Dating site UBLove to put on male version of "Chatting with the Beauties."

Thanks to Paul of an acorn in the dog's food for passing along this email sent to UBLove members:

Wanted Guests for MISUDA TV Program in Korea.

Hello from the UBLove Team.

A famous Korean global talk show called <Misuda> are looking for foreign member in UBLOVE.

Misuda is a global talk show for young foreign woman, who are familiar with Korean culture and talks about Korean men.Every week, 16 young woman from all over the world will participate in their show.

They will talk about their Korean life and experiences, and about their life back at home.


Misuda production don’t only organize a show for young foreign women we are preparing a special show for co-hosting foreign men to as well.


We are preparing interviews for our UBLOVE members and Misuda.

All applicants, who are interested in being a guest participant in the Misuda show or if you have anything to say about your life in South Korea may register!!

We hope that your life experience in South Korea has been an enjoyable experience.

Note: There are no obligations, we are only conducting interviews and we welcome all applicants.

Apply now!

If you are interested in conducting interviews on the Misuda talk show, please mail us support@ublove.com.

Thanks and regards,

UBLove Team

UBLove is a dating and friendship site here in South Korea. I was a member for about two years, and I met a few decent people, though I cancelled last year because I was receiving nothing but spam messages from Russians and Chinese users. Anyway, I wrote about it in May, 2008, after the site sent out a message looking couples of English-speaking men and Korean women. An excerpt:

We are searching now for any native English speaking males who met native Korean female members for friends, pen pals, dates or marriage.
We are going to be hosting a show on Korean cable, channel TVN about UBLove members and would like to conduct an interview.
For your trouble we will give a generous monetary amount to cover your date expenses.

And for those not familiar, "Chatting with the Beauties," or "Misuda" (미녀들의 수다) is a show on Korean TV where a panel of young foreign women speak in Korean about their experiences in the country. It's sometimes entertaining, sometimes enlightening, sometimes hackneyed, sometimes ugly. Though there was one other episode of a male version two years ago, that it never caught on is representative of the attitudes held toward foreign men who date Korean women. Here's a little of what Drama Beans had to say about that episode:

The conversation was intended to be go along the lines of each foreign-born hottie explaining what he liked about Korea, but their free-flowing, unfiltered coarse talk instead offended viewers by putting down Korean women. A little bit of the critique goes to hosts Hyun Young (actress and singer-lite) and Nam Hee Seok for asking lame questions like “Which of the female panelists would you most like to have a drink with?” Viewers disliked the shallow talk which barely touched on any matters of interest, such as asking about the culture gap and the men’s opinions on the differences of living in Korea.

This could prove . . . interesting, so long as the men aren't portrayed as horndogs or goofy foreigners. And so long as the men don't agree to act like that on the program. The Drama Beans post, by the way, comes to us via the latest post on The Grand Narrative, about a new comedy staring a French man who finds himself shipwrecked on Jeju and falls for a young Korean woman. Though it's not that unusual to see foreign women on Korean TV---including in sexual roles---it's rare to see Caucasian men portrayed as anything other than slimeballs or buffoons.