Recently I met this lady who kindly thought I was much younger than I actually am – bless her heart, as they say! She told me about her ‘swinging bachelor’ son and asked me if I was attached. Ha ha… I guess I should take that as a compliment. Well, it did set me thinking about blind dates.
I think it’s an age thing. I probably would have baulked at the idea of a blind date when I was in my 20s. However, at my current age, if I weren’t married, I think my answer to the question would be, ‘You bet I would!’ Ha ha, sounds like I’m so desperate.
The thing is, since one’s chances of meeting someone get slimmer with each passing year, as long as the blind date is arranged by someone trustworthy, who won’t set you up with lechers, dangerous criminals and the like, I guess one might just give it a go.
As everyone knows, ‘meeting someone’ is a national problem and now with the SDU closed down (I forgot why), perhaps more entrepreneurial types might want to jump at the chance to fill in the gap. Actually, I thought the SDU played a very useful role in providing a platform for people to meet in all sorts of interesting/boring/unusual/conservative contexts. Where else would you find the chance to meet so many people?
It is only the rare few who just happen to bump into the (hitherto unknown) person they end up marrying (so I’m rather surprised that I actually know two people who married guys they bumped into at the shopping centre! I.e., different shopping centres and different guys). Less rare are the ones who marry people they meet at work, but even then, the chances of this are not all that high. Then there’s the pub scene, which I hear is not too bad a try but not everyone is a pub person.
One solution – you must meet the person you will marry while you’re still in school. But this one is tough, due to the various complications and problems that may arise and anyway, I’m not sure if most parents are in favour of this. Guess why I’m getting slightly worried about the boy telling me he wants to meet this female ex-classmate during recess (because they are now no longer in the same class) ‘forever’?
No, I’m definitely not going to encourage it!!
Anyhow, there will always be a large enough number of people who leave school single to warrant other measures. I’ll be interested to see how the commercial world takes this up.
I don’t know if K drama is an accurate reflection of what really goes on in Korean society, but if their shows are anything to go by, blind dates seem to be the done thing there and often, the parents or relatives have something to do with it. I also read about parks in China where parents exchange photos of their children (i.e. grown up ones!) to help them get dates.
So there’s a role for family and friends, too.
However, I also remember a conversation I had with an ex-colleague many years ago when we were joking about introducing girls to this guy we knew. She said that we had better not do it because if they met and eventually married but eventually broke up (i.e. after marriage), we would feel guilty for life. Then, she said of her then twentysomething son, ‘I’m going to leave him alone.’
I think it’s an age thing. I probably would have baulked at the idea of a blind date when I was in my 20s. However, at my current age, if I weren’t married, I think my answer to the question would be, ‘You bet I would!’ Ha ha, sounds like I’m so desperate.
The thing is, since one’s chances of meeting someone get slimmer with each passing year, as long as the blind date is arranged by someone trustworthy, who won’t set you up with lechers, dangerous criminals and the like, I guess one might just give it a go.
As everyone knows, ‘meeting someone’ is a national problem and now with the SDU closed down (I forgot why), perhaps more entrepreneurial types might want to jump at the chance to fill in the gap. Actually, I thought the SDU played a very useful role in providing a platform for people to meet in all sorts of interesting/boring/unusual/conservative contexts. Where else would you find the chance to meet so many people?
It is only the rare few who just happen to bump into the (hitherto unknown) person they end up marrying (so I’m rather surprised that I actually know two people who married guys they bumped into at the shopping centre! I.e., different shopping centres and different guys). Less rare are the ones who marry people they meet at work, but even then, the chances of this are not all that high. Then there’s the pub scene, which I hear is not too bad a try but not everyone is a pub person.
One solution – you must meet the person you will marry while you’re still in school. But this one is tough, due to the various complications and problems that may arise and anyway, I’m not sure if most parents are in favour of this. Guess why I’m getting slightly worried about the boy telling me he wants to meet this female ex-classmate during recess (because they are now no longer in the same class) ‘forever’?
No, I’m definitely not going to encourage it!!
Anyhow, there will always be a large enough number of people who leave school single to warrant other measures. I’ll be interested to see how the commercial world takes this up.
I don’t know if K drama is an accurate reflection of what really goes on in Korean society, but if their shows are anything to go by, blind dates seem to be the done thing there and often, the parents or relatives have something to do with it. I also read about parks in China where parents exchange photos of their children (i.e. grown up ones!) to help them get dates.
So there’s a role for family and friends, too.
However, I also remember a conversation I had with an ex-colleague many years ago when we were joking about introducing girls to this guy we knew. She said that we had better not do it because if they met and eventually married but eventually broke up (i.e. after marriage), we would feel guilty for life. Then, she said of her then twentysomething son, ‘I’m going to leave him alone.’
Is there a place for matchmaking and blind dates?
The blind date from the beginning of Wedding.
My 200th post, and it's a good thing I'm discussing a national issue and not some frivolous nonsense!
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