they DO exist!

korean men don't necessarily have the most admirable of reputations and after hearing stories of their m.b.a status ("married but available"--yes, i know i'm generalizing here and lurking into dangerous territory...) i grew even more suspicious of their widespread (and yet, still unspoken) promiscuity, dogmatism, and flippant attitudes towards women, sex, and gender roles.

after a brief but rather annoying and consuming preoccupation with wanting to be in a relationship and all the boycraziness that accompanies such a desire, i snapped myself out of that ridiculous waste of time and energy and tried (although sometimes, perhaps not so successfully!) to regain focus and concentrate instead of improving my korean skills. enter the language buddy concept! language buddies are people who exchange conversations (and explain expressions, cultural references, etc...) in two different languages, in my case, korean and english, and the chats can occur over food, drinks, coffee or all of the above. i wrote an ad in craigslist which i posted in the "activities" section:

i realize that for me to improve my korean, i need and want to practice often and, most importantly, have fun! i hope we can laugh while we learn and share funny stories over good drinks, good food or hot cups of coffee.

i'm an english language nerd, meaning i can geniunely help you improve your english skills whether you're interested in improving your interview techniques, slang, or simply maintaining your conversation fluency.

i'm korean-american, 29 years old, female, expressive and outgoing.
my korean is still at the beginner level, which is why i need the practice.

i received quite a bunch of emails. some that only said "hi!" in the subject line but nothing in the actual email or others that simply didn't make much sense. the handful that stood out were the ones that actually wrote something about themselves and i really liked the responses that were in both languages! (now, that's what i'm talking about!) i met four in person and while all the guys (i know, i know, right!? honestly the strongest language exchange candidates were dudes. and, not so secretly, i certainly don't mind the fun flirtations during a study session.) were very nice and quite generous, (they all paid for my drink or meal! wow!) two of the guys were much easier and much more natural to talk to. so, now i have two buddies whom i meet separately once a week.

buddy one: eun soo.
buddy two: jae yeol.

nice, intelligent, attractive, charming, caring and hilarious guys DO exist. now, before you get all loopy on me, these guys are my friends--FRIENDS. and i happily admit that it has been so much genuine, honest to goodness FUN getting to know them. really. yes, i'm really that much of a sap.