotic fan fiction.
Hacking and identity theft is a lot more common these days. It's a major issue in the US as well. The state where I live at had the tax records of its residents compromised. My parents and I happen to be those residents. Just the other day I received a letter from the University of Maryland that my personal information was compromised when they were hacked.
I never bothered with the online banking or shopping in Korea, mainly because I couldn't figure out how to write my address. Also, KB Bank was within walking distance of all the places I lived, so it wasn't an issue to go to the bank. I picked KB Bank because when I moved to Korea in 2013, they were the only bank that had Western Union advertised on the outside of the bank, and I needed to be able to send money back to my mom. Within a few months I was able to send money directly to my American bank from my Korean bank through the ATM. That was awesome!
next tl;dr please…how about the homeless. i saw some when i visited in 2008, but my korean friend told me not to look at them and hurried me away? have you had these experiences with them, has any of your korean friends scorned them like mine, or is it very neutral? Ive been a fan for like 3 years!!! thanks for this guys, its such a cool thing and your show really brightens my day a lot of the time with yall's silliness!! christy…wilmington nc blue nasty!!!!
Eat Your Kimchi Wow O.o and I'm in Texas and don't have extremely fast internet, Well okay its a lot fast here at my work than at my house. shhh don't tell my boss....
Thank you for doing this, I am in the middle of writing a paper about censorship in Korea for my COM class, but am having serious problems finding information on this subject.
I'm planning on going for an exchange period in Korea next year but... no Netflix? no dramas? no properly functioning TH-cam? no... no... no (pr0n)? I... I... I don't know how I'll survive. Maybe I'll have to develop an actual social life. D:
well, TH-cam is functioning properly... its just that its a little slow comparing to other Korean sites,,,, like if a korean site goes with 20mb/s youtube goes around 10-15mb/s.... ps. its just a dumb comparison but u do get my point...
Its not always so fast.. its fast if its inside Korea, but so agree that internet in Korea is sooooo broken. No new Windows things work and OMG the things you have to install to your computer to get things working.. No privacy at all. Simon & Martina awesome video.. Rocking your cap that I got on my last visit before Xmas at the studio! keep the good stuff going.
I can understand this map restriction policy in Korea. One must remember that North Korea is still in hands of a madman and it is possible to use modern gps based technology to provide detailed information about strategic objects.
the worse on korean website is that you need you ID card to subscribe everywhere. You can't have anonymity on internet, which is really frustrating. And if you are foreigner, there is no way you can subscribe. For instance I wanted to register on afreeca to practice korean but they asked for my passport. My passport for commenting video on internet, wtf ? VPN can solve many problems, but not that. You have to hack someone's else id, which is illegal.
its all security. these korean services were nevermeant to be for foreigners because to be honest koreans make up 98 percent. not to mention north korea is right above sk
You guys stated in your morning routine video that you wake up, watch some North American shows, and start your day. If not on Netflix, where can you watch these? And is there any way around all these blocked sites, maybe like a proxy of some sort? (Excuse me while I shuffle away in shame from my lack of technological terminology knowledge.) I'm sure I could survive, but as I am planning to teach there for quite a while as you guys did, I'm not sure I can go without easy access to some of these things.
when i buy something from amazon.com it just few clicks if i buy stuff from korean online shop i have to install keyboard safety program that program this program
We have a old three inch thick Samsung laptop running Windows 7 just to use Korean banking sites. I am in the tech department at a large company and it still took me 2 days and many calls to the Korean banking tech support after installing normal Windows 7 to get working with the banking website correctly. Not only did I need to install several programs, but the banking website would not work with an English version of Windows 7 and of course no browser except IE. Installing Korean fonts did not fix the problem, the laptop had to be completely set to Korean Windows 7 version, which makes it extremely difficult for to do anything on it (like add a printer since I don't know much Korean).
i was about to leave a comment complaining about some of the problems over here but i read some of the comments and it looks like y'all struggle is realer than mine so.....yea. i'll be saying a prayer for you all tonight. including simon and martina. a life with no netflix isn't a life at all
I'm Korean and have been living in Canada for about two years. Recently, I started to take care of my bank accounts in Korea through internet banking and it's SO frustrating. Like you mentioned, downloading the Active Xs for pretty much every site takes so much of my time, especially, Canada being one of the countries with slow internet. Also, even if I do complete the downloading of Active xs sometimes, some information on the website don't show up because it's "incompatible" with either Vista Xp, windows 8, etc. I've never realized it when I was living in Korea, but now that I'm abroad and trying to do "business", it's not fun!
if you guys use google chrome, in the app store theres an add-on called hola that is a proxy/free VPN thingy. there, you can make your IP address look like its from Canada or the US or whereever in the world and that way you'll be able to access all ur stuff :D hope i helped and please like this so they can see it!
In thr middle east the Internet speed is decent , rarely any blocked websites however there is no online ordering always shows the "no shipping" tag ! WHICH IS VERY FRUSTRATING ! The other thing is that some foreign drama sites of online watch/download might suddenly pop-up the "not available in your country" line to random dramas !
