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By Kwon Jeong-ha, Tribune Reporter
Kim Bo-bae, Tribune Reporter
Lee Seung-hee, Guest Reporter

 

 Nowadays, we can easily find couples who show their affection for each other on campus. It is common to see students holding hands in the lecture halls and walking across campus arm-in-arm. What do you think about couples on campus? Some students look at those couples with critical eyes, but others think they have their own right to express affection. Chonnam Tribune conducted a sticker survey with about 200 CNUians to investigate romantic relationships and sexual consciousness of CNU students. It is likely to be invalid to generalize the survey results or to derive a conclusion based only on the results. However, the survey respondents’ answers could give you a standard by which to reflect on your attitude towards romance and sex in your twenties. Let’s look into their love story!

 ☺How Did You Meet Your Boy/Girlfriend?

  If you want to have a boyfriend or girlfriend, you need to get a chance to meet someone. It is usually expected that younger folks meet their girlfriend/boyfriend through their school activities or working part-time together. Then, how do CNUians tend to start romantic relationships with their boy/girlfriend? According to the survey results, 29% of students met the person they are currently dating during departmental activities: Freshman Orientation, Membership Training and Athletic Meets. Such male and female students are generally called “Campus Couples (CC)” or college sweethearts. Lee So-hyun (Junior,School ofElectronics and Computer Engineering) said, “I met my boyfriend by participating in small group activities in my department when I was a freshman. My boyfriend was one of the group members and we have also lived in the same village. For this reason, we often went back home together while chatting. Like this, we started our love.” Through the result, almost a third of respondents are campus couples and we can know CC is common trend in our twenties.

More than 40% of respondents replied they met their boy/girlfriend at various venues such as extracurricular activities on campus, part-time work or bars. Cho Bong-ki (Junior, Dept. of Business and Administration) said, “I met my girlfriend from a study group to prepare for the TOEIC test. We, as members of the group, studied together for a long time. As time passed, we were getting closer to each other and started our romantic relationship.” Some students said that they prefer a casual meeting in public places like a bar to a planned one or blind date that is arranged by the mutual friends. The results show that CNU students have chances to meet their sweethearts in various kinds of activities of everyday life on/off campus.

 ☺ What Do You Usually Do on Dates?

 If you have a boy/girlfriend, you would want to spend more time together doing many things. There are many places for couples, such as cafés and restaurants, which have special menus for a couple’s special day and the theater even has seats for couples. Young couples can enjoy these things on dates. They can also spend time by sharing their hobbies. For example, they can go to a baseball game or they go to a nail shop to have a manicure together. Then, how do the CNU couples usually spend time together? More than 45% of students answered that they usually went to a movie. The rest of the students had dates at a café or studying together.

  It is interesting that dating styles are different for each couple based on their current situation. Firstly, the style is fairly influenced by their grade and proximity, whether they are physically far from each other on campus or not. Kim Eun-jung (Senior,School ofElectronics and Computer Engineering) said, “I met my boyfriend two years ago. As we are not in same department, we can’t share any classes together and don’t have enough time to meet. As we are pretty busy to prepare for getting a job after graduation, we just meet when we have a meal and go back home together.” Students in higher grades feel difficulties to make spare time to meet their boy/girlfriends because they have to prepare for their bright futures. On the other hand, Lee Ji-woo (Freshman, Dept. of French Language & Literature) said, “I think the number of meetings is very important in order to make us feel friendly towards each other and maintain good romantic relationships. Thus, we meet frequently and go to a movie and often take a walk together.” Most freshmen, who are relatively without the burden of studying for getting a job, seem to be able to enjoy their freedom by sharing private activities with their boy/girlfriend. Jung Eun-ji (Sophomore, Dept. of Communication) and Park Kyung-mu (Sophomore, Dept. of Communication), who are a campus couple, said that they spend most of their time each day attending the same classes and participating in a variety of departmental functions. Park Kyung-mu said, “Actually, it can be an advantage for us that we are in the same department because we can share information for examinations and study together.” However, they said CCs are not always good for relationships. Jung Eun-ji said, “We have to be concerned about other students’ eyes that we are in same department. Because we are members of the Student Council, there are many meetings with council members. We feel ill at ease especially when we are wrangled.”

 ☺What Do You Think about Premarital Sex?

 These days it is not difficult to find actors and actresses who make vulgar gestures and live together on cable TV shows, which are popular to many young people. A survey conducted by a newspaper showed 75.2% of the respondents answered that they would not hesitate to have premarital intercourse. It is also reported that young couple have a tendency to regard premarital intercourse and living together as boyfriend and girlfriend as a matter of personal choice. Sex seems to be not a hidden issue but a part of romantic relationships among young people. New terms, such as instant love and one-night stand, reflect this trendy love among young people.

