So, I was eating at an Italian restaurant here in Japan, with my Japanese friend, and I saw a table that had ads and coupons for other businesses usually local businesses, near the entrance. My friend picked up one of the papers, and sai d (in Japanese) "What's this, it seems to be free English classes". Anyway, I took a look at the paper, and to my disbelief and disgust, it was a paper for an Mormon organization(?) called "Goeigo". (Eigo means English, in Japanese). (The website is Goeigo.org)

Despite being Mormon affiliated, neither the ad nor the website used the word 'Mormon'. Instead, they used the long proper name, as well as the acronym LDS. The thing is, most Japanese people have heard of "Mormon", but not "LDS" or the longer name. So they don't realize it's the same church. My friend, who is fairly intelligent and well-read about global politics, religion and such did not recognize the name of the "church", so I had to tell my friend, "It's basically a Mormon organization. Do not trust them." My friend, who knows about the church, and has a negative impression about them, then said, "Thanks for telling me about it. I already go to a non-religious English conversational school, so I would have no need for this stuff, anyway."

I think it's disingenuous, because the organization seemed to deliberately use the word LDS and the longer name, in a country that is not really familiar with those names.

They claim to offer free English classes (saying "All of our instructors are native speakers"), and say that the students themselves have to provide the textbooks to use.

While at least they are being honest that their purpose to help Japanese people converse in English, I'm a bit skeptical because of the bait and switch tactics the missionaries have used in this country for years. Also, while it's marginally a better way to spend time (both for missionaries and local Japanese),instead of bugging Japanese people at train stations or on the street, I'm worried about the missionaries and/or instructors taking advantage of their position to prey on people and lure people in to the cult.

To be fair though, a quick glance of Japanese language message boards, social media, Q&A sites, and Google searches reveal that quite a few Japanese people know (or found out?) it's a Mormon organization, and are warning people that there are other ways (non religious ways) to learn English. Of course, there's always going to be gullible people who won't know.

The free English lessons isn't new. We were doing that 30 years ago in Japan.

It's disengeneous to not say upfront that they are a church, and this is another sign they are a cult.

It says they are a church, but it's strange for them to use 'LDS' and the longer name, when they well know the Japanese are more familiar with 'Mormon'.

There is an introductory video online (in English and Japanese) that actually does use the word 'Mormon' to refer to the religious affiliation of the missionaries teaching English with Goeigo Eikaiwa.

20 years and $200,000 later you find out that L. Ron Hubbard is God.

This is a pretty standard recruiting tactic for cults.

Here are some translations of reactions (by Japanese people) about this organization (or TSCC) that I found online. This is from a thread that was talking abou Goeigo. Goeigo has locations (makeshift classrooms) nationwide.

"The Mormons, right? They're basically not allowed to consume caffeine. That means, they can't even drink tea! That's so horrible."

"The fact that they are trying to claim to teach English, rather than convert you, ironically makes it sound more fishy/suspicious."

"I've been there, and they tried to convert me. If you just want to learn English, I don't recommend it."

"I've been there too, and while the religious pushiness was irritating, the conversations weren't bad per se."

"Go there only if you want the Mormon church to know your personal information. I heard they are relentless in terms of tracking you down."

"If they truly are doing this as a volunteer, like a volunteer organization as they claim to be, then why are they collecting personal information of their students? It makes me suspicious about how they will use that info."

"I think the Mormon 'religion' is like the 3rd worst cult you could ever join; the worst would be the Aum cult (responsible for the sarin gas attack in 95), the 2nd would be the Moonies. 3rd, the Mormons."

"Here's my experience going there....On my first day, I had some basic explanations about their service, then I got a nametag, then we sang a religious song, then we prayed, and then we started conversing in English. Anyway, I was made to read some some of paper about the Mormons. It's not forcing you to be a member, but they also said that as a student of Goeigo, I had to listen to some elder talk about Mormonism, every 2 weeks. At least in my case, I wasn't specifically prolysetized."

"If you ever see a Mormon, ask them if they know about Mormons and Pyramid Schemes. I swear that they will vehemently deny that, and say that it's supposed to be called 'Multi-Level Marketing'."

"If you want to just chitchat in English, you'd be better off going to a Philippine Pub (note: nightclub that employs Filipinas as the hostesses)"

"I've been to Goeigo before, but never tell anybody your phone number or your address. There's also allegedly a Mormon who's pretending to be a another student there, that might use that info to recruit you. If there are social events that you get invited to, during your time at Goeigo, don't go to those Mormon social events."

"They may be able to 'teach' you English for free, but the members of the church must pay 10% of their income to the church. So, if you only earn 2 million yen a year, you have to pay 200000 yen (note: about 2000 dollars) a year to the church if you become a member. That's not cheap at all."

"I went to the Goeigo class briefly, then I didn't go after that. Anyway, I got phone calls from them, and after I ignored those calls, they came to my house! They're like stalkers, basically."

"The 'We teach English for free' thing is a bait. If you become interested in Mormonism because of that, and you join the church, you have to pay 10% of your income to the church. You're better off going to a proper English conversation school, even if it costs money."