Eat Your Kimchi Not going to lie, I love windows, I am an android and windows person. Android has such delicious names for their hardware, its on Jellybean now :3
I'm a linux person. I also love android phones, but I hate the operating systems that come on them. It's like they're designed to start getting shitty after four months. I always put cyanogenmod on mine. it kept my galaxy s2 running perfectly for like, two years, until i broke my screen & digitizer. tl;dr: samsung is superior, just change your os,
This was so much trouble for me, I'm a mac user and I couldn't do any of my online banking in Korea. I actually had to go to my friend's house if I wanted to bank online.... it was ridiculous
In Germany a lot of TH-cam videos are blocked if there's music in them. So i can't watch most MVs without using a proxy. There's this copyright firm over here called GEMA don't ask me what exactly they do, it's a mess, but they had a lawsuit with TH-cam and they couldn't agree and now stuff's blocked
I was wondering about that. I do Giveaways & load some MVs & I'll sometimes get blocked in certain countries but mostly Germany. Which sucks cuz I have met some German friends who, since I'm out in Japan, have bought stuff from me. Whenever I do post stuff I have to message them directly, everybody else is just SOL cuz I have no clue how to get around that from my side.
Wow, Martina, your hair looks so cute! And Simon, you look so grown up! I can't complain about the internet here in the U.S. I have Comcast and the speed is great, but the customer service is horrible.
Its interesting that Google/Android is so screwed over in Korea when its one of the main operating systems on Samsung products and the 3 major networks in Korea as well a few cable networks use TH-cam to spread Hallyu. Smh, thats really weird to have such high speed services and a bash of faults. I guess nothing is perfect.
... I don't think I wanna live in South Korea anymore. XDDDD I can't live without internet.. Here in Sweden, everything i like open and so, no restrictions, which is great. :x
In Brazil if you live in the big centers ( and have CA$H ) you can get up to 1GB/s on optical fiber. However the speed decreases as the size of your town does. I lived in a 400k town and the max speed I could get was 50MB/s
God you guys make me lol so much. Love how the instant Simon mentions Final Fantasy Martina goes right into her chocobo impression. LOL On a serious note, that all sounds reallllyyy frustrating.
We have 4G internet in Jamaica and sometimes it takes forever to load pages. I don't think the government blocks certain websites (I've never heard of them doing that) but certain websites aren't available here, usually a message pops up saying the website is only available in America and that sucks!
Imanni beaute The internet in Canada is not super fast or slow, u do have quite a lot of time with the spinny-buffering-circle tho.........lol, when u wrote LTE I immediately thought of LTE rap....ZELO!
Hey Martina! I know u haven't got the time to dye your hair pink again but if you haven't done so already, maybe you would consider keeping it this color? :D Its really pretty on you!
Internet in the US is fine until every person that lives in your house uses the internet at once then the internet feels like the slowest thing in the world
i'm from the US and the internet speed here depends on what area you live in and how much you'er willing to pay. We can pretty much do anything and go on almost any website but we always now "big brother" is watching us lol!
I live in China.. Facebook, youtube, blogs, and twitter are all blocked. Instragram also is slow and sometimes is blocked for a few hours to days. You are lucky to have your problem.
Swedish internet is basically Korean internet without the broken aspect! ^.^ But seriously, Swedish internet is also crazy fast compared to other countries' internet. You get used to the fast internet, so when you're in a foreign country you'll stand there and wait what feels like a lifetime waiting for something to load :D
In Australia, yeah our Internet is slow, but we become so used to it we dont notice it really, not to mention phone companies (they also provide Internet services) overprice big time, and even tho most smaller companies that provide good deals on Internet plans, they are owned by the phone companies. It's a cycle of no.
Singapore's internet is relatively fast and porn is also blocked here. But TH-cam, google maps, and backing function are all efficient. Most of the banks in Singapore have apps you can download to manage your accounts and security is handled differently. We use a security tag that is given to your with your credit card. Every time you want to log in or confirm a transaction you will receive a code on this tag And you need to key it into the app or website in order to complete the transaction. This means that even if you have all the particulars and even the credit card of that person, you cannot do anything without the tag. You can also programme a mobile phone number just in case you ever forget to bring the tag.
smurrrrr why are korean dramas in korea blocked.or why cant we watch them? thats soooo weird just like if i went to rome and they dont allow me to eat pasta... weird shizzz man
We get haboobs here in Arizona, especially in the summer. I highly recommend not getting in the water, go out boating, driving, or going outside during one. Visibility can get lower than 1/4 of a mile and all the dust in the air can be dangerous to your health. The monsoons here, however, are nice since we don't get much rain here normally. The 2014 season was the best/worst in a long time (it flooded a major highway one morning as it was getting near rush hour! (Not kidding. Go look it up))
I used to use vpns for my accessing american netflix and sites. But now I use Smart DNS, it basically unblocks those sites, but without a loss of download speed. Read more about it and maybe this will help you too :)
I am visiting Korea this summer and I have a Mac, will I have a lot of trouble using things like my email or facebook, because it sound like the only thing that gives you trouble is sites that require more security like banking...
I've been in Korea for three years now, and I feel that the TH-cam internet speed has picked up a lot recently. I believe that all non-Korean websites are slow because they have to go through Japan and then make it to the U.S. When the tsunami happened, Japan was set back a little bit, which made all American websites loading even slower. But yeah, I love Korea's Internet. I really hate when websites still require Internet Explorer... for my Mac... Grrr...
I am a Korean living in Seoul right now, and this topic has always interested me. First, all I can say about Active X is that it is definitely an outdated system that needs to be gone. But I think there is definitely a growth in awareness of the Active X issue in Korea right now. Compared to about five years ago when nobody actually cared. Second, the blocking of pornography website really angers me. Not only do I believe porn should be an internet freedom guaranteed to the people, but blocking any internet material is not something a government of a leading IT country should do.
