Korean Job Discussion Forums

[aphase]

Does this not go against their visa to do this?

I ask because a couple days ago I saw about 4-6 mormons standing outside a subway entrance near where I work. They had a sign taped to the ground leading to the stairs that said "Free English Class" and when I got to the top of the stairs I saw them handing out flyers and such. I picked up one of the flyers and the web address said www.lds.co.kr (not sure of the exact address, don't have the flyer on hand) which I assume means Latter Day saints.

I would think that would be out of the scope of their visa no?

Regardless, it's a pretty dirty tactic to be using to convert people. They should just be honest about it instead of trying to disguise themselves as only providing free english lessons with no strings attached.

[CentralCali]

How many times do we have to go through this?

1. It's not against their visa. Their visa, for the foreign missionaries, is as minister of religion. The English lessons are provided as community service. The missionaries are assigned by their mission president to perform a certain number of hours of community service each week.

2. For the Korean missionaries, of course, they need no visa to be in Korea.

3. For both the foreign and Korean missionaries, they serve their missions at their own cost. They are not paid.

4. Again, the English lessons are considered to be community service. They are provided at no cost whatsoever to the individuals coming to the lessons.

5. There's nothing dirty about it. At the lessons, which are only conducted at the church, the missionaries explain that there will be a spiritual message at the end of the lesson. The lesson itself has nothing to do with conversions. Nobody is forced to convert.

6. The link should be www.lds.or.kr and is the Korean website for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints (spelled without the hypen) is another outfit entirely apart from the Mormons.

7. The aforementioned church has had a good working relationship for over 50 years with the Korean government. Said government's Immigration Office in Busan has specifically stated that providing community service does not violate the visa.

[hugekebab]

Mormons/Jehovah's/LDS are absolute nobs. They are insidious creeps who try to hide the fact that that want to recruit vulnerable/young people into their cult by A. pretending to be your friend and B. other tactics such as the one mentioned above. I'm sick of all the religious freaks in this country; mostly from the extra crazy religions of North American origin. It's absolute insanity. I can't go for a walk in my local bus terminal without being bothered by these insane zealots; every time, they come up to me, pretending to be my friend, then they slowly take a right hook with the religious leaflet.

We had some of these nobbers in our uni the other day, one of my colleagues tried asking them to leave the campus and they started bringing up all legal shit i.e. this is public property etc. (it's not, it's private)

There's a wave of insanity sweeping this country; almost every student I have seems to spend their entire weekend going to these massive, money driven, tastelessly decorated, factory churches.

[aphase]

[CentralCali]

And you could manage to practice some good manners. If you think it's so wrong of them to do that, grab a phone and report them. But be prepared to be laughed at when you report a church for providing a community service at no cost.

Or you could've just asked the missionaries yourself. I'm fairly certain they speak English!

Nobody's being forced to attend church services either. There are no strings attached.

[hugekebab]

[nomad-ish]

just yesterday i got a package in the mail at my school addressed to the "foreign english teacher". inside, a pastor's letters and church booklets. i've been harassed on the streets a lot by religious nuts since i came to korea, i've even been followed home by some missionaries once.

why is it that they seek out foreigners exactly? is it because they think we're vulnerable being in a foreign country?

[aphase]

[hugekebab]

[Straphanger]

[hugekebab]

[nomad-ish]

i don't think they seek out everybody. countless times i'm walking down the street and i hear the click-click-click of the church ladies chasing me , all the while they're passing by lots of other potential recruits. i usually just say no thanks and keep on walking, sometimes i'm stuck with a leaflet for a block or so.

kebab, almost every english teacher you've met over here is mentally ill? who are you hanging out with!

[hugekebab]

[anyangoldboy]

They've been doing it for years...the mormons in my first year were very nice guys...They didnt want to convert us...they were just tired of speaking broken english all the time and just wanted to see white peopl

[Underwaterbob]

Ha, the missionaries in my middle-of-nowhere town are all desperate for English-speaking human contact. I had lunch with a couple of em once since they were so lost and pathetic looking. Nice pair of guys. Religion didn't come up once.