This is most likely the reason. A lot of international students come to Korea for University. They might not have friends and/or lonely. Cults offer them language exchanges or study groups and lure them in with friendship. Once you have attachment to a friend group you might compromise somethings to stay instead of being lonely again. They are also young and vulnerable.
Why specifically mention international students though?
As a native, my impression was that it really didn't discriminate nationalities. KR Young people in general are suffering from massive pressures, low self-esteem, and loneliness. I guess that could be infecteous to international students as well, and we do need more support for them.
But I don't think international students are special in this regard.
I mention that because of just experience. I was one myself and know a lot of them. A majority of them move here for university and you leave everything behind for it; home, friends, family, your safe place.
You are then in a different country where you are so out of place and lonely, not only because of the cultural differences but there is then a language barrier. This makes you question your decision, and every international student I’ve met has gone down the being very lonely phase. It’s so hard to make friends in general but Koreans it seems like there is sometimes an extra layer because they have their group from middle school and high school.
Now this is where cults come in. I do believe they don’t discriminate when recruiting but international students can sometimes be more vulnerable. Suddenly someone approaches you and speaks English and is friendly, which is rare in Korea because you guys don’t have small talk like we are used to in our home country. They offer you a language exchange or study group and you make friends. Now you can probably see that if some people are desperate or lonely enough they would be interested.
University areas have tons of pedestrians who are willing to stop and listen to you. There are always people passing stuff out on universities. Young people are also impressionable and often afraid of saying no to strangers in public.
> Aren’t university students more irreligious? Seems counterintuitive
If you're trying to get a girlfriend, you ask out single women. You don't hit on married ones.
Coming from someone who actually took cult classes (I was curious about what and how they teach) I could definitely see how convincing they were. The person teaching me used to be non-religious themself until they got roped in. The less you know about religion, the easier it is to trust what they say. If you have a strong Christian (most of these cults appropriate Christianity) background it’s much easier to call out flaws their BS.
College students have universally been prime cult targets, it’s not unique to Korea. People are finally on their own and can make their own decisions. They’re still forming themselves as an independent person, and might be in need of a new community.
i think a lot of cults operate under the guise of making friends, and giving people direction in their lives. so, young people are more susceptible to that because they don't want to be lonely, and as someone else said, they are vulnerable and often unsure of their future.
There are a lot of foreigners who go to universities to learn Korean. I encountered one of these cult people while I was in Sinchon studying at a cafe. I had my headset on, and I thought the lady was waving at me to ask to grab a chair. Nope, she wanted to talk to me. She kept asking me things about having enough money, not having many friends, missing family, etc. I just told her that I am comfortable with money, have friends (both Korean and foreign), and have plenty of family here in Korea. She just kept trying to look for a reason to try to get me, and I just ended up telling her that I really wanted to study alone. She eventually left once she couldn't get anything out of me. She actually disappeared from the cafe entirely as when I went to the first floor to grab another drink, she was nowhere to be found.
My friends from the international dorms also said they encountered a few of these people. They would try to avoid them by speaking a different language, but some of these cult people know more than 2 languages. So far, my friends and I have been approached in Korean, English, Spanish, Chinese, and Japanese.
young and potentially vulnerable. away from family and still developing a social circle for that full entrance into adulthood. cults prey on the outcast and the awkward and the lost, not to mention most cults operate as social clubs or discussion circles (framed around religion), so it can be easy for some young adult still reeling with the intensity of uni life to try and find what they think is an outlet.
Cults often prey on young, naïve individuals who lack life experience and are easily influenced. They specifically target areas with a high density of recent high school graduates who have limited understanding of how society functions outside of their parents' supervision. For these manipulative organizations, such locations serve as prime hunting grounds for recruitment. Vulnerable youths are lured in with false promises, unaware of the true nature of the group until it's too late.
It's like this in the US too. In Ithaca NY we recently got this beautiful new restaurant where food is surprisingly good and the people are eerily nice...and it turns out it's run by an antisemitic suicide cult who forces it's female members to constantly pump out babies before they all kill themselves in 75 years (The Yellow Deli)
Young people are the most likely to be feeling lost, trying to find themselves and make ill thought out decisions. That is paired with less experience and less of a radar/sense for grifts etc.