For anyone who wants to know, pornography is blocked because of "Ministry of Gender Equality." A ministry composed of women who have a twisted idea of feminism and believe women superiority equals gender equality. This is the same ministry that made the legislation that prevents kids under the age of 15 from playing video games from 10 PM ~ 6:30 AM. And since almost all registration process (including for games) require you to enter your citizens' number-- which reveals your age-- they are able to execute this law. I believe a lot of the problems we face in Korea can be fixed if this tax-wasting ministry would disappear.
One thing that worries me the most is how many websites require your citizens' number or your foreign registration number. To register for something as simple as an email on Naver you have to have give them that information.
Yah agree with you xD it makes sense what do you comment!!!! how they upload videos in youtube if internet is slow.kpop video and stuff were uploaded like instantly.
2ne1791 Proxys and VPNs are very popular in Asian countries where government throttles and blocks certain websites. In the case of throttling uploading and downloading goes way faster.
oh my god. my heart. is broken. T.T wow. thanks letting me know. i thought i could just move to korea and easily enjoy the fastest internet in the world for youtube and korean dramas, and .... :'( now i can't question: so is there any way of watching korean dramas, with english subtitles?
About not wanting people to use youtube in Korea and pushing ppl more towards korean apps, this makes even more sense now with how hard music companies are pushing the V app these days.
Where i live you can't : PayPal Ebay Amazon Netflix Appstore Itunes Google Play Porn (you basically can't purchase anything online because you can't issue a visa or a master card here.) you may now feel bad for me.........
Oh man, I feel you on the lack of Apple support. I was trying to set up my phone for a temporary data plan. When I tried to sign up and pay for it, I was ActiveXed. You can't do bank transactions without ActiveX. It makes no sense that it's written into law that you have to use an outdated security protocol (that's no longer supported in the latest browser) just to use internet banking. I had to buy a copy of Windows.
it's almost the same in China when it comes to internet banking, I had to install different security softwares for each different banks. and they only work with Internet Explorer which is extremely slow.
As an exchange student here in Korea I noticed that even though I use a website from the U.S. it gets translated into Korean and my browser tries to translate it back to English. And even though the internet is fast, this happens for every page which ends up taking more time. :(
TL;DR suggestion: Hey Simon and Martina! Loved all your videos! Can you guys talk about your experience in applying to teach abroad? I know you talked about it in some videos, but I'm more interested in what kind of organizations or companies in Canada you two signed up and how did the teacher placement service work for you? I thought this would be helpful for domestic teachers who want an international teaching career,! Thank you very much!
I live in Southern California around Los Angeles and normally when you move to a new house or apartment you might be concerned about the school district it's in, or the safety of the area you're moving to. But because of all the different service providers out here, you have to also take into account which providers service your area. I might move one city over (about 5 miles away) and lose the provider I currently have because they don't cover my new city. There's the hassle of switching providers and dealing with possibly crappy Internet and you have less control over it because certain providers only cover certain regions.
I'm good with the internet in America. I need internet freedom more than I need super fast internet. The internet that I have is fast enough. I'm not going to survive when I visit China and (since I might visit Korea as well) Korea this summer.
I live in Beijing, China. Of course censorship is a big issue - no access to TH-cam, Google, Facebook, and all that. This is largely politically motivated, but I find what is similar with Korea is that censorship is also used in China to promote home-grown Internet companies. There may be one TH-cam out there, but there are at least five competing video sharing and hosting services in China that are like hybrids of TH-cam and Netflix. What is cool is that these Chinese services provide both domestically produced content as well as foreign content through legit copyright licensing deals (yes, piracy is coming to an end, even in China). The same thing goes for Google, Whatsapp etc. as well. So for an average Chinese person, the censorship poses little inconvenience for everyday life - some of the domestically technologies have actually surpassed their foreign counterparts in terms of functionality and adapting to local needs. It's a different story for expats though, because a. they tend to live in between worlds and actually need constant access to the blocked services b. a lot of the really juicy, cutting-edge apps are Chinese only - so when their Chinese friends are ordering up takeways on their phones and making payments digitally, the expats still need to make a phone call and use cash. But all in all, censorship truly sucks and it cuts Chinese people off in a major way when it comes to doing business and maintaining social relations with partners, colleagues, and friends outside of the country.
Be careful which VPN endpoint you choose. Some of the providers in the US will keep logs, and may be subpoenable (or just outright sharing info with the NSA).
URGH, this video has just unloaded ALL OF MY FRUSTRATIONS. I'm from Australia and I've been watching these TL;DRs since the beginning, and after years of planning, I've finally moved to Korea to study! I was SO excited for the high speed internet. I've found that Korean websites load like lightning, but everywhere else online loads no faster (if not worse) than Australia! Wouldn't be a problem, except I can't yet speak Korean! My phone data is almost as bad as the public wifi (which for some reason works really well on my Korean friends' phones), all of my university sign on websites require internet explorer (which I can't use because I have a mac), I can't play Final Fantasy either - it won't tell me that it's blocked, it just says "error downloading update" - and to top things off, whoever opened my bank account mistyped my passport number into their system, and now I can't pass ANY security checks!! It's a good thing I love the place, because my God it's hard to migrate here smoothly...
Korea's internet is the fastest in the world, but it's got a bunch of issues that are wrong with it, a bunch of things that other countries are doing right. We'll tell you about some of the things ruining Korea's internet in this week's TL;DR!
... I really feel like a chocolate marble cake right now(^3^)...
John Smith heh. marblecake.
John Smith Hmm...