 Chonnam Tribune conducted a survey to inquire about the sexual consciousness of CNUians on May 8 by asking their opinions on physical contacts between couples and cohabitation. 58% of students answered that a ‘kiss’ is permissible, and 14% said that they could permit ‘sex.’ The results show that our students’ attitude toward romantic touching and sex is more open than the past, just as we had expected. Kissing in public and premarital sex are neither moral issues nor taboo among the young generation anymore.

 Then, what about premarital cohabitation? 70% had an affirmative attitude toward cohabitation without marriage. The percentage was higher than expected. Many students are likely to think that premarital cohabitation is possible under certain conditions. On the other hand, 23% of respondents thought it as a taboo and not a matter of choice and is not proper in Korean society yet. Jang So-jung (Sophomore,School ofElectronics and Computer Engineering) said, “If I find my boyfriend has lived with another woman before, I would be very unpleasant. The very thought of it repulses me, and I think it was just an irresponsible conduct.” Some students said that they would hesitate to make a decision to cohabit with their partner due to their parents.

 The survey showed 43% of students thought that other people can choose premarital cohabitation even though they would not do it. 26% of students, however, said that it was not immoral, and they might cohabit with their boy/girlfriend in case they want to do it. Park Kyoung-soo (Senior, Dept. of Material Science and Engineering) said, “Though cohabitation is not the same as marriage, it could be a great opportunity to experience marital life in advance.”

 ☺How Long Did Your Relationships Last?

 As mentioned above, young people have an open attitude towards skinship and premarital sex. It means that the couple culture of the younger generation is more liberalized than the one of the older generation. What about the duration of their romantic relationships? The results of the survey imply that younger couples tend to last in their relationships for merely a short period of time. Only 13% of students replied that their longest relationship was over three years. Up to 61% answered that they broke up within a year. They are likely to be open to sex, but have a less serious attitude on relationships. One-night stands, where two individuals who meet at a bar or a club have a single sexual encounter without expectation of establishing relationship, are an extreme example of this trend. Mi-ri-nae (Junior, Dept of Law) said, “One-night stands are not true love. The purpose of that kind of meeting is based not on affection but on sexual desire. It doesn’t make sense to me.” Kim Eun-ji (Junior,School ofBiological Sciences and Technology) said, “I accept this as a new cultural trend among young people, but I think virginity is very important. I don’t want to have such an instant love.” One-night stands are represented in several TV programs as common among youths, but it seems to be a little farther from the reality of younger couple culture, according to the students’ answers.

 ☺Respect and Responsibility Needed

 As mentioned above, younger people’s opinions about sex are liberalized and sex is not even a hidden agenda among them. It seems to be common to have sexual intercourse through a one-night stand or premarital cohabitation because our students’ attitude toward sex and cohabitation before marriage is not negative. According to the recent survey results, many students tend to think that premarital intercourse and cohabitation is a matter of personal choice. They must be open to sex. However, this attitude may produce bad consequences for them without proper knowledge about sex and responsibility as a couple. The most important idea is that if you are a couple, you must respect your boy/girlfriend and have the responsibility to make your relationship last as long as possible. It is the key to maintain healthy relationships for your love in your youth.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

ADVICE-------------------------------------------------------

A Proper Attitude towards Sex Is Needed

<Interview with Kim Jin-hee (Lecturer, Dept. of Family Environment & Welfare)>

 

Kim Jin-hee: In the past, Korean people did not speak freely about sex because social-cultural norms made people suppress their opinions about sex. Now, sex is not a hidden issue among young people anymore. Their attitudes about sex have become more open compared to the past and youths freely express their ideas and thoughts towards sex. Attitude towards sex is the general recognition of sex including opinions, feelings and knowledge about sex. Personal attitude towards sex is formed by many factors including family members’ sexual standards, social interactions at school, romantic relationships, media and religion. Media has especially had enormous effects on attitudes towards sex, and then, media should keep an appropriate level in dealing with contents related to sex. However, some media contents, such as cable TV programs and short movies, or the Internet seem to ignore their effects and show distorted images of sex consisting of too sensational and graphic contents. These programs can give university students the wrong impression of sexual matters and the misunderstanding of sex could cause serious problems. Sex is a beautiful and valuable thing. I feel sad that some university students have an irresponsible or light attitude towards love. A proper attitude towards sex comes from objective and correct knowledge of sexual matters. University students should strive to get correct knowledge and build a proper attitude towards sex. It is very important for them to have the right view on sex in their youth.

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