Koreans seem to have this open dialogue about people’s looks that I’m not that used to. As a society they tend to be image focused and people’s attractiveness comes up a lot in normal conversations. I think my husband has unnerved some Australian guys more than once by leaning in and saying, “You are very handsome” to them. That is completely normal for Korean guys though.

So pretty much every time I’m hanging out with a group of Korean guys, particularly if we have first met, they’ll ask me to choose who I think is the most attractive. It makes me so uncomfortable! They’ll keep asking me to do it though, so usually I will finally choose. My choice often surprises them because I have different taste in guys than Korean girls usually. At that point I hope it’s all over but then they want me to choose the next best guy and so on. I flat out refuse at that point because someone has to be last right? I don’t want to hurt any feelings.

I’m not sure if they get me to do this because I’m a married woman and it’s safe to do without any misunderstanding or if since I met my husband I’ve just been around Korean men a lot more. I knew Korean guys before I met my husband but I hadn’t had this situation happen that much. Now I always expect it but I’m no better at dealing with the situation. (Just asked my husband and he seems to think it happens a lot to me because I’m a married woman).

The funny thing is my husband knows me so well that he can easily predict which guy I think is most handsome.