Doesn't it look like chocolate marble cake? hmmm? Can't stop thinking about it, need to get me some, (o3O)hehehe
Imen Jung Errr...I...err heard about...err...umm.
"Imagine installing Norton Antivirus on your computer ten times." Oh hell no, I can't even imagine installing it once.
thank you for making this video! the restriction on mac users in korea is no joke... especially for internet banking ㅠㅠ while i was living in korea, i literally had to go to the bank in person every time i wanted to do anything (even something as little as checking my balance). you only really hear about the positives of korean internet until you actually experience it first hand. mac users beware!
OMG ITS SHAYNE :D
HI IM A FAN
Hi~ I am also a fan XDD
I had no idea you watched EYK. Totes cool lol
im in australia
our internet seems pretty fast
...
maybe i just havent experienced fast internet
nah out internet is really slow compared to other countries :P unless you apy for the fast stuff, but thats still slow compared to other places
In korea it's pretty much all 100% fibre optic so 100gigabytes+ but if everything is screwed.
It ends up being pointless.
Probably why star craft is really big there as you can lan everything, starcraft 2 doesn't allow you to lan so probably blocked
I'm in Australia too, and I agree... Or wired internet access is plenty fast, although maybe not our mobile data... But hey! I can bank online from anywhere with any device... Or do anything online for that matter! That's more useful to me than Instagram!!
true that! security over speed :D althought living in korea would be cool
huzzah.
English subs are now up, if you need em!
1st of all why would you ever order Domino's pizza?! Ahaha, seriously, though, great episode, as usual.
ouch what happened to your lip and skin simon? i hope you are ok!
most of the music account/streaming sites are also blocked like spotify and others...
So where are these subs? I don't see them?
Pretty happy that the UK apparently has superior Dominos pizza ordering services, you don't need to sign up for anything. Priories people. It's about priorities. Pizza comes first.
BUFFERING TH-cam? THATS LIKE MY WORST NIGHTMARE
seriously esp when the ads in the beginning/middle of the videos work JUST FINE but then the actual video content needs to buffer....fer real YT?
ShopBeautyMania adblock and problem solved! :D it works for me though
so this has nothing to do with anything, but if I can give you a suggestion Martina, can you try light lavender hair? I think that would suit you soooo well!!!!
German subtitles are now up as well! Woohoo! Thank you, whoever you are, for making them!
+Simon and Martina 2 years later...
+Simon and Martina What there are no German subtitles.
I'm from Germany and i see no German Subtitles , only english
+Alex Petkova click on the settings to select which language you want for subtitles
M. Someone Thank you ...but i don't need them.
I was just looking for the subtitles because they sayed they have them, but i couldn't see no German subtitles.
Korean Internet sounds like hell. What good is it being super fast if you can't do anything?
Well, there's still lots you can do, even if it has some speed bumps. I felt that I could do practically nothing in, say, Australia, even though the censorship there isn't the same
+Simon and Martina omg Australian internet is horrible :( I live here
+kanarazu i know right?! the NBN says it's so amazing and it's fast but NBNCo and Telstra are the worst.
Korean internet is probably fast because they throttled and blocked the rest of the world to favor their own services.
+Simon and Martina I really think that the *only* reason your internet was slow was because you were on an "abroad" plan that was probably significantly throttled because of the cost of that plan. Usually abroad internet plans are verryyyyy expensive and slow and do not speak for the normal Internet speeds in any way, shape, or forn.
Wow those laws are backwards. Especially when it's kind of obvious when some laws are in place just to keep the big companies happy. I love Asia but I'm starting to discover I completely loathe Asian politics.
You guys are wonderful human beings. If my identity had been compromised/stolen for a year and my bank failed to tell me this would be the most scathing video ever.
That's got to suck :/. Living in the US we don't have those restrictions and it's pretty fast but a lot of the time the internet will just randomly stop working (even though it still says it's connected) or will go really really slow and I would have to unplug and plug in the internet thing just hoping it'll fix, and sometimes it doesn't. Course now that I have to use my Universities internet...I can't exactly reset it like I did at home....gets annoying if I'm working on an online homework assignment and I suddenly can't work on it cause the schools wifi just decides to stop working properly for like 2 hours...
AMEN!
Korea, the home of Samsung and LG, makes using the internet difficult for Apple products? Quelle surprise!
I was gonna move to Korea once i graduated college, now I'm not so sure...
+Macie Catherine me too
+Macie Catherine exactly my thoughts
You shouldn't come to an ENTIRE different country if you can't handle change
apsaaaan This isn't just change. This is de-evolution. If you're coming from a good internet infrastructure to the one SK has, then I would reconsider moving too.
Security breaches, outdated programs, and dated laws and regulations are all valid reasons to not want to live in Korea. It's a change you should consider when deciding to move
AJ Arizola De-evolution? No this is change lmao, USA and any other country have constant security breaches. For you to say that it's de-evolution is like anyone in SK/ Japan saying America and other countries are primitive because they don't have as advanced technology as they do. But no, America as well as numerous other countries are actually very industrialized.
I totally wanna make Korean subs of this for the Korean audience. After all, it's the incompetent government's fault that made it a law to use only active X
If you make them, we'd love to use them! Send us an email once you're done and we'll put the subs up on this right away :D
+윤태최 Really ? A law for using a technology that sucks ? I didn't know about that
Hi S and M. Can you talk about skintone in korea ? Exo make many jockes about Kai being dark skinned and somatimes, I feel like they're being offensive. Do Koreans with a darker skintone get picked on like that ? What about non-korean with darker skin ?
