On language exchange turned dating service

I decided to jump on the Korean pen pal train with Pony, and so far it's proving pretty entertaining. Everything from people advertising that they want foreign friends in Korean, people desperate to find someone to date (clearly telling everyone how single they are on their presentations), and photoshopped pictures.

Because nothing says "Write to me!" like a pair of photoshopped hipster glasses.

I thought I use a lot of emojis when talking, but damn, these people really win that war. '^^'s, needless 'haha's and LOLs wherever you go. The people I've been in contact with so far have all been really sweet though. There are a whole lot of Christians hanging out there, which at first surprised me, because I figured Korea was kinda like Japan in that aspect that they would probably identify as Buddhists (or Shinto) but not really be devout believers. But after some quick wikipedia-ing I found out that about 30% of the population is Christian, so I'm currently working on my anti-Christian prejudices. I mean, they're not all bible-thumping (hopefully). One of the people I came in contact with is a Seventh-day Adventist, and they're apparently Creationists, although I haven't dared ask about it yet. "Hey, before we become friends, can I just ask you if you really believe that the earth was created in a week?" I guess it's not stranger than me having a whole bunch of left-wing friends, really. We don't agree on stuff, but we aggressively avoid those issues to keep the peace.

I think a lot of people on that site are in it for dating, though. As soon as you mention that you've got a boyfriend they're all like "Introduce me to any single pretty friends you have!", which is cute but also a little annoying when you like attention, like I do. You're supposed to want to talk to me, Korean pen pals, not any single friends I may or may not have. And besides, even if it's flattering that you wanted to write to me because you thought I was pretty, it would be kinda cool if you actually wanted to be my friend too and not just blow me off when you found out I wouldn't let you put your penis in me.

 
This whole thing in general is getting me really interested in learning Korean though, and I've already got the hangul writing system pretty much figured out. I've been thinking that my Asian language hoarding might turn out to be pretty useful in the future, so if I can just get Japanese, Korean, Cantonese and Mandarin to peacefully coexist inside my head, I might have some sort of future in translating or just being a linguistic bad-ass.