I've gotten around Seoul (can't speak about other cities) perfectly well with just English. While the general populace may not speak English well, all the tourist spots/hotels have someone that speaks English. All subway signs/maps are in English as well. The bus network (most prevalent way to get around Greater Seoul) has English. What more can you ask for?

hehe on the way to Seoul, the bus will stop at Tampin restarea for a 30 minute bathroom-makan break.

Timezone has no relation to duration. The answer is headwinds/tailwinds that slow/speedup the plane's groundspeed.
Plane traveling with 500mph airspeed + 100 mph tailwind = 600 mph groundspeed = gets you somewhere faster.
You will get tailwinds one way, and headwinds the opposite way.

Funny though, I've always thought traveling eastwards, i.e. up to Seoul/Tokyo/Beijing takes advantage of tailwinds e.g. faster. And the opposite applies on the return.

OP mentioned duration. I was merely pointing out the fact duration and timezones are unrelated.

This post has been edited by tatsuyachiba: Aug 5 2010, 06:14 AM