The Seoul Shinmun looks at everyone’s favorite topic — interracial couples and why people date outside the tribe.
I don’t have the time to translate them at the moment, although I’m sure commenters will summarize the salient points below. If I were to put it all in one sentence, however, it would go something like this — Korean men want to date foreign women because foreign women don’t view men as simply money-making machines, while Korean women want to date foreign men because it’s a good chance to learn English and experience a foreign culture.
Of course, there’s a lot more.
28 Comments
This should be a fun thread.
Actually the “weirdos” are those who date only within the tribe. It’s a big wide world out there, why limit yourself. White women, Black Women, Yellow Women, Christian, Buddhist, Muslim who cares? As long as they aren’t ball breakers or fat.
Let me offer up this radical theory: maybe - just maybe - these particular Korean men and women are dating certain foreigners because they happen to like them.
#3, For the most part, yes, you’re probably right.
What I’d like to know is why they would print something that makes Koreans who date foreigners appear rather fickle.
This reeks of being written or heavily edited by a Korean man. “Don’t want to be viewed as money-making machine” is complete bullsh!t. Also, I notice a complete lack of “Korean women don’t want to be treated like an indentured servant by their husband’s family”.
I’m LMAO at “it’s a good chance to learn English and experience a foreign culture”. How lame. That’s like saying “Korean women don’t really want to marry foreigners… They just want to fool around with them.”
LMAO
Can the article be more transparent ? It reeks of Korean men providing sorry excuses for their (sic) women wanting to marry outside the tribe.
Until Korean men get to the root of the problem: (hint: stop letting your mom run your life), they will continue to have their women run the other direction.
IMO, if an interracial couple want to date/marry, whether out of love or simply because of mutual benefit, then it should be their business.
It shouldn’t something that is plastered on a newspaper for all those to see, comment, poke, and analyze.
On the other hand, Korean reporters are the type to sensationalize, so expect to see more of these type of stories, especially when an interracial relationship gets ugly.
Re #4:
“What I’d like to know is why they would print something that makes Koreans who date foreigners appear rather fickle.”
You hit the nail on the head. That’s exactly what they’re trying to do. It’s a sob story for Korean men and an upbraiding of Korean women who dare to look at a foreign male.
Bad Korean women (dating a foreigner), bad!
Let’s try to spice this thread up. Hey guys living in Korea, how many different Korean girls have you dated in the past year. Be honest…
An opinion from 1994, written by Kim Hee-jung, described as grand prize winner in this year’s English Speech Contest for Korean in The Korea Herald. ‘Grand prize-winning speech’ Headline for her speech:
‘Mixed marriages-the wrong mix’
…
‘Mixed marriages, therefore I believe, will result in more unhappiness than happiness. Let me provide a few data examples…’
…’; because the world we live in is practical one and those who are different in appearance will stand out only to create problems for themselves and for other innocent people. …’
Ahem, good to know.
I’ll second iceberg’s comment. I’m a white guy dating a Korean girl. I often have Koreans say to me: “So you like Korean women?” or “You like Korean-style?”
Actually, no. I like my girlfriend-style. The fact she is Korean is a moot point. Before I date a woman, I don’t have a checklist that I must adhere to. And I think the reverse is also true. She doesn’t like me because I’m a foreigner, or because she can learn another culture, or because she can learn English. She just likes me. (I hope)
Might as well write an article about “inter-career” couples, or “inter-religious marriages” or “inter-favorite TV program dating”. They’re all equally nihil ad rem.
Did the article elucidate why foreign men want to date Korean women?
These articles are modernizing, I’d even say that they are sanitizing, interacial dating, removing it away from the sordid, stereotypical imagery one might have of 3rd-world hos who work on rice fields running away from wifebeaters and getting knocked up by American GIs and marrying for money without the Platonic, meeting-of-souls-and-cultures subtext or romance.
In short, these are light, positive articles about a particular set of individuals dealing with interracial dating in healthy contexts. There’s no need to bring out the defecation here or fling ad hominem theories about the author; “Il Young” sounds like a male name, but I’m inclined to think the writer is female.
Wow… I didn’t realize it was that time of year again. Guess I was thrown off by the daylight saving time change. What’s next? Another debate on what the proper name of the body of water between Japan and Korea (and Russia, incidentally) should be?
Whatever happened to the answer, “why the hell not?” These days, I suspect a lot has to do with time and place — and availability.
Thirty years ago, Koreans of both sexes often married foreigners to get the hell out of Korea. Then, South Korean passports were issued a bit more liberally than North Korean tourist visas now. Gold diggers of both sexes were as thick as summer mosquitoes.
