Confessions of a Korean-American Man in New York City

I’ve only been set up once my whole life and that was officially labeled a debacle in the annals of setups. Trusting one of my best friend’s mother is highly risky when it comes to matchmaking, but I was in my early twenties and I was young and dumb. My best advice for setups is to do some due diligence prior to the date so you can give yourself a chance to kibosh it. So my very first set up began at a Korean restaurant in Annandale, VA because of her obvious preference for Korean food. When she arrived, I quickly discovered that she knew no English; middle school ESL students would be considered English lit majors compared to her. I am admittedly spotty with my Korean language skills, though some would say I’m quite advanced at restaurant Korean. The point is that when meeting someone new, try to have one common language or common interests other than Korean food, otherwise the conversation will revolve around kimchee and not much more. I’m not saying don’t date FOBs. I have nothing against FOBs because their hand over mouth giggling and “oppa” comments are cute and endearing, but I’m simply saying conversation is highly undervalued when dating.