Premarital cohabitation means that men and women live together before they get married. In the past, there was a stigma about cohabitation before marriage. However, our society is changing, social opinion of premarital cohabitation is improving, and the number of people who live together before marriage are also increasing. We heard the readers' opinion.

“I am in favor of premarital cohabitation by these reasons. First, by living together before marriage, you can understand well about the opposite sex. If you live together, you can accept the hidden side of your partner that you couldn’t see before. Also, you can develop an attitude about acknowledging and accommodating differences between you and your partner. Through this process, the amount of divorces as a result of couples’ differences will be reduced.

Second, it’s more efficient compared to the system called ‘marriage.’ Premarital cohabitation is relatively free compared to marriage. Therefore, responsibility is lower, and meeting and saying good-bye don’t affect social recognition too much. In other words, cohabitation before marriage allows you to learn a method of overcoming gender differences, and reduce the divorce rate. Also, there’s a few benefits and obligation compared to marriage, you can make free relationships between the opposite sex. Therefore, I think premarital cohabitation is good.”

Jang Jae-young (Dept. of International Trade)

“Before discussing premarital cohabitation, we have to think about what ‘marriage’ is. In fact, marriage is just a system that people made. However, that system may be the formulated norm for many people. The system is that two people love each other, and choose to be together. If you think based on this idea, you could realize that ‘marriage’ is the legal form of cohabitation, and the ’premarital cohabitation’ is illegal. Also, discussion about living together before marriage is naturally connected to sexual intercourse before marriage. Then, what is the problem? Many examples show that in the end, cohabitation before marriage isn’t good. Most people feel guilty because they think that they break a certain law in their mind. Also, some people give up their marriage because of a broken fantasy of cohabitation. Of course, there are some people living well through premarital cohabitation and finally they will choose marriage. My position of cohabitation before marriage is ‘don’t recommend’ rather than ‘pull apart’.”

Lee Si-young (Dept. of International Trade)

Oh Yu-ju  -

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