This perspective is from someone who is living in a relatively small city (half a million) where English is not widely spoken with much fluency.
Every now and then I run across someone who can speak English well, I am sure the experience in bigger cities may be different. But even if you live in Seoul you will probably travel somewhere else at some point so I still think knowing the basics is important.
The first thing you need to know is you CAN live here without speaking a word of Korean, but after a while you might get tired of pointing and grunting like a caveman. In my opinion to improve the quality of your life you should learn the alphabet so you can read bus schedules, menus etc, if there is no English. In addition both the Chinese and Korean number systems so you can recognize times and prices when spoken to you. This is practical for movie tickets, asking how much something is, getting times for buses and other various things.
I believe I would have learned a lot more by taking a formal class than private instruction to learn Korean, but that is just me. Other than that some of the basic living phrases, like goodbye, hello, how much, asking for something or asking for more of something, and I am sorry I don't speak Korean are very helpful and in my opinion will improve the quality of your life here.
I also recommend that you learn the most polite ways to talk you can always go down in formality but it can be embarrassing if you insult someone by talking too casually to them. Respect for elders, even if they are just a year older is very important. Part of the problem for me learning the language was the people at my small institute (I was the only foreign teacher) had no idea why I would want to learn any Korean and were not helpful or supportive of me learning at all. This really discouraged me for a long time. Don't listen to people if they tell you this (why are they learning English??).
Even though I don't know that much Korean, I find that my day is a lot more pleasant when I can communicate on a basic level and don't feel like a total idiot when I have to go and do something.
People respect you a lot more I think when you are at least trying. There are some great books and tapes out there too, for learning Korean and understanding Korean culture.
Just remember how much or how little Korean you decide to learn is up to you!
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