S. Korea's local governments playing matchmaker, providing wedding halls to tackle...
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- Опубліковано 20 чер 2024
- S. Korea's local governments playing matchmaker, providing wedding halls to tackle demographic crisis
저출산에 지자체가 중매하고 예식장 마련… 저출산 근본 해결방안은?
The country is struggling with a low fertility rate despite more budget to tackle the demographic crisis.
In line with the central government's efforts to tackle this chronic issue, local governments have their own measures to encourage young people to find love and get married.
Our Kim Bo-kyoung shows us more.
A "demographic national emergency."
Those are the words President Yoon Suk Yeol used recently to describe South Korea's low birthrate crisis.
Despite the government's astronomical budget to tackle the low birthrate,
the total fertility rate the average number of expected births from a woman in her lifetime dropped to an all-time low of point-72 in 2023.
Along with the central government's efforts to encourage people to start families, local governments too are making all-out efforts, coming up with their own ways of addressing the birthrate in their regions.
One of them is Seongnam City whose own mayor has become a matchmaker.
Dubbed "Solomon's Choice", a mass blind-date program is being hosted by the city's government to help young people meet each other in a more natural way.
"Even if young people are even considering marrying, they are too busy working and cannot actively seek chances to go out to find love. The local government's way of selecting people to join the program is fair and trustworthy so a lot of participants seem to have trust in us."
The matchmaking program that started last year has already helped to make more than a hundred couples, with one of the couples set to get married.
That couple was introduced through the program in November last year, and will become newly-weds in July.
The groom-to-be had no hesitations about recommending the program to others.
Q: "How is meeting a new person during a mass blind date different from a one-on-one meeting?"
"On a one-on-one blind date, there is pressure on the guy to lead the conversation, but here, all participants arrive with the intention of actively seeking a match so they all actively speak. Also even if you are not into one, you can talk to another person right away so there are more chances."
Though forming such an atmosphere for people to find love and marry might seem like a limited measure to beat the demographic crisis, an expert says it is necessary.
"Against population crisis, local governments have been desperate in hosting additional, new population recently. There are several ways to do that first, hosting new public organizations, second, hosting private companies, and third, promoting marriage... One common reason for not getting married would be not finding a suitable partner."
Once you find your destiny, you need to marry which is again, not simple.
According to Statistics Korea, people in their 20s and 30s said not having enough money was the top reason for not marrying.
Most of the pressure comes from buying a house, but the money needed for a wedding is also a burden.
Private matchmaking company Gayeon says the average cost for wedding preparation, excluding a house, is around 45 thousand U.S. dollars.
What's worse is that businesses associated with weddings including wedding halls, and dress and makeup shops do not have set prices, nor do they clearly disclose costs, making it even harder for uninformed couples.
Seoul City's solution was opening public facilities for couples to use for weddings, to lessen their burden.
"This beautiful hanok is actually a complex cultural space promoting oriental medicine. But it was transformed into a wedding hall for the day so a couple could have a cost-effective wedding."
Mr. Park and his bride chose this venue through the city's "public wedding hall program", which is opening up a total of 28 venues for weddings.
The program began during the pandemic, as wedding halls closed their doors and wedding hall rental prices surged.
The biggest advantage of renting public facilities is that they are cheap, comparatively, and prices are transparent.
"Many people choose usual wedding halls. We wanted to have a memorable, meaningful event for guests, so we chose this venue through the program. We were able to check the price transparently because they showed us the estimate and contract in detail."
Seoul City aims to expand the program, making it much cheaper for couples...
#SouthKorea #Birth_rate #Baby #Meeting #Wedding_hall #대한민국 #지자체 #예식장 #중매 #출산율 #저출산 #Arirang_News #아리랑뉴스
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2024-06-21, 18:00 (KST)
Providing wedding halls for them is a great idea. ❤
They might want to address the class inequality & bullying culture first.
Why would any smart or caring person want to bring children into a society that doesn't value them or their views.
ironically isnt it when they were one responsible for this mess
No joke. Even when they're born: Society won't allow them to have anything.
Hence why they've got the Lowest Birth Rate.
Wait i dont understand....the last time i went to korea, all i saw were couples on the street....everyone roamed the streets in pairs...it got annoying real quick...so why are they having this issue
Bingo
Even here in the US it's a dumpster fire
i find it ironically that they were one that set up this horrible system in the first system
People r too tired working hard to make a decent living and so nobody has the time nor resources to start a family...
k-boos mustn't work so they have time to get married to Korean man and increase birth rate
Don't be a prude love will always have time and purpose
I wish I could get that, matchmaking, wedding, free childcare...😊
Capitalists trying to create more workers to get cheap labor 😂😂😂
don't balloon they need 300+$ per child and additional 200$ for nany
Seongnam City's fresh and lovely ideas are cool
Why is it called Solomon's choice?
Change the work culture. Nobody in right minds would bring children into their world.
More marriages and more babies. 👶🍼👶🍼
Xenophobia. This has been present in the Lnad of the Morning Calmf for ages. The good thing is more and more interracial marriages are growing Korea. Just accept the fact that foreign brides and in some cases foreign grooms will have to be embraced. This will be difficult for many in Korea. How do I know this? I was born in Busan but fortunatley I grew up in the USA.
The misogyny in the culture is outrageous. WHY would anyone want to participate in the overwhelming work, bullying and outrageous cost of living. The housing costs…having to live with parents. I hope the best for S.K’s future but I feel new laws are necessary in order to protect women against SA as highlighted in the BBC Burning Sun Scandal.
Maybe support the gender inequalities in their country and also the cut throat work society
I'm not sure what it's like in S. Korea, but I see low income families with children all of the time where I'm from. I'm assuming that societies view on the low income, and the lack of low income assistance is another factor to blame?
Really simple solution - open the citizenship eligibility to foreigners who'd be willing and able to marry and give birth to a new generation - of mixed heritage/ethnic Korean citizens. Then offer them housing in lower populated cities outside the major metropolitan areas. They're not interested in the higher cost of living areas - they just want a better quality of life - even if it's in rural areas. Many of them are already college educated or have trained vocational skills.
Dont have women in the workplace. Provide better pay for the head of the household. There, problem solved.
Men turn to brutes when women are fully dependent upon them which is why a lot of women enjoy financial freedom. It allows a woman to deal with a man at her convenience!
Are you offering gender discriminatory solution??😂😂 women get job with their own merit. They are not cheap products as what you think. If you want to abandon them in the house, then people will kill female embryo and will not invest in raising girls.
🤦♂️🤦♂️🤦♂️
Agreed. Women should stay home. Cook and clean. Raise the kids. Men can work more efficiently then.
Close. Problem worsened. But that's not surprising seeing as your first thought is to crack down on women financially.