[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).