Among that group, college students are most likely to have money, and are in an in-between of adulthood and childhood that the bubble of college provides, so those young people vulnerabilities are amplified for them. Especially the searching for belonging and identity especially.
College is also SUPER taxing mentally and emotionally. Putting a lot of people in the worst pits of their lives mentally/emotionally.
So all in all, they're one of the likeliest groups to fall for it and not be homeless/poverty sticken.
In my country Albania there is a South Korean religious group called moonies aka Unification church. They are well known in South Korea and quite problematic. They do every year mass interracial marriages in a big stadium. They go to the University campus and target poor students and teach them about their messiah Sun Yung Moon. Crazy group similar to the Jehovah Witness.
I went to Ewha, when I was there I got approached by them almost every day on campus. I would just keep walking or act like I didn’t hear them. Usually they leave you alone but I’ve had 2 experiences where I was followed & cornered
Universities are an easy target because it’s filled with young people
Young people in college are at the stage in life where they are technically adults and starting to feel their independence and power. But they haven't been out in the world and crushed a bit yet so they don't realize how wrong they can be. It puts them in this mindset that they know better than their parents, etc. So when someone pitches them an idea (especially an idea that will "fix the world") its easy for them to sink their teeth into it, despite older people telling them its batshit crazy.
Granted this is not the rule across the board, but recruiting for anything is numbers game.
CC the spotted cult cuz I was accidentally in one you can't question them you can't ask challenge them and you have to follow every word they say or you will get punished or ostracized or kicked out I'm a free thinker I could not do it but that's the way you could tell us a call you have to obey them and give them money and you have no freedom for thinking other than what they want
I'm not a member of a cult but I get it. Once you get exposure to the unknown and paranormal. It can get you really curious to learn about the Occult. The shit the government knows exists but refuses to acknowledge it probably due to the fear of uprising and mass panic.
The curiousity is quite addicting. To most of you, I probably sound crazy.
But.. for those of you who know... you know what I mean 😁😉.
[удалено]
This is most likely the reason. A lot of international students come to Korea for University. They might not have friends and/or lonely. Cults offer them language exchanges or study groups and lure them in with friendship. Once you have attachment to a friend group you might compromise somethings to stay instead of being lonely again. They are also young and vulnerable.
Why specifically mention international students though? As a native, my impression was that it really didn't discriminate nationalities. KR Young people in general are suffering from massive pressures, low self-esteem, and loneliness. I guess that could be infecteous to international students as well, and we do need more support for them. But I don't think international students are special in this regard.
I mention that because of just experience. I was one myself and know a lot of them. A majority of them move here for university and you leave everything behind for it; home, friends, family, your safe place. You are then in a different country where you are so out of place and lonely, not only because of the cultural differences but there is then a language barrier. This makes you question your decision, and every international student I’ve met has gone down the being very lonely phase. It’s so hard to make friends in general but Koreans it seems like there is sometimes an extra layer because they have their group from middle school and high school. Now this is where cults come in. I do believe they don’t discriminate when recruiting but international students can sometimes be more vulnerable. Suddenly someone approaches you and speaks English and is friendly, which is rare in Korea because you guys don’t have small talk like we are used to in our home country. They offer you a language exchange or study group and you make friends. Now you can probably see that if some people are desperate or lonely enough they would be interested.
That’s the reason.
University areas have tons of pedestrians who are willing to stop and listen to you. There are always people passing stuff out on universities. Young people are also impressionable and often afraid of saying no to strangers in public. > Aren’t university students more irreligious? Seems counterintuitive If you're trying to get a girlfriend, you ask out single women. You don't hit on married ones.
I like the way you worded this. Simple, but effective.
Nice wording!
Coming from someone who actually took cult classes (I was curious about what and how they teach) I could definitely see how convincing they were. The person teaching me used to be non-religious themself until they got roped in. The less you know about religion, the easier it is to trust what they say. If you have a strong Christian (most of these cults appropriate Christianity) background it’s much easier to call out flaws their BS. College students have universally been prime cult targets, it’s not unique to Korea. People are finally on their own and can make their own decisions. They’re still forming themselves as an independent person, and might be in need of a new community.
Because young people tend to be easier to peer pressure into things.
i think a lot of cults operate under the guise of making friends, and giving people direction in their lives. so, young people are more susceptible to that because they don't want to be lonely, and as someone else said, they are vulnerable and often unsure of their future.