Lived in Korea for over an year, and I can totally relate to that. Is REALLY frustrating how advanced internet speed is over there but yet so limited. I was expecting you guys to talk about the web browsers limitation, like so many internet services won't work unless you use Internet Explorer (and usually old versions of it), even if ActiveX is not required. To register for classes on my university's website, for example, is only possible on IE, like so many other services such as ordering food, booking flight tickets and so on.
simon you look so sophisticated like you could be a professor or something
Omg Martina I love your hair! It was a real shocked not to see your pink hair!
I'm in the US, and the main complaint I have with the Internet is here is that it is very expensive and some providers (I have Time Warner Cable) will actually throttle our speed if we use it too much. It can be "reset" if we unplug and replug our modem, but it is still ridiculous considering the price we are paying. And with Comcast (a shittier company) buying TWC, I am concerned that the may put data caps on us eventually. (we currently pay for unlimited data)
My dad always says that if Google Fiber ever comes to us, we're going to switch immediately. He's so fed up with TWC.
Yeah this is a problem in my town where we have one major company that dominates the internet business, jacking up prices and providing shitty service.
xoxogeniexoxo
That's how it is in pretty much all of the US. There are one or two companies that dominate the entire country. I don't understand how the government has allowed this obvious monopoly go on.
I live in Korea and I have a mac computer. registering for my school classes is a pain in the ass and just all around everything sucks. I'm glad you guys did a video on what it is actually like because i find that foreigners think that korea is the utopia for the internet.
How to survive the US Internet.
Internet SLOWS unexpectedly? Go over to your Internet cable. Unplug it. Don't die from electrocution, and plug it back in.
Internet STOPS unexpectedly. Go over to your Internet cable. Unplug it. Don't die from electrocution, and plug it back in.
Screen freezes? Click or tap everything until it works or Go over to your Internet cable. Unplug it. Don't die from electrocution, and plug it back in.
Get a virus? Go over to your Internet cable. Unplug it. Don't die from electrocution, and plug it back in.
Can't watch porn because of restriction? Look at erotic fan fiction.
Hacking and identity theft is a lot more common these days. It's a major issue in the US as well. The state where I live at had the tax records of its residents compromised. My parents and I happen to be those residents. Just the other day I received a letter from the University of Maryland that my personal information was compromised when they were hacked.
I have never been so grateful of living in the states.
I never bothered with the online banking or shopping in Korea, mainly because I couldn't figure out how to write my address. Also, KB Bank was within walking distance of all the places I lived, so it wasn't an issue to go to the bank. I picked KB Bank because when I moved to Korea in 2013, they were the only bank that had Western Union advertised on the outside of the bank, and I needed to be able to send money back to my mom. Within a few months I was able to send money directly to my American bank from my Korean bank through the ATM. That was awesome!
next tl;dr please…how about the homeless. i saw some when i visited in 2008, but my korean friend told me not to look at them and hurried me away? have you had these experiences with them, has any of your korean friends scorned them like mine, or is it very neutral? Ive been a fan for like 3 years!!! thanks for this guys, its such a cool thing and your show really brightens my day a lot of the time with yall's silliness!! christy…wilmington nc blue nasty!!!!
Rather have ok internet with full freedom then super fast internet with no freedom.
Yay a long TL;DR!!!
Ha! You commented before I got the chance to. Nicely done :D
Eat Your Kimchi
Wow O.o
and I'm in Texas and don't have extremely fast internet, Well okay its a lot fast here at my work than at my house. shhh don't tell my boss....
Thank you for doing this, I am in the middle of writing a paper about censorship in Korea for my COM class, but am having serious problems finding information on this subject.
I'm planning on going for an exchange period in Korea next year but... no Netflix? no dramas? no properly functioning TH-cam? no... no... no (pr0n)? I... I... I don't know how I'll survive. Maybe I'll have to develop an actual social life. D:
I agree with you
no worries. vpn, proxy, etc
aljan9 yeah? oh god, i'm ashamed to be an IT-student if i didn't even realize that....
well, TH-cam is functioning properly... its just that its a little slow comparing to other Korean sites,,,, like if a korean site goes with 20mb/s
youtube goes around 10-15mb/s.... ps. its just a dumb comparison but u do get my point...
When i was studying in Korea...Spotflux was my best friend. =)
Its not always so fast.. its fast if its inside Korea, but so agree that internet in Korea is sooooo broken. No new Windows things work and OMG the things you have to install to your computer to get things working.. No privacy at all. Simon & Martina awesome video.. Rocking your cap that I got on my last visit before Xmas at the studio! keep the good stuff going.
I can understand this map restriction policy in Korea. One must remember that North Korea is still in hands of a madman and it is possible to use modern gps based technology to provide detailed information about strategic objects.
So North Korea can't just use Naver or whatever Koreans themselves use for maps? It's a politics and power game, not a national security issue
I absolutely love your hair Martina! :3
the worse on korean website is that you need you ID card to subscribe everywhere. You can't have anonymity on internet, which is really frustrating. And if you are foreigner, there is no way you can subscribe. For instance I wanted to register on afreeca to practice korean but they asked for my passport. My passport for commenting video on internet, wtf ?
VPN can solve many problems, but not that. You have to hack someone's else id, which is illegal.
that really sucks
its all security. these korean services were nevermeant to be for foreigners because to be honest koreans make up 98 percent. not to mention north korea is right above sk
Ah! I love Martina's new colored hair! Idk how long it's been like that because I've missed some videos but I love it!
