On 허세

Hus.

I think I have a good understanding of 허세. Let me share the wisdom.

허세 is an act that puts more focus on its presentation than the actual action itself. It is deliberately executed. An example is holding the Starbucks cup with the logo showing. An extension of this is taking a picture this way and uploading on public cyberspace like facebook or cyworld. This Starbucks example may only apply exclusively to Koreans, but you get the point. Another common method is car key. Let that Mercedes trigon (to be fair, not quite a trigon, but w.e.) glare. Casually put it out on the table as if your skinny jean is too tight for your keys to squeeze through its pockets.

On what occasions does 허세 turn people, or more specifically girls, off? This happens when the 허세 is seen through - when one is caught practicing it. If played right, 허세 can reap its share of positive outcome, but the consequence of failure hits hard. For one, it receives criticism for its deviousness. Bragging is annoying, but humble-bragging is worse. 허세 is analogous to humor in that it's annoying when one tries to be funny; natural, effortless humor is way more pleasant. Secondly, if the girl has equivalent material or merit that matches yours, you lose.

So in a way, 허세 is a gamble, but it is crackable. Here is the player's manual for those who want to win the game.

1. Guidance.
If you want to brag about your prestigious pedigree, make them ask for it. Casually throw questions like "Oh, by the way, where do you go to school?" Even this is pretty blatant; a better start would be just talking about school in general. "Ah... I don't want to go back to school.... English major at my school is so fucking rigorous" or something like that. Control the conversation and steer it toward your ultimate goal. The girl's ideal response is something along the lines of, "Me too... where do you go to school?" Now drop the Ivy bomb. I go to Columbia, bitch. GG. Don't forget to leave out the bitch part though....... lol...... (this is funny because I tried to be funny and its cute how I tried)

WARNING. Don't say "I go to a small school in New York," and be all secretive about your bomb. It can be seen as humble-brag and may turn the girl off.

2. Swag.
Another way to ensure win is swag. Like, subtly "dropping" your Harvard student ID, or something. Although this still may turn off people who go to school on par with Harvard, on most occasions, the H bomb is too deafening for girls to look askance at. I guess more progressed pedigrees like HYP => Rhodes/Marshall Scholar or HMS or 서울대 의대 (although debatable) can trump it...... but they are few in number, so pass.
In a sense, swag is like a cheat key. It wins 99.99% of the time (this is seems about right since Harvard UG students place @ around 99.99th percentile of all college students). Standards of swag may differ by person, though, so be careful. Like, a nouveau riche can't play the wealth card in front of old money. It just doesn't work. But still, swagging out is mostly pretty safe. You can't go wrong with blasting music on Aston Martin or the likes, you know?

I guess guidance is the most credited approach at it because it is reasonably easy to carry out with little risk. Also, swag is hard to achieve. Guidance on the other hand doesn't require the most 허세-esque merits; you can naturally hint that both of your parents are neurosurgeons or corporate lawyers... well, I guess these are pretty 허세-esque merits... but even your "humble" Lexus IS250 can work its magic depending on the target. Guidance is safe because the audience can't call you out for 허세 since they are the ones asking for it. Give it to them.