So today in class we were talking about (stereotypical) characteristics of Korean people. Someone mentioned Koreans having a strong sense of pride, and somehow this ended up with our teacher telling us how, if you’re married to a Korean man you can’t be stepping on his pride (자존심을 건드리면 안된다), and how Korean women know they have to get out the aegyo and pretend to be weak so that they’ll provoke the protective instinct in men. I don’t think my face could have said “fuck off” any clearer but she stuck to her guns. Fuck off though. Somehow my marriage to a Korean man has survived despite my endless violations of all the above ‘rules’.













