Comments on: Foreign Brides

By: Anissa Patricia

Anissa Patricia — Thu, 20 Feb 2014 06:33:00 +0000

This is interesting. First thing came up to my mind when reading this was …”ah, she’s talking about dowry/bride price” which is a common practice in some communities in my country (Indonesia). Man pays the dowry to the bride’s family and she is his/his family which I think one of the main reasons of so many domestic violence cases in my country. However, I am from a tiny little island, Flores of eastern Indonesia, where actually it’s the woman pays the dowry to the groom’s family (matriarchy system) and gives women more equal power/voice in the family live. Anyway, thanks for sharing.

By: Mark

Mark — Wed, 29 Jan 2014 23:37:00 +0000

and some don’t want to marry a spoilt woman/girl and prefer to marry someone with strong family values that will support him to raise a family…just saying.

By: Nic

Nic — Fri, 18 Jan 2013 03:42:00 +0000

In reply to Some Korean guy.. Thank you for explaining this in more detail :)

By: Some Korean guy.

Some Korean guy. — Fri, 18 Jan 2013 03:30:00 +0000

This is a social problem caused by another social problems. In rural area of Korea, young people don’t like to live in their hometown, they want to live in a big city, like Seoul, because most Korean young people are high-educated and they want white collar jobs and they don’t like rural life. Thus, there are few young people live in the countrysides. On the other side, one of the Korean traditions is that only men succeeds their parents heritage. Todays, it is legally equal to all siblings, but the customs prefer the first son to others. Anyway, some boys are staying in their hometown as successor of family job, the farming. Whereas girs are not bound to succeed their family jobs(and wealth). That’s why there are no young girls in rural places.

So, this caused a social problem, sex ratio imbalance in countrysides. And this problem makes old bachelors in countryside marry foreign women especially from other asian countries.
This is the main reason why they marry foreign asian women with money.
Recently, even the urban guys are married by the international marriage brokers.

By: Nic

Nic — Tue, 27 Nov 2012 10:52:00 +0000

In reply to Sophie Song. That is really good to hear. Do you know if South East Asian countries still warn women to not marry Korean men? Like for example I think The Philippines had a warning about it. I wonder since there are now services in place for these women, whether governments have toned down their warnings.

By: Sophie Song

Sophie Song — Tue, 27 Nov 2012 10:34:00 +0000

Where I’m living in Korea there are many such brides and they’ve actually got really good support services available to them. Local places where they can socialise, free Korean classes taught in Korean (I used to take them and they are really good, the textbooks they use cover issues and situations that specifically affect such women), international cookbooks which are bilingual so the wife can learn to make the food her husband is likely to want to eat at least sometimes.
when taking multicultural family Korean classes I met a lot of these women and it was clear that while many of them struggled to communicate and had some difficulties adjusting, they did not regret their situations and seemed happy and excited for what lay ahead.
I also know a widower who married a chinese woman after his wife had died young. He had young children and had to work Korean hours to support them so I suppose this may have been part of the reason he married. They’ve been together a long time now, her Korean is fluent and they seem to have a very happy marriage. Both are very kind people.

By: Nic

Nic — Thu, 08 Nov 2012 06:30:00 +0000

In reply to Brooke Au. Yeah all these feuds and stuff going on!

By: Brooke Au

Brooke Au — Thu, 08 Nov 2012 03:43:00 +0000

my Korean teacher told us about similar story in this week’s lesson!! She said some parents (in Seoul) oppose to marriage between their sons/daughters and ppl from certain provinces in S.Korea, thinking that they might be decedents of the criminals. So ppl who live in these provinces need to marry foreigners.

By: 100% A+ Teresa Ginny

100% A+ Teresa Ginny — Thu, 08 Nov 2012 02:26:00 +0000

I sometimes think of this kind of marriage where some contracts made and they are agreements between the couple to be divorce after some times, I actually ever thought about that but the risks take over my head, really, I don’t want to be caught in a risky marriage when I actually just want to change my citizenship and start a new life.. I personally think that that’s not the best way to start a new life..

By: Nic

Nic — Wed, 07 Nov 2012 01:25:00 +0000

In reply to Ashleigh Son. I wish I knew the name, but I started watching half way through when it was on TV. I've been searching for it, but can't find it as it may have been something within another program. I'll keep looking though.