So, although I talk a bit about Korean girls, there are zero pictures in this thread. Sorry. When I get to Korea I will have so many pictures and videos your eyes will squeal but until then sorry...
Basically, around a month ago I got bored of humping my Korean textbook and audiocd 4 hours a day to learn Korean. It definitely does improve your Korean but sadly not your exposure to sunlight... So me and my good friend Google embarked on an adventure to find Korean language swap sites. We found an incredible two of them. One was in fact a lame dating site and the other was a UK CraigsList-esque site called Gumtree. I noticed quite a few ads such as "My English your Korean" etc. so I went ahead and posted my own.
I didn't expect much of a response, most of the ads were weeks old and the majority were seeking Korean speakers. BUT, to my surprise I had several replies within a day and around 14 responses (all serious) in total. That wasn't the good part though... what really surprised me was that all but two of the replies were from girls (that's right folks, start reading properly now!!). Now I think I'm not generalising to say that girls meeting up with random strangers off the internet is perceived to be "slightly fucking dodgy" in Western culture. But Korean culture is obviously incredibly trusting - two of the girls even sent me pics?!?
Being the lame bastard I am, I naturally responded to the girls first.... and as the world sucks sometimes, half of them ignored me when I said I wasn't Caucasian. Whatever. Anyhow, over the past month I met up with these girls once, twice, three-four times. Please don't get me wrong, I wasn't just thinking "I'm gonna get me some Korean ass tonight" I genuinely wanted to learn Korean (fuck you, yes I did!!!!!!)
I don't really know how to do this so I'll just appallingly call them Numbers 1-6 lol (I will refrain from giving them a score out of 10 though lol). A few general observations though.. They're ALL really nice and friendly, a bit too innocent, speak pretty damn good English, quite amazed I'm interested in Korea, know about SC (my inner nerd couldn't resist the question) but never played it, some were cute but none remotely attractive (sadface) and most were quite desperate (yep, even more than me haha).
1.
Probably the highlight was when she gave me a culinary tour me at a Korean place. It is quite ironic that I covered Korean eating habits in my Korean textbook barely a week after doing this. This is because apparently the top 3 rude things foreigners do in Korean restaurants is 1) Blow your nose at the table, 2) Drink the soup direct from the bowl without using a spoon (Chinese style) and 3) Shovel rice into your mouth (again, chinese style). I did all three :D (accidentally I must repeat!). Don't think she was too impressed. Lost contact now.
2.
Quite loud and scary. She was 3 years older than me and therefore in Korean you should use a particular honorific way of speaking. I forgot a few times and she took it a bit too personally !. She also had this slightly creepy obsession with Monty Python which btw I think is good in small doses only. I think I told her 5 times I never watched the Holy Grail.
3.
Probably the only one who I would consider a real friend. Fun to chat with and kinda cute. One time she brought a gorgeous-looking friend as well to chat but I quickly found out she had a bf.. She told me once in a coffee shop that her English school teacher laughed in her face at class when she was in the middle of a presentation. Shocked, curious and slightly angry, I asked what she said. She said, "I was walking down the street and I saw a boy that I'd like to fuck a duck." I laughed in her face too LOL. But in a nice way :D
4.
Didn't know what to do with her. I don't consider myself that good looking and normally I am utter shit at reading girls but everytime we met she kept dropping huge awkward fucking bombs in the middle of conversation. Like, we're talking about what she will do when she goes back to Korea and she looks me dead into the eyes, gives me a coy smile and says.. "Well actually, I might stay in London if I find a boyfriend.." FUCK I have no idea what to do with girls that like me but I don't. I know what it's like and I don't want to hurt them.... :/
5.
When I emailed her, her 'Name' came up as "틴휘슬". I naturally assumed this was her Korean name and therefore the last two characters was her first name. Cut to the first time we meet and I smugly say hi in Korean followed by her name with a DIDYOUSEEWHATIFUCKINGDIDTHERE smile. She looks utterly confused and then bursts out into a laughing fit for the rest of Starbucks to see. After I've turned semi-beetroot colour, she explains that "틴휘슬" means just Tin Whistle (apparently an Irish instrument that she found amusing in Belfast). WTF to be honest
6.
Another that seemed a bit desperate. Don't talk now because I fail at dealing with such situations.
Jeebus these always take longer than expected. There is more shit to say but I'll leave that for another entry. I am also sorry for people who come here looking for genuine advice on learning Korean but are instead greeted with superficial shit like this. Please reply with any Qs or PM me and I will respond!
<3 to comments as always.