"I'm a Japanese Mormon, but I'm becoming skeptical of Mormonism. When I tried to join Goeigo and take classes there, they told me that I hadn't paid tithing, so I couldn't attend. Yet never-Mormons can attend for free."

"I went to the Goeigo classroom in Sagamihara city a few times. There was no outright push to join the church, but we did have to pray. That said, from my experiences, I don't think it's useful to improve your conversational abilities."

"They seem to have a lot of money to create an organization like this, given that the believers must pay 10% of their income. But the Mormon church doesn't seem to understand that there is no way that a 'religion' that bans tea would be able to go mainstream in Japan, a country that has a long history and culture revolving around tea. They must be complete idiots to
not understand that."

"When I was at the train station this evening, I saw some really suspicious looking foreign guys passing out flyers about this so-called free English class."

"Seriously, what kind of loser joins the Mormon church in this day and age??? If you become baptized and become a Mormon, it's like walking around with a T-shirt that sayd 'I'm an idiot who can't say no'"

LivinginJapan Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> Here are some translations of reactions (by
> Japanese people) about this organization (or TSCC)
> that I found online. This is from a thread that
> was talking abou Goeigo. Goeigo has locations
> (makeshift classrooms) nationwide.
>


Many are very good, but this one nailed it!

>
> "They seem to have a lot of money to create an
> organization like this, given that the believers
> must pay 10% of their income. But the Mormon
> church doesn't seem to understand that there is no
> way that a 'religion' that bans tea would be able
> to go mainstream in Japan, a country that has a
> long history and culture revolving around tea.
> They must be complete idiots to
> not understand that."

Love the quote marks around religion.

Thank you for this, Livinginjapan. It has made my day to know that the cult isn't fooling everyone in the world. Mormons brag about sending their wonderful missionaries (our children and grandchildren) to every corner of the globe, and growing the church at a rapid rate. According to these Japanese reactions, they see The Mormons as just more cult stalkers. I love the Truth!

Oh living in Japan, you made my day! I'm so glad to hear the youth of Japan aren't being duped anymore. I think I'm going to show up at these things, say I'm a former Mormon who's happy to teach you conversational English for free. Let's go out for tea and talk about all the real history of this cult. That sounds like fun. My DH taught these so called English lessons as a missionary there. He actually tried to be a good teacher and made some good friends we still see. He feels so guilty about the one guy he baptized though, I wish we could rescue him and his young family. They are so poor, it's so sad to think of them giving money to the morg, who actually looks down on them and their beautiful culture because they aren't European Caucasian.

I went on their website and even though I don't understand the language I looked up a video of their teaching and indeed underneath the video there was a copyright of tscc dated of this year.

...he website has multiple pix of your "instructors"...all Mishies assigned to Japan, I would guess. There doesn't appear any intent to hide the agenda........recruit, recruit, recruit!!






http://goeigo.org/staff/elder-poff/

I also thank you for posting and it's encouraging to see from those comments at least some aren't falling for the morg's disgusting opportunistic tactics! I especially like that last piece of feedback, lol.

From YouTube - Posted by Goeigo lds -- http://m.youtube.com/#/channel/UCBiv_SPc2qEpqsYPmff94pw

GOEIGO - English Conversation Class Training Video : Introduction (in English)
A senior female lds missionary is giving instruction to junior missionaries:
http://m.youtube.com/watch?v=SOP1eql7A10



Edited 2 time(s). Last edit at 04/21/2014 10:47AM by Plaid n Paisley.

It looks like you can't fool the Japanese. Interesting that the missionaries wouldn't let a non-tithe paying member take the classes. No English for you!

Accessed the site. When you go to the downloads page for the English manual, you will be delighted to read right on the cover "Beginning English..Mormon Helping Hands English Class".

Lesson 5 is "Friends/Forgiveness"

Yikes, you know where that's going.

"Vocabulary: Enemy
"I don't like to ____ with my enemy.""

Well, I know a four letter word that starts with 'f' that I'd write in there. Do you think this is a discussion starter about the cult?

"Vocabulary: Mouth
"I use my mouth to _______.""

Seriously? Who writes this $h!+e?

"Conversation
A: How are you doing?
B: Great! What about you?
A: I’m doing well. What have you been doing lately? B: I have been studying English. And you?
A: I have been hanging out with my _____. Have you seen Tess? I heard she had an argument with her boyfriend. B: Yes, I heard about that. Did they make up yet? A: I don’t know. I need to go. We’ll talk more later. Goodbye."

Sounds like your typical Ward Council meeting conversation to me.

Mid-term Class Evaluation Questions:
"Would you recommend this class to a friend or family member?
_____Yes ____No
If not, why not?

--------

Have you ever brought a friend or family member to English class?
_____Yes _____No

And there you have it, ladies and gentlemen! The Mormon Golden Question to reap investigators.

From Goeigo's FAQ page: via Google Translate

"Free English Learning Really?
Why not?
Yes. All classes are offered free of charge. Teach a class, it is a missionary of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints Church (Mormon Church). It is a college student absent from school for two years or a year and a half mainly, is doing missionary work in Japan. Because I came to Japan as a volunteer, reward, we do not get the donation. Text from the site download you can, but we ask everyone to each student print."

