Korean Job Discussion Forums

[Samantha]

I have been wandering through the forums for a while now and I have noticed that there are a lot of expat guys that date and/or marry a lot Korean girls. I don't have a problem with this, I figure where you find love, companionship, friendship or sex more power to you.

What I am curious about is that it's always Expat men wanting ideas about how to romance Korean women or complaining about Korean women. Are there any Expat women dating/married to Korean men? Do Expat men and women actually date each other? Is it the novelty of dating a native of the country the reason why the men are dating Korean women? Is it a desire to immerse themselves in the culture (no pun or double entendre intended)?

Just wondering...feel free to respond or not...this is just somethng that has been bubbling through my brain.

[seoulsucker]

For me, it is simply a matter of numbers and exposure. 95% of the females I encounter on a daily basis are Korean. With greater numbers, there was a greater chance of finding a girl that I could get along with. I dated both western and Korean women for a while, but eventually made a connection with a Korean girl.

[doggyji]

[JongnoGuru]

First, I recommend you change your thread title to something a bit more explanatory and helpful. Like, "What's up with that?"

[billybrobby]

I see a lot of expat/expat couples. Yeah, there's a lot of dudes dating Korean girls, but not to the point where dating foreign girls is anything like a rarity.

There are some expat women married to Korean men on this board.

Everybody knows one thing: expat man/korean woman relationships far outnumber the expat woman/korean man relationships. It's a very thorny issue as to why this is, and I think it creates a lot of uncomfortable feelings all around.

Here is my grand theory as to why it is. I think it comes down to two things:

One is that Koreans come off as feminine according to the western standard of femininity. Physically they're smaller, they're not furry, they've got nice hair. Culturally, they often act very shy and coy when interacting with opposite sex and when interacting with foreigners. All of this can seem charming to a westerner in a woman but kind of lame in a man. I know this all sounds very chauvinist but I'm talking about people's perceptions. Also, Korea is still a very male-dominated society and it has produced a model of femininity that resonates with westerners while it has not produced a model of masculinity that similarly resonates. Korea doesn't have the American cowboy aggressive sort of masculinity. It's a more staid, more hardworking and ambitious model. Korean females, however, are in a general way very appearance oriented and act very cutesy and that somehow appeals to both Korean and western men. Anyways, that's my grand theory. Probably next month I'll have a different one.

The second thing is that men seem willing to overlook the language barrier more than women. Maybe you could say men are more shallow.

[periwinkle]

[Boodleheimer]

[Milwaukiedave]

Actually there are quite a few western woman on this forum married to a Korean man. It's becoming a lot more common (and to some extent it is more accepted by Koreans then the reverse).

However, the majority of Korean/foreigner marriages are between a Korean woman and foreign man. I married a Korean woman earlier this year and her family is very accepting of me.

[billybrobby]

[Corporal]

[JongnoGuru]

Hey, stop it with those rolly eyes. I set her straight about that already. C'mon, she's still new here.

[Woland]

I met my ex-wife, a Canadian, here, dated her here, and eventually married her after moving to Turkey. It was all good except the marriage part.

Dodgy Barnett, you're warned!

[dulouz]

This is likely the smartest thing I've read here in a long time.

[Corporal]

[Swiss James]