Korean Job Discussion Forums

noguri · Joined: 28 Nov 2005 Location: korea

I'm a friendly person and I like it when people talk to me on the street.

Usually people who approach and speak to me (whether in Korean or in English) are older folks, or perhaps mostly elderly. I like old timers, they can recall all sorts of history and interesting stuff.

However, what I don't like is that almost all of the adults I meet and chat with at some length at some point bring up their religious affiliation and question me about mine.

I would like to make some Korean friends or acqaintances who are either Christian or non-Christian, but for whom religion is just a private issue. Why is it so important for people to only relate to other Christians? How come these holy rollers just ooze out of the woodwork?

I totally respect people who go to church and that's fine, but why do people have the temerity to ask me on Sunday morning why I don't go to church? It's really nobody's bloody business, is it?

E_athlete · Joined: 09 Jun 2009 Location: Korea sparkling

gaffe · Joined: 06 Aug 2009 Location: N.C.

Do you live in Seoul? When I lived in Bucheon, it seemed everyone was a fundie. But in Ulsan I met many many people who'd say stuff like, "I'm not a Christian. I'm not Buddhist. I believe in myself." I just got the feeling that up north was much more Christian than down south.

Mithrae · Joined: 22 Jul 2009

My principle aasked me on the first day, "Are you Christian?" There should be laws against that. My beliefsa are none of his business and do not affect my ability to teach English.

djsmnc · Joined: 20 Jan 2003 Location: Dave's ESL Cafe

I don't meet many Korean Christians.

Illysook · Joined: 30 Jun 2008

In my best church lady voice...

Have you asked yourself why you seem to be meeting so many Christians? Maybe there's a reason. A reason like, maybeeee.....God!

Steelrails · Joined: 12 Mar 2009 Location: Earth, Solar System

Welcome to a different country people. Privacy of religion and such is not the same here as it is back home.

This has its downsides for Christians, people are far more stringent on booze and smokes, two of my preferred vices.

Sergio Stefanuto · Joined: 14 May 2009 Location: UK

In my experience, the theist:atheist ratio is pretty much 50:50. 'Atheist' in Korea probably means 'Buddhist' most of the time - an equally absurd, obscene dogma - but anyway, the odds of meeting non-Christian Koreans are fairly good.

pkang0202 · Joined: 09 Mar 2007

OP, any Korean you see on the street from 9am-2pm on a Sunday are probably not Christians.

I definitely wouldn't want the company of the OP. Anyone who's shallow enough to write off people just because of their religion isn't worth talking to, in my opinion.

ED209 · Joined: 17 Oct 2006

kg2095 · Joined: 23 May 2009 Location: Hwaseong City

pkang0202 · Joined: 09 Mar 2007

Princess Soraya · Joined: 30 Oct 2008

I lived with a family who went to church EVERY good day at 6am (and the 90 year old granny was up at 5am to pray). In retrospect, they never hassled me about being agnostic.
However, last semester I had a fanatic woman in my class continuously tell me that Jesus loves me and that I should get to know him. I thought that it was completely inappropriate in a university setting as it made the other students uncomfortable as well.

skinhead · Joined: 11 Jun 2004

It is hard to find a Korean who's not christly religious. They look for foreigners and then go the hard sell every time. Most Koreans' purpose in learning English is to find young inexperienced English teachers and grill them about Jeesus until they convert to Christianity. It makes them higher ranking in their church. So once you know this, you can politely tell them that you're not interested, and then they can like take it or leave it. hey? If you're having difficulty avoiding christian Koreans, you might need to move to Seoul or one of the big cities where there are more non-Korean Christians. Most of the people who live in Seoul really hate religion and won't hesitate to tell a zealous bible-basher to just go fvck off and take a run and jump in a lake. Yeah, it's open season on annoying christians there. I liked it for that reason. I got to spit on some of them. Even some of the more pushy christian Koreans made me really mad and I pushed them to get them to go away, but they still asked me why I wouldn't join their church - and I was like, whatever. It is REALLY annoying. Going to the big city was a much better place to associate with non-christian Koreans for me.

noguri · Joined: 28 Nov 2005 Location: korea

Hey, Gaffe I'm glad to hear that Ulsan is less evangelical than Seoul. I'm moving to Ulsan on Monday. My wife just got a job there! I'm looking forward to experiencing a new part of Korea.

Coincidentally I also lived in Bucheon and before that, North Carolina.

Well, I did have a student who was planning to become a missionary but he was a very bright and intelligent kid and I liked him and I was interested in hearing about his plans for becoming a missionary. I guess because he never tried to convert ME, he just liked telling me about how useful the things he was learning in my class would be for his missionary work.

Actually, at home (the U.S.) I'm aggressive in telling aggressive proselytizers to stick it where the sun don't shine, but here in Korea I do really try to be on best behavior.

I do suck it up when my neighbors ask me why I don't go to church. I say, "uh, I see your daughter has a violin case. How lovely that she plays the violin at church!" and the neighbor's beaming smile is restored once again.

However, that kind of person isn't a friend. It's just someone I have to maintain superficially friendly relations with.

I would accept an invitation to visit a friend's church if I was already close to that person. I would not accept if it were someone I'm not on close terms with already.