[sunwooz]

Culture plays a large role. It's become a thing in America where 'fat shaming' is looked down upon. Although, shaming someone should obviously be looked down upon, merely pointing out the fact that someone is getting fat should not be deemed as 'fat shaming'. In Korea, people regularly tell each other if they're getting fat, which is not taken as an insult, but is a factual statement and is classified as 'caring' and a 'worry' rather than 'shaming'.

[Jtsummers]

My recollection of my time in Korea was that people often lived nearer extended family. This contrasts with my experiences as an American in the US, where many of us do not live near relatives, and a lot of (younger?) folks don't have a significant number (say, more than 3 or 4 locally) of close friends. I'll call this the "intimacy gap". I'm not close enough to anyone that I see on a regular basis that they'd feel comfortable commenting about my weight like that (ok, less true these days with a ton of close friends, but more true a few years back).