Hello! So, my story is set in Seoul despite not being Korean. I was to stay true to the culture as much as possible and avoid giving the perception that this story is made by a "Koreaboo" (yikes!). I thought about changing my setting to North America, but that made just too many inconsistencies, so I turned back to Korea. For context: my story is a romance that follows the love life of three siblings. The eldest is recently married to a wealthy man and struggles to fit into high society. The second is more friends-to-lovers with a mixed-race classmate and learns that relationships take work. And the last sibling, who despite has autism, wants to be independent and fall in love. So I would like as much advice on Seoul and it's surrounding regions. Specifically knowledge on: - Neighbourhoods/communities in Seoul - The social culture among College-aged people - geography on the surrounding areas of Seoul - How people react to bi-racial people (African-Korean) and People with Autism and People with amputations - Nightlife (clubbing, parties, high-society parties, etc.) - What is considered "cool" in terms of a person If you can answer any of these questions, thank you so much!!
I would suggest watching some K-dramas. You can find a bunch on netflix. Well they do play things up for drama, you can get an idea of some of the cultural aspects. Something I have heard about Korean Culture: In many cultures it is considered polite to smile at someone you don't know when out. In Korea, it is not, it is considered a bit insulting as it is considered pitying(aka-you think the person is mentally retarded). Another thing-Korea has very rapidly undergone development and democratization, so the difference in social norms is huge between the different generations. All Korean males have to do mandatory military service for I believe 2 years. Smoking is way more common- I saw a statistic that roughly half of all men smoke.
Normally i'd say go visit, but thats not the best idea right now - the rough guide series are pretty good for background, as is the simple use of google, and google map/streetview for getting a feeling for the area
You could look into some expat Facebook groups relating to Korea. I live in Japan, but I've got friends in Seoul who share from a couple of them on occasion. Since I don't know how accurate the life they portray is I'm not going to link to them, but searching FB could probably help.