Korean Job Discussion Forums

[Mikejelai]

I was here for several years in the mid/late 1990's and returned a couple of years ago. Since returning I have seen all sorts of "volunteering" photos in the papers. And a lot of my students write essays about volunteering (though some of them admit to simply buying the volunteering credits rather than actually doing the volunteer work). I even saw a photo of the president of Hyundai volunteering at an orphanage.

My question is: when did all of this volunteering become so trendy here? I think it is great if it is being done for altruistic purposes (but not so great if done for self serving purposes).

What's behind it?

[NaD00D00]

I heard a book came out about a Korean lady who did a lot of backpacking through various countries. Supposedly, she then went to Tufts/Fletcher (sp?), got a degree and became an NGO/non-profit worker. Like I said, she wrote a book about it and is famous (can't exactly remember why).

My girlfriend told me about it before when we talked about NGOs and charity work, etc. Definitely a trend across the country lately...

Supposedly, there have been instances of people signing up for volunteer work in other countries just to get out of Korea. As in, a person broke a law or whatnot and decided to volunteer to try and avoid prosecution/getting caught.

[b0101]

Middle schools and high schools now require students to do a certain number of hours of volunteer work. I think it's part of their "citizen" class or something.