



By Park Si-soo







Eight in 10 Korean singles are willing to date foreigners for various reasons, including easier learning of a foreign language or different culture, a survey showed Thursday.







Matchmaking company DUO found this after surveying 408 Korean singles who have never married ― 197 men and 211 women.







The biggest plus of having a foreign lover was "learning about the lover's mother tongue" (31.4 percent), the survey found. Second was "uniqueness and freshness" in terms of dating (22.3 percent), followed by "learning about foreign culture" (19.6 percent).







There were downsides too.







Thirty-two percent pointed to "cultural or emotional differences" as the biggest obstacle to having a serious relationship with a foreigner. The language barrier was second (32.4 percent) and long-distance dating third (15.9 percent).







To the question of what made them feel "different from their lover culturally," 38.7 percent said "relationship with family members or relatives," followed by "way to express affection" (20.1 percent) and "relationship with friends of opposite gender" (16.2 percent).

