Comments on: Teaching English in Korea

By: Philip Gowman

Philip Gowman — Mon, 12 Jun 2006 11:52:57 +0000

Hmm yes, never thought about it but you’re right - a big difference I reckon. In a non-Korean context, and again being careful not to draw general conclusions from an unrepresentative sample, I can think of one or two friends of mine who’ve had foreign girlfriends, but when it comes to marriage things are a bit different. Parents often have something to say about mixed marriages.

By: Max

Max — Sun, 11 Jun 2006 21:39:15 +0000

This blog deserves lots of comments so I guess I’ll keep going until more interesting people start commenting!

Actually I was thinking of western husbands but you said boyfriends, I suppose that’s a bit different. Perhaps it’s partly because having a foreign boyfriend demonstrates fluent English, and that’s obviously a status symbol throughout Korean society.

By: Philip Gowman

Philip Gowman — Sun, 11 Jun 2006 14:31:38 +0000

Hi Max
I take your point about the status symbol thing. I thought I’d caveated my comment enough to make it clear that I was not holding it out as a commonly held view. Thinking about it, the two Korean women who made the comment to me (independently of each other) had both had significant exposure to the west but live in Korea. They were making the observation not about themselves, but about (some) other Korean women living in Korea.
It’s good of you to leave comments - it’s nice to know I’ve got a regular reader. Current readership per day is 100 or so, but I never get to find out who they all are because you’re just about the only person who leaves comments - apart from the v1agra spammers that is. I’d return the compliment on your site, but I don’t understand Korean I’m afraid.
btw, since your recent post, you may have noticed that I’ve put a disclaimer on that recommendation you were casting doubt on!
Thanks for reminding me about Lemon Soju. I used to be a regular visitor, but then it went a bit quiet and so I stopped visiting. I see he’s got a fantastic post on 29 May 06 on the dismal standards of some of Korea’s ESL teachers. Lost Seouls is one I hadn’t come across. He’s got a great A to Z on things Korean which I’ve just linked to on my travel page.
Philip

By: Max

Max — Sun, 11 Jun 2006 13:54:31 +0000

I think you may have the wrong end of the stick about the status symbol thing. It’s not unusual for long term ex-pat women to feel that way but not, in my experience, in Korea. The reverse, however, is not at all unusual particularly among “respectable” families.

Incidentally, Britons excel in the minuscule category of Korea blogs by people who have never been English teachers, notably Lost Seouls and one of the first ever Korea blogs, Lemon Soju.