You guys stated in your morning routine video that you wake up, watch some North American shows, and start your day. If not on Netflix, where can you watch these? And is there any way around all these blocked sites, maybe like a proxy of some sort? (Excuse me while I shuffle away in shame from my lack of technological terminology knowledge.) I'm sure I could survive, but as I am planning to teach there for quite a while as you guys did, I'm not sure I can go without easy access to some of these things.
when i buy something from amazon.com it just few clicks
if i buy stuff from korean online shop
i have to install keyboard safety program that program this program
+최재혁 and you don't know if that keyboard safety program isn't in reality a backdoor
Martina if a turtle loses its shell is it homeless or naked?
We have a old three inch thick Samsung laptop running Windows 7 just to use Korean banking sites. I am in the tech department at a large company and it still took me 2 days and many calls to the Korean banking tech support after installing normal Windows 7 to get working with the banking website correctly. Not only did I need to install several programs, but the banking website would not work with an English version of Windows 7 and of course no browser except IE. Installing Korean fonts did not fix the problem, the laptop had to be completely set to Korean Windows 7 version, which makes it extremely difficult for to do anything on it (like add a printer since I don't know much Korean).
That's horrible that they passed a curfew law. So how are you guys going to fix you identify theft?
i was about to leave a comment complaining about some of the problems over here but i read some of the comments and it looks like y'all struggle is realer than mine so.....yea. i'll be saying a prayer for you all tonight. including simon and martina. a life with no netflix isn't a life at all
if youtube is pretty much non-existent in korea, how do you guys load your videos?
I'm Korean and have been living in Canada for about two years. Recently, I started to take care of my bank accounts in Korea through internet banking and it's SO frustrating. Like you mentioned, downloading the Active Xs for pretty much every site takes so much of my time, especially, Canada being one of the countries with slow internet. Also, even if I do complete the downloading of Active xs sometimes, some information on the website don't show up because it's "incompatible" with either Vista Xp, windows 8, etc. I've never realized it when I was living in Korea, but now that I'm abroad and trying to do "business", it's not fun!
if you guys use google chrome, in the app store theres an add-on called hola that is a proxy/free VPN thingy. there, you can make your IP address look like its from Canada or the US or whereever in the world and that way you'll be able to access all ur stuff :D hope i helped and please like this so they can see it!
whats it called?
In thr middle east the Internet speed is decent , rarely any blocked websites however there is no online ordering always shows the "no shipping" tag ! WHICH IS VERY FRUSTRATING !
The other thing is that some foreign drama sites of online watch/download might suddenly pop-up the "not available in your country" line to random dramas !
...as a pc user, this amuses me, and makes me smile.
*hisses at you*
*runs back into the shadows*
Eat Your Kimchi Not going to lie, I love windows, I am an android and windows person. Android has such delicious names for their hardware, its on Jellybean now :3
I'm a linux person. I also love android phones, but I hate the operating systems that come on them. It's like they're designed to start getting shitty after four months. I always put cyanogenmod on mine. it kept my galaxy s2 running perfectly for like, two years, until i broke my screen & digitizer.
tl;dr: samsung is superior, just change your os,
LuckyCat Android is on Kit Kat actually...
***** My s3 is till on jellybean, the newest update is 4.3 so it depends on the edition of the phone.
This was so much trouble for me, I'm a mac user and I couldn't do any of my online banking in Korea. I actually had to go to my friend's house if I wanted to bank online.... it was ridiculous
+Anna Darnley I had to install Windows on my macbook
In Germany a lot of TH-cam videos are blocked if there's music in them. So i can't watch most MVs without using a proxy. There's this copyright firm over here called GEMA don't ask me what exactly they do, it's a mess, but they had a lawsuit with TH-cam and they couldn't agree and now stuff's blocked
I was wondering about that. I do Giveaways & load some MVs & I'll sometimes get blocked in certain countries but mostly Germany. Which sucks cuz I have met some German friends who, since I'm out in Japan, have bought stuff from me. Whenever I do post stuff I have to message them directly, everybody else is just SOL cuz I have no clue how to get around that from my side.
Wow, Martina, your hair looks so cute! And Simon, you look so grown up! I can't complain about the internet here in the U.S. I have Comcast and the speed is great, but the customer service is horrible.
YOU HAD ONE JOB ACTIVEX!
Its interesting that Google/Android is so screwed over in Korea when its one of the main operating systems on Samsung products and the 3 major networks in Korea as well a few cable networks use TH-cam to spread Hallyu. Smh, thats really weird to have such high speed services and a bash of faults. I guess nothing is perfect.
... I don't think I wanna live in South Korea anymore. XDDDD I can't live without internet.. Here in Sweden, everything i like open and so, no restrictions, which is great. :x
In Brazil if you live in the big centers ( and have CA$H ) you can get up to 1GB/s on optical fiber. However the speed decreases as the size of your town does. I lived in a 400k town and the max speed I could get was 50MB/s
This TL;DR has made me wonder: In your opinion, what are the some of the most bizarre or unnecessary laws in South Korea?
God you guys make me lol so much. Love how the instant Simon mentions Final Fantasy Martina goes right into her chocobo impression. LOL On a serious note, that all sounds reallllyyy frustrating.
Ok, now I know that when I'll go to Korea, I'll have a social life. HAHA
We have 4G internet in Jamaica and sometimes it takes forever to load pages. I don't think the government blocks certain websites (I've never heard of them doing that) but certain websites aren't available here, usually a message pops up saying the website is only available in America and that sucks!
