Choson Ilbo provides the answer to the question we all have – why marry a foreigner?
According to the poll, 32.1 percent of the men said they felt the biggest benefit of marrying foreign women is their lack of interest in their groom’s educational background and financial or social status. The next best reason was their belief that foreign brides would be submissive (23 percent), make their lives more comfortable (15.3 percent), and that the men would not have to get stressed about their in-laws (13.8 percent).
Among the women, 31.4 percent said they would marry a foreigner because it would make their lives more leisurely than marrying a Korean. The next most popular reasons were the belief that a foreign husband would be more dedicated to his family (21.9 percent), more mature (17.2 percent) and less picky about the educational level and their financial or social status (12.8 percent).
{ 28 comments… read them below or add one }
Funny, my wife and I married because we were in love.
So it wasn’t because you lived on a yacht, were a millionaire, 6′ tall, blonde, with a 4″ tongue and could open doors for ladies? Excellent.
Due to some chicks’ pickiness, sounds like they are voting themselves out of the gene pool.
I have no idea why mine decided I was acceptable enough to marry. She has certainly spent a lot of time since in training me to be a Korean farmer,though. These days, I’m pretty much responsible for the entire kimchi-making process,from planting the cabbage, radishes,and peppers, right up to packing the finished product into the jars. I just finished planting next year’s garlic today. Somehow, it looks like she was using the checklist that Korean men are using,instead of the one for women. Submissive? makes her life more comfortable? Hmmmm….
99% of women also listed that foreign men have bigger…. awww never mind. Too easy.
23% of men believe their foreign brides would be submissive? they must not be thinking about *western* brides
I once asked my Korean tudor in Seoul whether he could recommend any good Korean dramas on VHS (this was in the early ’90s) to help with my study of Korean.
He responded deadpan: “Just start dating a Korean girl. Then you’ll learn Korean AND get all the drama you want.”
Sage advice, that!
DLB
^^^
LOL
#4,
“…and less picky about the educational level and their financial or social status (12.8 percent).”
Notice that this is only a small minority of the respondents. LOL.
#7,
I always say those TV dramas are like training videos for housewives on how to terrorize their husbands.
If there is to be racism in the world, let it be the kind that is brutally honest, as Koreans are.
TK:
Such honesty would be fine by me, so long as it were combined with the social freedom for a younger person to laugh and say, “You don’t know what the fuck you’re talking about, old man.”
When the “brutal honesty” is unidirectional, not so great.
DLB, thanks for the chuckle.
Damn straight. Just ask the Chinese Communist Party’s All-China Women’s Federation:
http://www.nytimes.com/2012/10/12/opinion/global/chinas-leftover-women.html?_r=0
#10, TK, do you mean they are brutally honest about verbalizing their racist beliefs? Or that their beliefs are brutally honest?
My favorite part wasn’t quoted:
When choosing a foreign woman, the men said skin color is the most important factor (37.6 percent), while Korean women prefer men from advanced countries (28.5 percent).
I would love to see the survey. What choices did they offer that resulted in more than a third of respondents to say that skin color is the most important factor when choosing a foreign woman? One of the (many) problems of the Chosun Ilbo, though, is that they don’t provide links on any of their stories.
Well they ain’t brutally honest about much else
10
the brutal honesty thing reminds me of my uncle who liked to point out my zits and tell me my dad’s side of the family had “bad DNA.”
We have it there in writing:
Korean females BELIEVE that foreign males are -
leisurely
more dedicated to his family
more mature
less picky about the educational level
less picky about their financial or social status
Korean Males BELIEVE that foreign females are -
not interested in their groom’s educational background
not interested in financial or social status
submissive
live lives that are more comfortable
have “cool” in-laws
its seems that either foreigners RULE or Koreans live “not so good” lifestyles ?
남의 떡이 더 커 보인다 (The grass always looks greener on the other side.)
I think that cultures that are brutally honest about their racism are at the lowest level and most egregious of all. Those cultures are racist and have no impetus to change because that’s the way they are.
I think that closet racism is a step up. In cultures that have closet racism, a significant number of people or a few powerful people think that racism is wrong. Those cultures are in transition. Think about parts of the U.S. Racists pockets still exist, but they are being driven further underground and toward extinction.
A poster in another thread wrote that an older Korean woman pointed to her young grandchild’s skin tone with approval and then to his black arm and said ‘no’. If my parents ever did that (they wouldn’t), my siblings wouldn’t have stood for it around themselves. We might find ourselves with racist relatives, in-laws, coworkers, and other relationships that get thrust upon us. We know they’re racists, bigots, or whatever. They pick up the oh-so-subtle cues from us that their attitudes are wrong. They might not change on the inside, but they change on the outside. The next generation picks it up. It’s called socialization.
It’s only cliche to think that overt racism is more honest; it’s really just more rampant.
A wonderful new book available around the world on amazon.com that helps explain the role, struggles, and contributions of immigrants is “What Foreigners Need To Know About America From A To Z: How to understand crazy American culture, people, government, business, language and more.” It paints a revealing picture of America for those foreigners who will benefit from a better understanding. Endorsed by ambassadors, educators, and editors, it also informs Americans who want to learn more about the U.S. and how we compare to other countries around the world on many issues. As the book points out, immigrants are a major force in America. Immigrants and the children they bear account for 60 percent of our nation’s population growth. Legal immigrants number 850,000 each year; undocumented (illegal) immigrants are estimated to be half that number. They come to improve their lives and create a foundation of success for their children to build upon. Many bring their skills and a willingness to work hard to make their dreams a reality, something our founders did four hundred years ago. It even has a chapter on relationships and the friendship process in the US and how it differs from other cultures. http://www.AmericaAtoZ.com
DLB (#7) refers to a “Korean tudor in Seoul”!
Henry VIII must really’ve gotten around . . .
Jeffery Hodges
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My wife was fêted to marry me . . .
Jeffery Hodges
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JH@21,
I just new someone wood catch that! Your very perceptive!
DLB
#14,
“I would love to see the survey. What choices did they offer that resulted in more than a third of respondents to say that skin color is the most important factor when choosing a foreign woman? One of the (many) problems of the Chosun Ilbo, though, is that they don’t provide links on any of their stories.”
So true. I’d also love to see the data. Chi-squared, Cronbach’s alpha scores, Durbin-Watson test, etc…
They could have (and might as well) pulled those numbers out of their ass.
“I just new someone wood catch that! ”
Congratulations on being able to get it up again, old man.
@23: I spotted it too, but thought it unsporting to sully a fine joke by Mr. Barch.
I thought “tudor” was a new upscale slang or something.
Rather disappointed that it wasn’t.
Sully DLB’s anecdote? Why, not at all! I crowned his Tudor with glory and honor!
Jeffery Hodges
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