Race and Korea

[Malthus]

No that doesn't help me. Why settle?

To be serious for a moment - for many folks looking for a mate, job, income & social status are only one of many criteria - mostly, they have some lower paramaters of what they are willing to tolerate in that respect, but are generally pretty flexible as long as some lower level of 'respectability' is obtained, if their mate is otherwise intellegent, attractive, personally compatible, etc.

Teaching is an eminently "respectable" occupation. Few would go for a teacher because they are gold-digging (unless for immigration purposes), but it wouldn't be a deal-breaker for most folks, either.

[Eddie Teach]

No that doesn't help me. Why settle?

Because having a respectable son-in-law and grandkids is better than having a spinster daughter?

[garbon]

No that doesn't help me. Why settle?

To be serious for a moment - for many folks looking for a mate, job, income & social status are only one of many criteria - mostly, they have some lower paramaters of what they are willing to tolerate in that respect, but are generally pretty flexible as long as some lower level of 'respectability' is obtained, if their mate is otherwise intellegent, attractive, personally compatible, etc.

Of course. I guess I just skew to a negative view of what parents would select for their children based on what arranged examples we currently have.

[Malthus]

No that doesn't help me. Why settle?

To be serious for a moment - for many folks looking for a mate, job, income & social status are only one of many criteria - mostly, they have some lower paramaters of what they are willing to tolerate in that respect, but are generally pretty flexible as long as some lower level of 'respectability' is obtained, if their mate is otherwise intellegent, attractive, personally compatible, etc.

Of course. I guess I just skew to a negative view of what parents would select for their children based on what arranged examples we currently have.

The only actual example of an arranged marriage I know of is my brother-in-law ... and his wife ended up working to support him. 

[Jacob]

Of course. I guess I just skew to a negative view of what parents would select for their children based on what arranged examples we currently have.

Yeah we get it. To you the standard is (employed) lawyers, (successful) businessmen, (tenure track) academics and so on.

But to a whole host of blue collar workers and people for whom their university education has not led to an ever increasing salary, teaching is a perfectly respectable career.

[Ideologue]

No that doesn't help me. Why settle?

To be serious for a moment - for many folks looking for a mate, job, income & social status are only one of many criteria - mostly, they have some lower paramaters of what they are willing to tolerate in that respect, but are generally pretty flexible as long as some lower level of 'respectability' is obtained, if their mate is otherwise intellegent, attractive, personally compatible, etc.

Teaching is an eminently "respectable" occupation. Few would go for a teacher because they are gold-digging (unless for immigration purposes), but it wouldn't be a deal-breaker for most folks, either.

Malthus: resident of Canada, or some magical realm where wishes become reality?

[Malthus]

No that doesn't help me. Why settle?

To be serious for a moment - for many folks looking for a mate, job, income & social status are only one of many criteria - mostly, they have some lower paramaters of what they are willing to tolerate in that respect, but are generally pretty flexible as long as some lower level of 'respectability' is obtained, if their mate is otherwise intellegent, attractive, personally compatible, etc.

Teaching is an eminently "respectable" occupation. Few would go for a teacher because they are gold-digging (unless for immigration purposes), but it wouldn't be a deal-breaker for most folks, either.

Malthus: resident of Canada, or some magical realm where wishes become reality?

Er, what? 

[Fate]

What's offensive about the second video? It was kind of catchy... 

[dps]

No that doesn't help me. Why settle?

To be serious for a moment - for many folks looking for a mate, job, income & social status are only one of many criteria - mostly, they have some lower paramaters of what they are willing to tolerate in that respect, but are generally pretty flexible as long as some lower level of 'respectability' is obtained, if their mate is otherwise intellegent, attractive, personally compatible, etc.

Of course. I guess I just skew to a negative view of what parents would select for their children based on what arranged examples we currently have.

Actually, I think that you've just bought too much into the teacher unions' propoganda about how poorly teachers are paid.

No, you're never going to get rich teaching, and their earnings are well behind that of succesful doctors or lawyers, but for most parents, the choice wouldn't be between marrying their daughter to a teacher or a lawyer.  The alternative in most of the good cases would be among a teacher, an accountant, the manager (not owner/operator, but manager) of a retail store or restaurant, or maybe the branch manager of a bank.  And the only one of those who is likely to make more money than a teacher over the course of their career is the banker.  And those are the good options.  The more likely options are blue collar types, which in the heyday of the Rust Belt would have had equal or better career earnings potential to most white collar types, but not so much nowdays.  Though if you just look at income, you could do a lot worse than marrying your daughter to a plumber.

[Josquius]

Indeed, a teacher is seen as very good as normal, every-day jobs go.
Stable, pays well, and its believed to speak well of the person- they're educated, like kids (ha! not half the teachers I've met...), etc....
It has status too, over and above the modern conditions enjoyed by teachers, as a traditional middle class job where teachers really were much better off and better educated than the rest of a town it still keeps a certain attraction.

Incidentally this has nothing to do with my becoming a teacher. That's purely for the money, adventure and learning.

[Monoriu]

I imagine that a teacher in HK would be *very* sought after.  They are certainly below lawyer, doctor and professor.  But they will be ahead of most white collar, middle level, non-professional managers. Their problem is their skewed sex ratio (95% female in my school).  Indeed, a major problem is that these females with terrific jobs have real problem finding husbands who make more than them. 

[Monoriu]

Apart from his likely shyness and plethora of solitary interests such as reading and alt hist map making, Tim is actually a decent looking guy with a university education, nice personality and likely makes a decent income, especially compared to the locals.  So it is a bit surprising he is so defeatist on his prospects with the Korean ladies.

I don't know.  On one hand, there seems a definite preference for guys with university education, nice personality and stable income.  But on the other hand, the unemployed high school dropout who has drug issues seems to have no problem picking up pretty girls either.  So I think that height, looks and perception of whether one is romantic or not are also important considerations.  I do think that nerds are at a severe disadvantage. 

[Admiral Yi]

Actually, I think that you've just bought too much into the teacher unions' propoganda about how poorly teachers are paid.

That, and a teacher's salary looks very different if you're living in NY and SF than if you're living in flyover country.

[HisMajestyBOB]

I don't get it.
Why do they have some African dude slowly asking about nam san tower?
And is it just me or does the song start with the guy saying 'Jesus milk'?

Exoticness mostly works against you here. I didn't pick the 1950s for nothing when describing the social scene. On the surface at least Korean women are very conservative and most wouldn't touch a foreigner like that. Another problem is most women still live with their parents and have a curfew until they're married.

No, exoticness mostly works against YOU there.
I have heard Korea is a good place to get girls for western folk...however folk who couldn't get anything at home aren't going to magically turn into chick magnets in Asia. Still have to try a bit.

I know a couple of dozen guys well here. Only one has had a serious korean girlfriend and he was manwhore back home with dozens of notches in his belt. And it still took him six whole months to figure them out and get a date with a Korean. Almost all of the guys I know here have simply given up and just date the foreign girls.  Some of them had great success in Japan but nothing here.

You didn't know me well?
I dated some Korean girls while I was there. But then, I'm devilishly handsome. 
On the topic of race, I have/had a couple of black friends there that enjoyed living there and stayed for 2 years. Doesn't mean they weren't discriminated against, of course, but it might be that blacks are now only discriminated against slightly more than your average foreigner.

[Zoupa]

http://youtu.be/69OeMHN90m8

Seedy, Ide, you're welcome. That's all I have to say about South Korea.