“Excuse me,” the person said when you look at the Korean. We had been strolling by the one another in to the a congested shopping center in Gangnam, a rich commercial region from inside the Seoul.

I turned into up to, and then he transferred an appreciation-lookin business credit for the my personal hand. “Wed Me personally,” it told you from inside the black loopy characters resistant to the stark light paper.

Surprised by proposition, I took a closer look and you can knew he had been recruiting candidates for starters out of South Korea's wedding relationship characteristics . Such companies are quite popular in the country.

The guy visited identify their works, from the a rate which had been too fast having my personal amount of recognition. “Oh, I am weiguk saram,” I told me, with the Korean terms and conditions having “foreigner.” The person scowled, swiped their cards out-of my hands, and you will stormed out-of.

While i got home, I relayed the story out-of my come across over the telephone to help you a beneficial Korean-American pal whom laughed and you may said “He believe you did not have the proper ‘specs' becoming an eligible girl.”

“ Specifications,” quick getting specifications, was a term Southern area Koreans use to establish somebody's personal value considering the records, otherwise what sociologists label embodied social financial support. Specifications affect individuals, actually low-Koreans, during the a society where compliant harmoniously are of utmost importance.

Inside South Korea, actually, I fit in: black tresses, brown attention, white epidermis which have yellow undertones. People do not understand that I'm foreign right off the bat. But just like the a Chinese-Canadian lady as a consequence of Hong-kong and you may Vancouver, during the a country with good biases towards the people from other countries, my personal identity is both proper and you can completely wrong.