I don't find internet in Canada to be slow. The public ones ofc are really slow but the ones at home are fast :P
True :) like LTE
Imanni beaute The internet in Canada is not super fast or slow, u do have quite a lot of time with the spinny-buffering-circle tho.........lol, when u wrote LTE I immediately thought of LTE rap....ZELO!
Imanni beaute Not that fast though ahaha xP
Lol you're both right :) But it's not as bad as some make it seem ^_^
I really love your hair styled like this Simon!
Korea would be so screwed if other countries decide to favor their own companies over foreign ones.
Hey Martina! I know u haven't got the time to dye your hair pink again but if you haven't done so already, maybe you would consider keeping it this color? :D Its really pretty on you!
Regarding the maps, it's because of the war with North Korea. They don't want South Korean maps to be available there.
I'm a student here at a uni in Bucheon, and I can't read manga on some of my fav sites. *cries dramatically*
Internet in the US is fine until every person that lives in your house uses the internet at once then the internet feels like the slowest thing in the world
Martina, your hair looks freaking gorgeous!!! You're both so stylish
i'm from the US and the internet speed here depends on what area you live in and how much you'er willing to pay. We can pretty much do anything and go on almost any website but we always now "big brother" is watching us lol!
I live in China.. Facebook, youtube, blogs, and twitter are all blocked. Instragram also is slow and sometimes is blocked for a few hours to days.
You are lucky to have your problem.
Swedish internet is basically Korean internet without the broken aspect! ^.^ But seriously, Swedish internet is also crazy fast compared to other countries' internet. You get used to the fast internet, so when you're in a foreign country you'll stand there and wait what feels like a lifetime waiting for something to load :D
I live in Sweden and I agree! Where in Sweden do you live?
Stockholm!
In Australia, yeah our Internet is slow, but we become so used to it we dont notice it really, not to mention phone companies (they also provide Internet services) overprice big time, and even tho most smaller companies that provide good deals on Internet plans, they are owned by the phone companies. It's a cycle of no.
I was honestly trying not to giggle like a 12 year old boy at Simon's motorboating joke. I failed. tee hee hee
Singapore's internet is relatively fast and porn is also blocked here. But TH-cam, google maps, and backing function are all efficient. Most of the banks in Singapore have apps you can download to manage your accounts and security is handled differently. We use a security tag that is given to your with your credit card. Every time you want to log in or confirm a transaction you will receive a code on this tag And you need to key it into the app or website in order to complete the transaction. This means that even if you have all the particulars and even the credit card of that person, you cannot do anything without the tag. You can also programme a mobile phone number just in case you ever forget to bring the tag.
WHAT?! What's the point of fast internet then if everything's blocked or buffers too much!!? Dreams crushed! D:
OMG MARTINA YOU DYDED YOUR HAIR! I LOVE IT! Actually... You look good with any color :)
smurrrrr why are korean dramas in korea blocked.or why cant we watch them? thats soooo weird just like if i went to rome and they dont allow me to eat pasta... weird shizzz man
We get haboobs here in Arizona, especially in the summer. I highly recommend not getting in the water, go out boating, driving, or going outside during one. Visibility can get lower than 1/4 of a mile and all the dust in the air can be dangerous to your health. The monsoons here, however, are nice since we don't get much rain here normally. The 2014 season was the best/worst in a long time (it flooded a major highway one morning as it was getting near rush hour! (Not kidding. Go look it up))
I used to use vpns for my accessing american netflix and sites. But now I use Smart DNS, it basically unblocks those sites, but without a loss of download speed. Read more about it and maybe this will help you too :)
I am visiting Korea this summer and I have a Mac, will I have a lot of trouble using things like my email or facebook, because it sound like the only thing that gives you trouble is sites that require more security like banking...
I've been in Korea for three years now, and I feel that the TH-cam internet speed has picked up a lot recently. I believe that all non-Korean websites are slow because they have to go through Japan and then make it to the U.S. When the tsunami happened, Japan was set back a little bit, which made all American websites loading even slower. But yeah, I love Korea's Internet. I really hate when websites still require Internet Explorer... for my Mac... Grrr...
"when websites still require Internet Explorer"
THAT!
Opening a window of IE is almost as awkward as watching your parents doing role play fetish.
John Kang Uh... I can't believe you were subjected to something like that, haha. That awkwardness far surpasses the Internet Explorer scenario.
I am a Korean living in Seoul right now, and this topic has always interested me. First, all I can say about Active X is that it is definitely an outdated system that needs to be gone. But I think there is definitely a growth in awareness of the Active X issue in Korea right now. Compared to about five years ago when nobody actually cared. Second, the blocking of pornography website really angers me. Not only do I believe porn should be an internet freedom guaranteed to the people, but blocking any internet material is not something a government of a leading IT country should do.
For anyone who wants to know, pornography is blocked because of "Ministry of Gender Equality." A ministry composed of women who have a twisted idea of feminism and believe women superiority equals gender equality. This is the same ministry that made the legislation that prevents kids under the age of 15 from playing video games from 10 PM ~ 6:30 AM. And since almost all registration process (including for games) require you to enter your citizens' number-- which reveals your age-- they are able to execute this law. I believe a lot of the problems we face in Korea can be fixed if this tax-wasting ministry would disappear.
One thing that worries me the most is how many websites require your citizens' number or your foreign registration number. To register for something as simple as an email on Naver you have to have give them that information.
If the TH-cam is throttled in Korea, HOW DO YOU UPLOAD ALL YOUR VIDEOS?
