Jun Gak Han is a one-man matchmaking machine. He’s a solo operation working out of Queens, catering to single Koreans and their concerned family members. Perhaps even more fascinating than Han’s present career is his past—he and several of his brothers escaped North Korea for Seoul, then the United States, during the Korean War. At Narratively, Susan M. Lee encourages Han to tell his life story:
Han attributes his business tenacity to the harsh experiences of his early life. “When you have to survive, your mind lights up and you become bright,” he says.
As for the secret to finding love, he reveals none of his secrets—only that instinct and intuition seem to prevail. “Three seconds,” he says. “You know in three seconds.” When he met his wife, he recalls simply: “I instantly liked her. After talking to her a while, I found out that she was a good one.”
His advice for couples seeking harmony is equally straightforward: “There’s a thing that a man wants to hear from his wife. What is it? ‘You can do anything you want.’ And women want to hear ‘You’re beautiful, I love you.’”
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