Korean Job Discussion Forums

[ReeseDog]

I understand that Asians are generally smaller than westerners, but can anyone guess at the average hight of Korean males and females?

[Binch Lover]

3 inches

[Chris2007]

[majolica]

actually, koreans are rather atypical... they're a slightly different gene pool than the surrounding areas. however, i notice a HUGE difference between different generations of Koreans. my theory is that the general poverty of Korea followed by the Japanese invasion and the Korean war insured that previous generations just didn't get enough calories to reach their full height potential. If you line up Koreans from each decade, you'll see what I'm talking about. The ones in their twenties look like a totally diffent group... they are easily as tall as Westerners, although there are possibly slightly fewer really tall men and women than in Western countries, and maybe a greater proportion of smaller boned women, but really, amoung young Koreans (even as a 5'9" "big-boned" female foreigner) I rarely feel overly tall or large. most young Korean males I know are equally tall or not much shorter than foreign males.

[ardis]

A lot of my 3rd year middle schoolers are pretty damn tall. I''m 5'5" and plenty of my female students are quite taller than me. And the boys can be *really* tall. I have a student that reminds me of Hagrid from Harry Potter--he's monstrously huge.

[spliff]

Basketball and volleyball players are tall.

[billybrobby]

As mentioned, the generational difference is huge so an average of the whole country wouldn't be informative. I'm 6'1 and if an older guy is even close to being as tall as me, it's notable. Whereas I regularly see 20 year olds who are around my height. I'd still say they're on the short side

[Saxiif]

Well the average heights are very much weighed down by lots of tiny old people (from malnutrition when they were kids) young people here are shorter than whiteys but not by very much, Koreans tend to be a bit taller than Japanese or Chinese.

[doggyji]

Some numbers here:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Human_height

As for the generational gap, here are some numbers from my family:

Mom: 152 cm
Dad: 164 cm
Me: 184 cm

[darkcity]

younger koreans are pretty big. especially since the males have to go to the military and all, they can be pretty tough-looking. emphasis on "looking". i'm 5'8" and it's rare i find a male peer who's shorter than me.

[mnhnhyouh]

I am 45, and it is rare to find a Korean my age who is taller than me (173 cm) but most 20 somethings are taller, some by a long way.

I concur with the food theory, younger Koreans have, in general, had a much healthier diet and better health care than their parents.

This is a constant reminder of how recent very difficult times were here.


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[Oreovictim]

You'll see quite a few young guys who are 6'0 and up. But not as many as you would in, say, the U.S. But the women aren't as tall. It's normal to see a woman in the U.S. who's 5'11 or so, but I don't see too many Korean women who are that tall.

Here's the funny thing. Anytime I'd try the dating sites in the U.S., some of the women would list for the guys to be at least 5'10" most wanted taller men. (I mentioned it before, but in a book that I read, 88% of women want a guy who's at least 6'0".)

But I went to that UBLove site, and a lot of the Korean women want a guy who's 5'9" - 6'0" or 5'8" - 5'11". Sometimes you'll see one who will want a guy to be at least 6'0", but not as often.

If you're a gal who's coming over here, I suppose that it doesn't matter.

[bogey666]

[Freakstar]

Like everyone else said....there's a definite generational gap.

Younger generation is pretty tall though. On average, Koreans are taller than their other East Asian counterparts.

I'm nearly 6 feet tall - 180 cm. Lotsa guys in my office (mostly the ones in their twenties) that are about my height or taller.

[Atavistic]