Dating in Korea

What up y'all, how's it going?
BenDeen here and today I'm gonna be talking about dating in South Korea. Now, I'm not an expert on this topic But over the years I've been living here I have picked up a lot of knowledge by talking with Korean people or Non-korean people who have been living in Korea for a long time. I think I definitely know a decent amount, at least a lot more than I knew before I came to Korea, so if you're (you know) interested or curious about its kind of this topic or if your dream is to come to Korea and date a Korean person then maybe you will find some of this info useful.
I just going to say all these things aren't 100% specific to Korea It's not like it only happens in Korea, but these things are all common in Korea, and if you ever moved here You'll probably figure this stuff out pretty quick.

So I'm just going to get started with the first thing, the first stage of dating which is like how you meet. There are a couple common ways of meeting a potential partner and one of them that stands out and to me almost seems Very Korean Style is 'sogaeting' Which is basically blind dating where there's a mutual friend, who kind of has two single friends and they hook them up and send them on a blind date. Out of all the couples I've Ever met or known in Korea I would say 'sogaeting' accounts for at least like 50% at least that's what it seems like to me. So in America or another country you know I haven't been in America for a long time I might be kind of out of touch on how dating works in other countries But if you're going on a blind date in America that could be kind of interesting thing like, oh That's kind of unique, right? Or maybe not..

I'm not sure.. But in Korea That's just like such a common thing that it's really not a unique thing at all. There's also something similar to 'sogaeting' called 'meeting' which is Korea takes a lot of English words and turns them into their own words, but there's a thing called 'meeting' Which is basically like you know two or three guys and two or three girls I think a lot of younger like college kids Will do this and they'll just meet up like three on three or four on four you know you try to pick a potential mate and Do it that way. And you know I got to talk about Tinder I'm pretty sure this is all the range even though.

I don't really know from personal experience I've never used it before but I heard that like in America Everyone's on Tinder. In Korea Tinder does exist and there are apps similar to Tinder as well But from what I've heard and what I know, it's mostly used Kind of as a platform to hook-up foreigners and Koreans or Koreans and non-Koreans basically. You know, you'll have your random hookups, you'll have maybe things that could get more serious even I have a lot of non-Korean friends who have used it and they say All the Korean people are basically looking for someone who's not only foreign but looks foreign, has that foreign look to them You know what I'm saying? I'm sure there are Korean people who meet other Korean people can use apps as well, but I. Do not believe that it is that common at least Compared so speaking of hookups and stuff.

I gotta just mention it real quick. One-night stands. It's not really a part of dating It's kind of in the same field, so I would definitely say that one-night stands do happen in Korea Random hookup stuff like that I believe it is less common than in America or other western countries perhaps Korea tends to be more of a conservative country in general But you know like I said it definitely does happen It's not non-existent so from what I remember in America If you start (you know) getting into someone and maybe start meeting them and kind of getting on that road to being exclusive and official... You're just talking to that person that's at least what we called it where I'm from.

You know you're in that talking stage. Oh, I'm talking to this person Or we're talking.. (You know what I'm saying?) Maybe I'm just completely out of the loop here, but I feel like in America you could be talking to someone for a Decent amount of time pretty much You know on that path there But maybe not 100% official and you could be in that stage for a while until it does become official, you know Maybe that's just my personal thought Maybe I just don't have much Adult dating experience in America - if any - but I feel like that's how it works in Korea that the talking stage is I wouldn't say non-existent But it would be a lot shorter in general like my girlfriend tells me that you know a lot of times And you're just going in for the kill It's like you might not even be that comfortable with someone before you officially start dating and I'm sure this happens everywhere. You can become official in any amount of time really But I feel like in Korea that amount of time can be a lot shorter So you can meet like once and twice and then become official.

It's kind of a slang-term that came out  recently in Korea called 'some' and I think this is basically like maybe that talking stage or like a friends-with-benefits kind of relationship, so it is a thing here in Korea, but I feel like generally you just hop right into the relationships. Again, maybe that's how it works these days in other countries too, but Who knows? Not me. Another thing that I've heard about dating in Korea is you can be really open real quick. You can drop the L-bomb.

I'm talking like in the first week or two in Korea. It might have a different Connotation just the word when you drop the l-bomb in English, and we drop it in Korean They might have a different kind of feeling toward it, but I've heard that you can drop that real quick and in America you don't want to drop that too quick. Probably in other countries as well and also Koreans will get big into celebrating their anniversaries and a weird thing is like a lot of couples will celebrate their 100-Day anniversary Like a 200-Day anniversary, 300-Day anniversary, stuff like that... I'm not sure why they counted like that just a cultural difference, but that's a lot of anniversaries I think once a year is pretty okay, but um you know...

So some things that you might see outside or might not see outside Is something like PDA. You won't see that much PDA outside in Korea You'll see a lot of couples holding hands, (you know) the arm around the shoulder and waist I mean that's commonplace, but I'm mainly talking about like kissing and that kind of stuff You're not going to see a whole lot of that You'll see it from time to time, but it's definitely not as common as it is in other countries. Also where you might see in Korea, and maybe not in that many other countries, it's couple clothing, couple outfits you'll see this stuff You'll see all the time wherever you go. If I go outside or not, I see it: couple is wearing the exact same outfit or at least Color-coordinated clothes I'm not sure exactly why this is done.

I think it's kind of like flaunting their couple status. Maybe you're just really into matching. I'm not really sure but you sometimes will see it: same shoes, same socks, same pants, same shirts, same coats, same hats And it gets pretty intense. Alright, so I've covered always like the basics.

I'm going to talk about something that is very different from other Western countries at least and that is 'living together'. In Korea couples will generally not live with each other until They get married. A big reason for that is traditionally especially women will live with their parents until they get married and a lot of guys, too Just a lot of Korean people in general these days you'll see a lot of people younger people who aren't married living by themselves But still you won't see a lot of couples living together in the same apartment Or house or whatever until they get married. I've only personally seen this in a couple occasions.

You know again I don't know that many people here in Korea but one was between a Korean person and a Non-Korean person and they were living together and not married and the other one was between two Korean people who Told their parents: we're going to get married just we're not sure when yet, but we plan on getting married So we're going to live together. I'm sure it's done low-key, um, but I can't really imagine a Korean couple telling their parents We're going to live together I don't know if we're going to get married or not, but we just want to live together. I can't imagine that happening. I'm sure it does occasionally though, and it depends on who you are but there are probably plenty of occasions where you won't introduce your girlfriend or boyfriend to your family for an extended period of time, maybe not until you want to get married, so there are quite a bit of differences when it comes to dating and a lot of things that are kind of very common in Korea or unique to Korea and I hope you guys found that interesting.

That's pretty much it for this video. Thank you for watching and I'll see you in the next one. Peace.