New arrivals loving Tauranga’s clean air

A South Korean family who are all studying in Tauranga say the best thing about the city is its clean air.

Juha Song, 42, and his wife Soryun Kim are studying English, and their 9-year-old daughter Ellia Song attends Greenpark School.

“I didn’t want to go to Auckland. I think that Auckland is very crowded and also expensive for life, so I prefer to live in Tauranga,” Juha Song said.

“Compared to South Korea, the quality of air is very clean here, and you can feel that dirty air in South Korea, especially Seoul. And also the weather here is very nice.

“In South Korea I worked about 15 years and during that time I didn’t have any time with my family members, I just had time with my daughter during the weekends. So I was very disappointed with the quality of my life in South Korea.

“So I moved to here and nowadays I can spend time with my family.”

Kim already knew another Korean family in Tauranga, and Song gathered details about local schools from an Education Tauranga representative at an education fair in Korea. The family arrived in December on student visas.

“I chose this city because I heard that there will be one international student per class, so I think it can be a good experience for my daughter,” Song said.

I think [Auckland] is very crowded and also expensive . . . so I prefer to live in Tauranga. Juha Song

“At first when she entered the primary school she cried, but nowadays she made some friends and she is enjoying now.”

Song, who was an accountant in Seoul, is studying at the Bay of Plenty English Language School and planned to study quantity surveying at the local polytechnic Toi Ohomai because it was on the Immigration NZ skill shortage list.

The family is paying more than $15,000 a year for Ellia’s school fees and would pay almost $20,000 a year at Toi Ohomai.

However, their plans are now in doubt because new immigration policies announced last week have reduced the weighting given to skills in short supply.

Now Song says: “If I think there will be no opportunities in here, maybe I need to move to South Korea.”

— Simon Collins