Sounds pretty straightforward until you read the above-mentioned comments from students that someone posted earlier.

"Do you prepare yourself text?
English conversation classes are conducted free of charge, but if I have to prepare yourself to all of the students only text. The text from the site download so you can, each, please ready to print. It does not provide that you can print in the church, missionaries to print."

Effin' cult can build a billion dollar mall and buy property in Florida but won't print their own stupid English manuals. What a load of excrement!

FWIW, here's another Mission Call video of someone headed off to Japan:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ne6WdXjr4tQ

Thanks for sharing. Even as a TBM, I was kind of iffy on the Free English lessons because it was so obviously a way to try to convert people, rather than a genuine effort to help people out for the sake of doing so. But I figured as long as it was immediately obvious (the lessons were in a freaking church building), then people could decide for themselves whether the praying and 5-minute mini lesson at the end was worth the conversation practice or not.

This Goeigo business sounds really terrible, though, not to mention desperate. My friend was converted because of these kinds of classes, so I worry about other young people like him.

Interesting to see opinions of Mormons from Japanese people, though. I agree with the person who said that they don't have any chance of going mainstream as long as they police important aspects of Japanese culture, like tea. (That kind of stuff was one of the final nails in the coffin for me as a TBM)

Of course, while the internet reactions aren't representative of all Japanese people, they are refreshing to hear, as religion or cults are not really discussed in public in this country.

That said, there will probably be gullible or ignorant people who will fall for the stuff, but there's also plenty of people here who won't.

I was always under the impression that you can't really throw the word "cult" around in Japan very easily, since most people associate it with Aum-levels of crazy, and to imply someone is on par with that is basically a giant slap in the face.

That said, I can think of a few cults that could fit the #3 spot, but it's understandable why any organization on the cult spectrum would leave a particularly bad taste in that person's mouth (or most people over there, really).

A lot of the people who do fall for it probably like the idea of "being part of something bigger", if that makes sense. At least, that's the impression I got from my friend who joined a couple of years before I met him. He's a smart guy, really, but I think not having access to Japanese-language sources that aren't filtered by the church doesn't do him any favors. :(

That is interesting because I didn't really consider the church a cult until I read Haruki Murakami's book on the gas attack/Aum and recognized how the church's brainwashing was so similar. I don't hesitate to call the church a cult now.

That's how they converted my mom and her friend, they went to the free English classes taught by the sister missionaries.

Was teaching English 18 years ago in Japan, most people came once of twice, got a bad vibe, didn't come again. The class was mostly a lot of long-term students who realized that as long as they could handle saying no every couple of months to a new Elder they could take free English classes indefinitely.

This looks like just new branding on an old program. As for your complaint about not using "Mormon" I would be concerned if the church was not mentioned at all, but to use the full, official, legal name clearly is hardly grounds for criticism. I understand the part about them being better known as Mormons, but TSCC generally tries to stick to the official name everywhere.

The problem I see with the name thing, is that most never-Mo Japanese do not really recognize the proper name for the church.They wonder 'what church is this?' and hear from other people that 'The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints' and 'Mormon' is the same thing.

If the flyer and website could have added a bit that explains that, or said something like 'You may have heard the word "Mormon", well that's actually us, and this is our proper name" I would be more satisfied.

So, I know it's not legally a problem, but knowing that most Japanese people are unfamiliar with 'LDS' or the longer name, they could have added a bit of info clarifying who they are, in terms that the Japanese people could understand very clearly from the get-go.

Maybe they want to stick to the official name, but if you allegedly want people to know about your church, why only use a term that nobody really recognizes? At the very least they should have clarified that 'Mormon' , while well-know in Japan, is a colloquial term.

Basically, what I want to say is, most Japanese people who see the flyer or visit the website wouldn't really recognize that name LDS or TCOJCOLDS. If their goal is to interact with Japanese people, get converts, etc, it's only common sense to use the name that the Japanese people are familiar with. At the very least, they should have used both, or clarified that the longer name is the proper name and they wish to be referred to as such.

The literal Japanese name/translation of TCOJCOLDS makes it sound like it's another mainstream Christian church. They only find out it's a Mormon affilliated place after they set foot there, or from hearsay, or by Googling. So I don't think my criticism was ungrounded. It's just disingenuous to use the name that the Japanese aren't familiar with, with no clarification or explanation.

Oh I know, but is it really that unique? I've seen plenty of "Oh, you're Mormons" in English as well. Once they see the nametags they will know exactly what's happening. And is it deceptive in a way? Yes, but that's not new to anyone on this board.

None of this is new, and Japanese people aren't easily fooled into converting to any religion. Missionaries definitely won't be securing any baptisms by providing fake eikawa lessons. Japanese love their green tea, alcohol, and masturbation, and there's no luck in getting any salaryman to spend his precious day off sitting in a church and giving up 10% of his income. Nothing to worry about here..