Today, if you are a Korean farmer and you want to marry a Korean woman, good luck. (Same is true in Japan, for that matter.) The attractions of hard, honest labor, side by side, for a very modest income has limited sex appeal. Yet, women even more desperate than Korean males from Vietnam, the Philippines and China can be had, so to speak.
While there are foreigners who come here to marry, they are more likely to be of Korean ethnicity. Either they could not find anyone in their home countries and/or they are under pressure from their immigrant parents to find a “nice Korean boy/girl” for the family.
Actually, if the foreigners are not of Korean heritage, they purposely or unwittingly (usually the latter) marry since they are single (duh!), which of course means they didn’t/couldn’t find someone elsewhere, including their home countries.
And I would think Koreans of both genders can easily recognize the foreigners’ motivations as stated in the above two paragraphs. Which brings us back to why would, say, urban Koreans go along with the whole notion — and that takes us back to my original point: why the hell not?
Today, as our Aussie poster well put it, people generally marry foreigners based on personal, individual characteristics rather than nationalist or racial reasons. Sure some guys may dig Asian women with long black hair, but Korea hardly has a monopoly. And, yes, blond males — and females — do seem to have more fun in Asia. But, usually that is largely in the dating realms.
Contrary to nationalist/racist journalism, people tend to marry because they find a personal attraction, regardless of nationality. But, of course, that makes for boring news stories. What the hell…
If I were Korean men, I would not marry Korean women, who are full of vanity, who cannot do any house chores, who make little of daily-life happiness.
네이버 뉴스 댓글에 있어요.
“난 한국여자와 결혼 안 한다. ”
As a Korean woman, I would not like to marry Korean man for the same reason.
For it’s not appropriate to meet foreign men, the second chance is to look for Korean men from the country. (I cannot adapt myself to the urban lifestyle and urban thinking.) But, I haven’t met people from countryside from some time point.
Sure it is.
@#9:
You missed the best line, which went something like:
When we see a Korean woman with a black American soldier, naturally we feel offended.”
The KH caught tons of flak from the foreign community for that prize-winning essay.
But have you caught the television show of all the hot girls from all over the world who speak fluent Korean? Oh and who is the audience? A bunch of Korean celebrity males gording them with questions about their Korean boyfriends (if they have them).
My first thought was “Hey, where is the show with all the Korean girls who speak English being drooled over and interrogated by us foreign devils!!!”
Yeah the article is typical trash spewed by Korean men minimalizing the truth about why it happens. Just ask any Korean girl who dates foreigners why they choose to and the answer definitely isn’t because they want to learn another culture! It doesn’t have a lot to do with being puppets of their in-laws but more to do with attraction to the particular person and the unattractiveness to Korean men and they way they treat women.
I happen to like Asian women and as mentioned above somewhere Korean women are just a piece of that pie. It’s not a monopoly!
#8 Not nearly enough this year, but buy me a beer and lend your ear as I rhapsodize about 2004 and 2005. On second thought, it will take a number of beers to get through the stories.
Thanks for your query. I hope it will bravo the message board.
#10 To the question, “Do you like Korean women?” I took the advice of another poster and now answer simply, “I like women.”
Or I might say “Korean women are similar to Japanese women” if I am feeling mischievous.
That a word, too?
#20 - I think it’s supposed to read goading.
Beats me, but we’ll soon get a bunch of Korean-speaking foreign devils being drooled over and interrogated by female Korean entertainers:
http://news.naver.com/news/rea.....enu_id=106
People who have not read the articles but are commenting about it anyway: Mcnut.
Yet Korean females watch and love the show too, and not because they agree the show is about ‘foreigner women being goaded about their Korean boyfriends.’
My understanding is that foreign women in Asia generally tend to feel isolated or alone, especially in regards to their romantic life, so a TV show that allows foreign women to indulge in a bit of attention-seeking vanity is OK.
My first thought was “Hey, where is the show with all the Korean girls who speak English being drooled over and interrogated by us foreign devils!!!
Why? Because washed-up Engrish teaching guys named Craig or Matt need to feel exotic too? Even though this is pathetic in a gay sort of way…good luck anyway.
But I must say, given a TV show stocked with beautiful Korean-speaking international women versus a TV show about ajummas drooling over Craig or Matt, I’d say the choice is a no-brainer.
Funny that NetKim’s bit of hallow sarcasm comes two posts after Robert’s announcement. Oops. No brainer, indeed.
Make that “hollow”. First coffee of the morning on its way.
Yeah that not wanting to be seen as a money machine is a load of crap. Hot non-Korean women are attractive. As all hot women are. There’s nothing wrong with wanting to get a piece.
Your link just goes to some fag giving the horns salute…
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