Korean Job Discussion Forums

[thorin]

I went to a wedding on Sunday and all the little kids were taunting me and calling me (I forget the Korean term) an old unmarried man. I have a Korean girlfriend but her parents are anti-foreigner. She cooks and does the dishes sometimes but she's never done my laundry or gotten down on her hands and knees to give my floor a good scrubbing. She's a little too non-traditional for my taste, i.e., she's heard about all that "ladies first" crap. So I'm considering importing a wife. I've heard China and Vietnam are popular with Korean guys. What do you think?

[jaganath69]

Hmmmm, alot of marriages of these type end in failure, so think carefully about it. My fiance is from Indonesia, but we met when she was studying in Australia and we often get the 'mail order bride' thing levelled at us by ignorami out there. There are plenty of women here from SE Asia and elsewhere studying and working. Doing it this way gives you a better chance to get to know the person. Going online without knowing the culture and the person may lead to heightened expectations which will be unfulfilled upon marrying. Also, another important thing to consider is the issue of fillial piety and the children's obligation to look after aging parents. I guess what I am trying to say is tread carefully and look at other ways of meeting someone than through a marriage broker.

[Corporal]

Er, the OP is not being serious, jaganath.

[Thunndarr]

[Moldy Rutabaga]

It's a foolish choice, China or Vietnam..

Philippines, all the way!

Ken:>

[thorin]

Thunndarr, these girls are human beings, deserving of dignity and respect. I just wonder if they come with a warranty and what the return policy is.

Most of you are probably only here for a year to pay of your school loans or whatever but imagine you're an old unmarried Korean farmer ... or me. What would you do?

China


They look hot after they heal from surgery.



Chinese food every day! Cool!

Vietnam



Cool clothes!



Cool hats! And thanks to French colonialism, they can probably bake bread!

[Swiss James]

you're not surely suggesting you would base your future life partner, the woman you will live with into old age, the mother of your children etc. based on whether she's had plastic surgery or wears cool clothes?

Once she's yours you can dress her up how you like, and check her in for any alterations you deem necessary anyway. Think man!

[thorin]

Sometimes my girlfriend calls me a "fluorescent lightbulb" but I realize that almost every Korean girl in her 20s still has her high school uniform and is willing to model it for me. But how many Korean girls have an ao dai or the body to wear one well? In the process of choosing a life partner, shouldn't one consider whether or not he wants the mother of his children to be a non-floor scrubbing, donut eating, non traditional Korean girl who drinks and smokes like a man in public?

So far there are 8 Chinese and 5 Vietnamese brides in the shopping cart so far but no one's bothered to explain why they would choose one over the other.

[Hwajangsil Ajumma]

Why, dear boy, have one of each, half a dozen rhubarb and custards and a quarter of cherry cola bottles.

Why limit yourself in life's glorious candy store?

I bought my husband from E-Mart. When I went to ask if they actually had any E, and if not, could they please stop the false advertising, there he was stuffed in the back of the lost and found.

[Tiger Beer]

Tough one.

Personally, I love Vietnamese culture.. and I really love the food. And I think Vietnamese women are gorgeous. So naturally, Vietnam would win out.

Except that Vietnamese people in general are a bit conniving, greedy, calculating, and somewhat aggressive as well.

Chinese however.. the women seem to really stand by their man.. really loyal (although I've heard Shanghai is the exception), really money-conscious in a good way - meaning saving their money (whereas Vietnamese women would rather spend now and save later).

Unfortunately, I personally find Chinese culture kind of drab and boring.. the food plain and greasy, etc.

I'd be torn on this. On the plus side, there are Chinese-Vietnamese around.. potentially a best of both worlds.

Tough call.

I'd go with Vietnamese if it were me.. at least I like all things Vietnamese... particularly the food.. which makes a huge difference in any cross-cultural relationship, and particularly a marriage in particular.

[numazawa]

Easy call. I'd opt for a Chinese-Korean-Vietnamese-Japanese-Thai-Laotian-Uzbekistani hybrid. Not so easy to find, granted, but I'll be darned if I'll just settle. Nope, in this life you have to decide what you really want and just go for it. I'm sticking to my guns on this one.

[billybrobby]

[thorin]

[Derrek]

People can knock the mail-order bride thing all they want, but I darned-near married exactly that.

Six years ago, I was sitting in my office, recently dumped by my American girlfriend and feeling down. My cameraman, who was in his 50s, came in and showed me this website filled with pics of filipina girls looking to meet eligible foreign men. We were bored, looking for a laugh, and decided to do it together for a "group discount." I think we each paid $20 or something. We chose the route where we left them an address and a profile, and they printed it in (what i later learned) was a free classifieds magazine. I didn't write to anyone directly online. After a few days, I got a few e-mails from some girls. The within a month, letters began to trickle into my mailbox. After 6 months, I had received over 50 letters. My mailman must have wondered what the heck was going on. You might be shocked to see some of the pics and profiles from the girls I got.

They included:

A doctor, a lawyer, a gorgeous stewardess for filipina airlines that looks like something out of the pics Tigerbeer has been posting, a TV reporter (who later became my fiance), and various others working in office jobs. Hardly what I expected. I expected to get letters exclusively from girls who lived out in the sticks and wore grass skirts or something.

I corresponded with several of them, and am still in touch with some of them to this day -- six years later. Some of them have married. Some have not. Some have kids. Some hooked up with filipino guys.

Now this is where my story gets weird, and probably may seem unbelievable to several of you, but I swear it's all true. I have a VHS tape of it all back home in storage in the USA....

After six months, I flew to the airport to meet my TV Reporter filipina girlfriend with whom I'd written to and talked to on the phone for hours on end every week. Before I got there, I had been asked if it was OK for her TV station to do a sort of "news magazine" story on it. (Bernadette worked as a reporter for the popular TV show called, "Balitang-K.") When I arrived at the airport, an entire TV crew was there with two cameras. They filmed everything and aired a story on it. I have this all on tape. They interviewed her, me, and even got some TV footage of me working from my station back home, which I brought along with me, per their request. Berns also visited me in the USA. She was able to get a tourist visa (rare for filipinas, but her job was good), and stayed with me for a few months at my house.

The story aired within a few days, and we had a number of total strangers approach us at various random places we visited in the Philippines. Even on the island of Palawan, which shocked me.

In the end, we didn't get married (I chickened out after realizing she was wonderful, but just too socially energetic. I also didn't like the filipina cultural habit of white-lies).

As I have said, I kept in touch with several friends, including my ex-fiance.

Gotta run to class now... will spill more beans later.

Oh, and my 50-something co-worker is now 60, and married to the filipina he wrote to and met. It took them 5 years to actually get it all done. They are living in the USA and very happy.

[numazawa]