Korean Job Discussion Forums

[kermo]

I had a class with my grown-ups tonight, and since we started having "free talk" it's been a blast.

Tonight I used "Jazz English" to start conversations about dating and romance, because the two students who showed up were a grandmother and a single guy. I wanted to hear about their perspectives, and contrast old Korea vs. new Korea, and also West vs. East.

The grandmother had the best stories. She told me about how she met her husband: he was buying something from the company where she worked, and was smitten with her. He would call at her from his 5th floor office as she walked past, and never gave up. She didn't have to play hard-to-get because she actually couldn't stand him.
I guess he wore her down, but when she introduced him to her family, they hated him too. They said his lily-white face made him look like a woman, and that he was too short. Apparently he won the day by "smiling," "always helping" and "giving money."

I asked about her (only) son, and how long he had dated his wife. She replied "6 months." That seemed pretty short, so I asked what the relationship was like-- was it a whirlwind romance? She replied: "My husband and I wanted him to get married because my knee was hurting as I climbed stairs." I was dumbfounded. I wasn't sure I was hearing correctly, and her sentences were just fragments. I sat there, indicating the marriage on the one hand, mom's sore knees on the other hand, trying to figure out what the connection could possibly be-- then I realized! Mom needed someone to take care of her, so her son went out and found a nurse/caregiver in the form of a wife.

I asked her whether she liked her daughter-in-law at first, and she assured me that she did, "because she was very pretty, and silent. I don't like girls who talk too much."

[wylies99]

Ask people in the US why they got married-
men = sex
women = money

Wonder why there so many divorces? I don't.

[stevemcgarrett]

Rumor has--rumor, mind you--that most Korean men get married so that least if they have to eat kimchee every day they can have it prepared a little different than their mothers do.

[Natalie]

I've heard from 2 different Korean guys that they want to get married because its lonely eating alone

[Ya-ta Boy]

Sometimes, 'love' stories here just don't measure up on the romance scale, do they?

I met a guy once who got married after he kidnapped a woman who appealed to him but didn't like him. He kept her captive in a mountain cabin until she agreed to marry him. Yes, they are still together.

There was also the guy who got married because he was headed overseas for post-doc work and his mom was afraid he'd marry a foreigner.

On the other hand, how many of us know people who got drunk on prom night, got pregnant in the back of a Chevy and ended up married? That lacks a certain pizzazz, too, if you ask me.

[cdninkorea]

[RACETRAITOR]

My father-in-law disowned one of his brothers because the guy raped a woman engaged to be married to another guy. Of course she cancelled their engagement and married the rapist. Then he caught her cheating on him with her original fiance and they got divorced.

[Juregen]

[kermo]

[bellum99]

I was having so much fun when I was single..lots of spending money, free time and very happy. I decided I needed to change this and got married.

[Junior]

I don't like the way K-men are rewarded for "persistence".

"You don't need any courtship or social skills. You just have to stalk her and pursue her relentlessly for 6 months. Call 10 times a day and never take no for an answer, even if she obviously hates you and wants you to dissapear".


This is the mark of a desperate psychopath!!

[MissSeoul]

[MissSeoul]

same as above, so....

[kermo]

[the eye]

Yeah. A korean friend recently told me that his wife has to get up BEFORE his live-in mother does.

It just wouldn't be 'proper' for a mother-in-law to be up before her daughter-in-law. It would make the latter look like a slob.

So, the daughter-in-law wakes up at 5 every morning.