One of the benefits of being a consultant is the exposure to many different industries. To be honest, I get lead feet if I’m forced to stay exclusive to an industry too long. Nothing is more exciting the jumping down the rabbit hole of a new type of business. This was eve true when we brought on a client in the mail order bride space.
After working with that client I made the false assumption that I understood that industry pretty well. Young, pretty girls from Eastern European countries like Ukraine, Russia, and Kazakhstan, along with women from some Asian countries like China, Philippines and Vietnam list themselves in hoping to land an American husband. But when you think of South Korea and mail order brides, you shouldn’t necessarily think about women trying to come to the United States, but more about the South Korean men bringing girls from countries like Vietnam to them.
I just found a great video at the Al Jazeera website about South Korean men, and Vietnamese mail order brides. One of the more interesting stats is that nearly 1/3 of men in rural areas of South Korea actually have foreign wives.
The video focuses on several women and men seeking “love” through the match makers who pair up young girls in poor countries with guys in less poor countries like South Korea. The interview of the Vietnamese girl crying when she has to admit that she would rather go to a University than marry some stranger in a foreign land was especially heart breaking. I’m guessing the kind of guy doing this isn’t going to allow her to better herself through education. Most of these guys being interviewed were already complaining that South Korean women are not subservient enough.
But on the other side of things, there was a guy I understood a bit more. He’s 45 and admitted that after focussing on work for so long, and not leaving time to start a family, he now wants one. As someone who had a child very early in life, I can understand what he’s saying. I’m much more ready for a child at my current age than I was at 20. But of course if a guy wants a family at 45, he is going to have to look for someone younger. So he ended up with a 24-year-old woman from Vietnam, and they now have a child.
There are of course the other concerns, including these women paying the ultimate price for marrying the wrong man. It’s defiantly worth checking out the video. One side note, I love the fact they have a “Men’s Rights Activist” in Korea. I have never seen that here. I don’t think we are represented, besides of course Congress, the Senate and the White House. Other than that, who will speak for us?
