Like vs Love

I was on my way to buy spam kimbap for lunch today and I met a very interesting man outside a convenience store.  It appears that he’s visited several continents, is very intelligent and had an awful lot to say.  We talked a lot about the differences in English and Korean and, after some of my students walked by, he informed me of some of the slang that they use.  And how very perverted and inappropriate it is.  I’m kind of glad that I don’t understand them 98% of the time. He also knew enough about homonyms/synonyms to make quite a few jokes.  Too and two. Well and well.  Bye and bi. Old men are perverts, too.

After I told him how I love Korea, he immediately asked me the difference between like and love. That’s an odd question to get from a stranger so I wasn’t really sure how to answer or in what context he was referring to.  Then he told me from the outside they appear the same, but the difference is what’s on the inside.

L _ _ E

L _ _ E

On the outside they can look identical.

_ O V _

_  I  K  _

But it’s what’s on the inside that makes all the difference.

While I am certain that he is not the first person to think of that, it was my first time hearing it. And I thought it was cute.