It seems the “foreign man dating Korean woman” issue has again reared its ugly head in the blogging world (and Korean media). The controversy began with this story at The Marmot’s Hole about an English teacher whose blog obviously demonstrates that he either lacks common sense or has overwhelming masochistic inclinations; and the follow-up post alleging that one of the commenters to the original post followed through on his threat to report the offending blog to the Korean media. Naturally, the comments have mostly diverged from the offending teacher and the snitch to issues of interracial dating (as mentioned earlier, mainly foreign men and Korean women), racism, and bigotry. No big surprise there.

Deep breath. Here’s my two-cents:

This morning, as I was leaving the love motel for breakfast, I noticed a Korean woman and a _______ man* checking in for a “short-timer”. It was 9:30 in the morning!!! Of particular fascination to me was that the woman held in her hand a soft-porn DVD. This young couple planned to make the most of their two hours. (It is two hours, isn’t it? I’ve never had the “short time” motel experience.)

*a) Western
b) Korean

Now, my question to you, dear reader(s) is:

Would your reaction to this scene be different depending on whether the man was “a” or “b”? Or would you even think about it at all? Personally, my impression would be (and was), “Wow! Fun times early in the morning,” regardless of his (or her) nationality/race. If your take on the man or woman’s morality, self-confidence, education, pride, etc., should differ in any way, shape, or form depending on “a” or “b”, then you’ve got issues. You know who you are. Enough said on that.

However, the fact of the matter is that - right or wrong - we in Korea live in a society where race does matter and it’s not going to change anytime soon. Therefore discretion is an absolute must. That I am writing this is perhaps ironic, as I often feel that I’m pushing the envelope a bit on my own blog. However, I think (hope) that I know where the line is and don’t cross it.

Concerning the aforementioned English teacher and his blog (which you now need a password to see). Did he do anything illegal? Apparently not. Can you find similar Korean sites? Of course - not to mention numerous Korean amateur videos circulating the Internet. Is he going to receive grief over his blog? No doubt. Is that f*cked up? Absolutely. But that’s the way it is. If he didn’t recognize the reality of the land where is is living, then he is incredibly ignorant. If he simply chose to thumb his nose at it, then he is a flat-out imbecile.

And the snitch is also remarkably naive concerning the Korean media if he expected to achieve something positive from his actions.