Yah agree with you xD it makes sense what do you comment!!!! how they upload videos in youtube if internet is slow.kpop video and stuff were uploaded like instantly.
2ne1791 Proxys and VPNs are very popular in Asian countries where government throttles and blocks certain websites. In the case of throttling uploading and downloading goes way faster.
夢想家生きる Auh ok
2ne1791 It's not throttled. I have no issues with TH-cam whatsoever here.
martinas new hair colour looks so awesome!
oh my god. my heart. is broken. T.T wow. thanks letting me know. i thought i could just move to korea and easily enjoy the fastest internet in the world for youtube and korean dramas, and .... :'( now i can't
question: so is there any way of watching korean dramas, with english subtitles?
About not wanting people to use youtube in Korea and pushing ppl more towards korean apps, this makes even more sense now with how hard music companies are pushing the V app these days.
Where i live you can't :
PayPal
Ebay
Amazon
Netflix
Appstore
Itunes
Google Play
Porn
(you basically can't purchase anything online because you can't issue a visa or a master card here.) you may now feel bad for me.........
Oh man, I feel you on the lack of Apple support. I was trying to set up my phone for a temporary data plan. When I tried to sign up and pay for it, I was ActiveXed. You can't do bank transactions without ActiveX. It makes no sense that it's written into law that you have to use an outdated security protocol (that's no longer supported in the latest browser) just to use internet banking. I had to buy a copy of Windows.
it took me 30 mins-1 hour to download a movie and i'm already happy with my current internet connection lol \;v;/
... I never actually thought there was something making me think twice about going to Korea.
ActiveX... That... still exists? WTF Korea
it's almost the same in China when it comes to internet banking, I had to install different security softwares for each different banks. and they only work with Internet Explorer which is extremely slow.
That's sound stupid. At least here in Malaysia, without the superfast internet, online banking, online shopping experience is breezy enough.
As an exchange student here in Korea I noticed that even though I use a website from the U.S. it gets translated into Korean and my browser tries to translate it back to English. And even though the internet is fast, this happens for every page which ends up taking more time. :(
... No... No video games... Fuck that. I'm not going to Korea.
Lol. S.koreA is the gaming capital of the world. The games that are ip blocked are very minimal.
TL;DR suggestion: Hey Simon and Martina! Loved all your videos! Can you guys talk about your experience in applying to teach abroad? I know you talked about it in some videos, but I'm more interested in what kind of organizations or companies in Canada you two signed up and how did the teacher placement service work for you? I thought this would be helpful for domestic teachers who want an international teaching career,! Thank you very much!
CAN'T WATCH K-DRAMAS IN KOREA?!?! WHAT KIND OF CRAZY PARADOX IS THIS?!?! Time to change my after college plans...
I live in Southern California around Los Angeles and normally when you move to a new house or apartment you might be concerned about the school district it's in, or the safety of the area you're moving to. But because of all the different service providers out here, you have to also take into account which providers service your area. I might move one city over (about 5 miles away) and lose the provider I currently have because they don't cover my new city. There's the hassle of switching providers and dealing with possibly crappy Internet and you have less control over it because certain providers only cover certain regions.
I'm good with the internet in America. I need internet freedom more than I need super fast internet. The internet that I have is fast enough. I'm not going to survive when I visit China and (since I might visit Korea as well) Korea this summer.
I live in Beijing, China. Of course censorship is a big issue - no access to TH-cam, Google, Facebook, and all that. This is largely politically motivated, but I find what is similar with Korea is that censorship is also used in China to promote home-grown Internet companies. There may be one TH-cam out there, but there are at least five competing video sharing and hosting services in China that are like hybrids of TH-cam and Netflix. What is cool is that these Chinese services provide both domestically produced content as well as foreign content through legit copyright licensing deals (yes, piracy is coming to an end, even in China). The same thing goes for Google, Whatsapp etc. as well. So for an average Chinese person, the censorship poses little inconvenience for everyday life - some of the domestically technologies have actually surpassed their foreign counterparts in terms of functionality and adapting to local needs. It's a different story for expats though, because a. they tend to live in between worlds and actually need constant access to the blocked services b. a lot of the really juicy, cutting-edge apps are Chinese only - so when their Chinese friends are ordering up takeways on their phones and making payments digitally, the expats still need to make a phone call and use cash. But all in all, censorship truly sucks and it cuts Chinese people off in a major way when it comes to doing business and maintaining social relations with partners, colleagues, and friends outside of the country.
Pssst Simon and Martina, you could just use a VPN (sshhh don't tell Korea though!).
Yes...we know...shhh...don't tell anyone...tell everyone...:D
Be careful which VPN endpoint you choose. Some of the providers in the US will keep logs, and may be subpoenable (or just outright sharing info with the NSA).
URGH, this video has just unloaded ALL OF MY FRUSTRATIONS.
I'm from Australia and I've been watching these TL;DRs since the beginning, and after years of planning, I've finally moved to Korea to study!
I was SO excited for the high speed internet. I've found that Korean websites load like lightning, but everywhere else online loads no faster (if not worse) than Australia! Wouldn't be a problem, except I can't yet speak Korean!
My phone data is almost as bad as the public wifi (which for some reason works really well on my Korean friends' phones), all of my university sign on websites require internet explorer (which I can't use because I have a mac), I can't play Final Fantasy either - it won't tell me that it's blocked, it just says "error downloading update" - and to top things off, whoever opened my bank account mistyped my passport number into their system, and now I can't pass ANY security checks!!
It's a good thing I love the place, because my God it's hard to migrate here smoothly...