“Excuse me personally,” the person stated in Korean. We had been walking by one another in a very shopping that is crowded in Gangnam, an affluent commercial region in Seoul.
We turned around, and then he deposited a business that is fancy-looking into my hand. “Marry Me,” it said in black colored loopy letters from the stark white paper.
Startled because of the proposition, I took a better appearance and understood he had been recruiting prospects for certainly one of Southern Korea’s marriage matchmaking services. Such organizations have become popular within the country.
He started initially to explain their work, at a speed which was too fast for my amount of comprehension. “Oh, I’m weiguk saram,” we explained, with the words that are korean “foreigner.” The person scowled, swiped their card away from my fingers, and stormed down.
Whenever I got house, we relayed the storyline of my encounter over the telephone up to a Korean-American buddy who laughed and stated “He thought you didn’t have just the right вЂspecs’ to be an eligible woman.”
“Specs,” quick for specs, is a manifestation South Koreans utilize to explain a person’s social worth centered on their history, or just what sociologists call embodied social money. Going to the right college, having household wide range, desired real characteristics, and also the proper cold temperatures parka often means the essential difference between success or failure in culture. Specifications connect with everyone else, even non-Koreans, in a culture where conforming harmoniously is very important.
In Southern Korea, actually, I easily fit in: black colored locks, brown eyes, light epidermis with yellowish undertones. People don’t recognize that I’m foreign right off the bat. Continue reading “The strange, contradictory privilege of staying in Southern Korea being A chinese-canadian girl”