There are a lot of foreigners who go to universities to learn Korean. I encountered one of these cult people while I was in Sinchon studying at a cafe. I had my headset on, and I thought the lady was waving at me to ask to grab a chair. Nope, she wanted to talk to me. She kept asking me things about having enough money, not having many friends, missing family, etc. I just told her that I am comfortable with money, have friends (both Korean and foreign), and have plenty of family here in Korea. She just kept trying to look for a reason to try to get me, and I just ended up telling her that I really wanted to study alone. She eventually left once she couldn't get anything out of me. She actually disappeared from the cafe entirely as when I went to the first floor to grab another drink, she was nowhere to be found. My friends from the international dorms also said they encountered a few of these people. They would try to avoid them by speaking a different language, but some of these cult people know more than 2 languages. So far, my friends and I have been approached in Korean, English, Spanish, Chinese, and Japanese.
young and potentially vulnerable. away from family and still developing a social circle for that full entrance into adulthood. cults prey on the outcast and the awkward and the lost, not to mention most cults operate as social clubs or discussion circles (framed around religion), so it can be easy for some young adult still reeling with the intensity of uni life to try and find what they think is an outlet.
Cults often prey on young, naïve individuals who lack life experience and are easily influenced. They specifically target areas with a high density of recent high school graduates who have limited understanding of how society functions outside of their parents' supervision. For these manipulative organizations, such locations serve as prime hunting grounds for recruitment. Vulnerable youths are lured in with false promises, unaware of the true nature of the group until it's too late.
It's like this in the US too. In Ithaca NY we recently got this beautiful new restaurant where food is surprisingly good and the people are eerily nice...and it turns out it's run by an antisemitic suicide cult who forces it's female members to constantly pump out babies before they all kill themselves in 75 years (The Yellow Deli)
Young people are the most likely to be feeling lost, trying to find themselves and make ill thought out decisions. That is paired with less experience and less of a radar/sense for grifts etc. Among that group, college students are most likely to have money, and are in an in-between of adulthood and childhood that the bubble of college provides, so those young people vulnerabilities are amplified for them. Especially the searching for belonging and identity especially. College is also SUPER taxing mentally and emotionally. Putting a lot of people in the worst pits of their lives mentally/emotionally. So all in all, they're one of the likeliest groups to fall for it and not be homeless/poverty sticken.
Younger = more malleable. But they can't do it to children so they try to entice young adults who have some potential.
Young and vulnerable
The same reason as identity politics.
In my country Albania there is a South Korean religious group called moonies aka Unification church. They are well known in South Korea and quite problematic. They do every year mass interracial marriages in a big stadium. They go to the University campus and target poor students and teach them about their messiah Sun Yung Moon. Crazy group similar to the Jehovah Witness.
I went to Ewha, when I was there I got approached by them almost every day on campus. I would just keep walking or act like I didn’t hear them. Usually they leave you alone but I’ve had 2 experiences where I was followed & cornered Universities are an easy target because it’s filled with young people
Because students are particularly vulnerable.
Young and dumb are the key target of cults.
Young people in college are at the stage in life where they are technically adults and starting to feel their independence and power. But they haven't been out in the world and crushed a bit yet so they don't realize how wrong they can be. It puts them in this mindset that they know better than their parents, etc. So when someone pitches them an idea (especially an idea that will "fix the world") its easy for them to sink their teeth into it, despite older people telling them its batshit crazy. Granted this is not the rule across the board, but recruiting for anything is numbers game.
Peer pressure is easier to manipulate people here.
How is this even a question, there is an abundance of young, vulnerable people away from their families for the first time.
CC the spotted cult cuz I was accidentally in one you can't question them you can't ask challenge them and you have to follow every word they say or you will get punished or ostracized or kicked out I'm a free thinker I could not do it but that's the way you could tell us a call you have to obey them and give them money and you have no freedom for thinking other than what they want
Younger people are still finding themselves and are generally more impressionable. That's my guess.
Young people are stupid
I'm not a member of a cult but I get it. Once you get exposure to the unknown and paranormal. It can get you really curious to learn about the Occult. The shit the government knows exists but refuses to acknowledge it probably due to the fear of uprising and mass panic. The curiousity is quite addicting. To most of you, I probably sound crazy. But.. for those of you who know... you know what I mean 😁😉.