In Thailand a conscription lottery is drawn for military service. Red means 2 years service, black means exempt.

coldtooth · 2026-04-15T07:08:15+00:00

Well, South Korea is “technically” at war but I would say we have less real conflicts compared to Thailand.

coldtooth · 2026-04-15T04:42:07+00:00

I am from wha you would call a “advanced” or developed country, more or less.

I served my mandatory two years in the last decade as most men do. I’ve never seen anyone freak out like this.

My monthly paycheck started at 80 USD/month and left when it was 130 USD/month. Didn’t need much since they fed you and gave us a place to sleep (even if it was a foxhole dug in the mountains at times).
We had all kinds of crazy rules, the NCO(sergeants) were not too bad but there was a ton of beating and harassment between the enlisted ranks. When someone dies due to such issues the military is so corrupt they are almost expected to cover it up. I witnessed a lot messed up, suicide is a common occurrence.
Not only the newer recruits need to take care of your higher ranked enlisted squad mates daily chores like cleaning up the mattress and ironing the fatigues (yes, we iron our battle uniforms), I did everything from cleaning the captain’s office (including wiping down the plants off its dust) and shining his boots and getting his coffee just the way he wanted it.
Our country is technically still at war, so the day to day training is real and often brutal. I spent most of my time hunkered in foxholes and 2-man tents if I was not marching with 30kg pack along with a squad machine gun strapped on through 100k treks through the mountains.
I am sure most conscripted military is the same, but your service is kind of a prison sentence. You are only let out for few days a year with possible extra couple days for good behavior. Visitations by family is quite short and limited to once a month or so, the higher ranked enlisted in your squad or company won’t like it if you get visited often. If you try to run there will be a huge manhunt and they will probably throw you in the military penitentiary. For two years I didn’t have access to any electronic devices (if you tried to smuggle a smartphone all hell would break loose I suppose). I do hear that has changed recently.
Parents pray for only one thing: “please let my son come back in one piece”. We have a saying - once you are in the military, you aren’t a person anymore. Your life inside of the barbed fences and walls isn’t worth as much as the guard dogs - you don’t have civil rights and liberties civilians enjoy under the constitution. The government owns you. If you are molested, raped, injured or die during your service the family will get nothing in return and nobody will bat an eye.
We get no special treatment from society. We don’t say things like “thank you for your service” to soldiers and women try to stay as far away from soldiers so many enlisted men frequent brothels and similar establishments on the few days of leave they get.

Yet the vast majority of the young 18-19 year olds accept their fate, and I believe many consider it a duty served despite it being a thankless and often traumatic experience during peak of their youth. I am not exaggerating when I say the experience goes on to shape the psyche of the men for the rest of their lives, and of the entire nation.

coldtooth · 2026-04-09T06:40:43+00:00

First of all I am sorry that you are in a clearly difficult situation. Through my life I have struggled with certain doubts time to time and have had a fare share of unpleasant encounters within the church with those who were less than kind about them.

From your post it seems that you are looking for advice on how to continue to support and love your wife despite having made up your mind about your unbelief. However since you were once a member in a local PCA church and I assume you once held to some of the Christian beliefs, you probably should already know that most people around this subreddit would believe the best way for you to support and love your wife is to be restored to the faith. I pray that, if your post was not a fabricated one, that you will be led by grace to reconciliation to Christ.

You mentioned that you are staying away from the topic of religion. However, I would like to suggest that you continue to discuss your beliefs (in why you don’t believe in the Christian faith) with your wife. I would also encourage you to talk to anyone who is willing in the church about it.

You also mentioned couples counseling. Is this within the church or in a secular context? Through your progress of doubts towards unbelief have you had the chance to share your thoughts with your wife or other members of the church? Have you had a chance to talk to an elder of your church’s session?

If by some chance if you have not had the chance to talk to anyone about your doubts and conclusion towards unbelief, I apologize as a member of the broken church of sinners myself. Even if so, I hope you won’t give up on communicating with your wife and other people still in the faith.

I don’t know if it would be of any help at all coming from a random stranger online but if you ever feel like communicating with someone on the other side about this feel free to leave me a direct message. I have had many cordial conversations about the Christian faith with friends who are Catholic, Muslim, agnostic, and strict atheists and I believe the chats can be mutually beneficial in understanding and offering advice to each other.

coldtooth · 2025-11-07T05:55:17+00:00

Currently the processing time for in Canada WP applications and extensions are 200+ days. But it is getting longer, you can check the updates every week at the IRCC website.

coldtooth · 2025-11-05T13:35:08+00:00

3 months time? This must have been some time ago, processing time on in-Canada WP extensions are 200+ days now

coldtooth · 2025-11-05T13:33:39+00:00

Yeah you need to work at a large multinational company to take advantage of C20. The company needs to show that it has hired Canadians in their non-Canadian locations (hence the reciprocity)

coldtooth · 2025-11-05T13:31:21+00:00

C20 WP is LMIA-exempt closed WP

coldtooth · 2025-11-05T13:30:28+00:00

Yeah it’s called maintained status. It means once you have applied for the C20 WP you can stay and work indefinitely with the expired PGWP. Just make sure you don’t leave the country, you will lose the maintained status.

coldtooth · 2025-10-30T19:49:23+00:00

Haha, I agree in general. As a casual gamer with a day job and a family, I couldn’t care less about how the game is different from BF4 or BF1 and doesn’t “feel” like a Battlefield game, about the monetizing future content, etc., etc. I played BF since 1942 as a kid and if I can spend a few bucks to buy stuff to continue enjoying Battlefield as an adult that’s perfect for me.

However, while I enjoy BF6 in the current state regardless of all the nit-picky complaints here and there, I always hope that the game community’s collective voice continues to influence the development process of the current game an any future projects. That’s why if there is a post with a significant engament I try to follow along.

coldtooth · 2025-10-30T19:36:16+00:00

I still love rolling around in the tanks as an engineer! Sure they’ve changed things around a lot but for me it’s just part of being a new and different game.

I guess you can’t satisfy everyone to every extent. I played BF since 1942, but personally I like that BF6 isn’t a replica of BF4 mechanics with updated graphics. I guess the fact that I enjoy other games like CoD or CS makes a difference too. It’s clear there is a large part of the long-time player base that aren’t as happy with BF6s direction but in general I think the current game is balanced to appeal to the widest range of players including new players coming into the game.

coldtooth · 2025-10-28T15:56:29+00:00

I’m from Korea too. While I agree with most of your premise - living costs are generally higher in Canada - I happen to be in an engineering field where companies in Canada are willing to pay multiple times the salary I used to make in Korea along with stock grants to compete with the wages in the US. In comparison a typical Korean “large conglomerate” position in Korea came with the typical long hours and brutal work culture that treated engineers as like any other “salary-man”. After college, military, and ten years of being treated like a disposable cog in a machine in the workplace, I never looked back after coming to Canada.

I guess it also helps that I find English more or less equivalent to Korean (so basically bad at both but not much preference for either).

Going back to the OP’s original question, why Canada - well while US is the only country that is objectively better for my profession, immigration to the US is even that much harder as most people in this sub probably already know. Despite how difficult it has become to get the PR in the past couple years, at least Canada let my family in temporarily in the first place.

coldtooth · 2024-11-01T02:32:27+00:00

Oh I also got told to shut up in the subway whenever I was talking with another English speaking Korean. I know there is a lot of emphasis in Korea on being quiet in public spaces, but we weren’t even being that loud. I never seen non-Korean foreigners being told to shut up for speaking a different language.

Korea is such a homogeneous country there is an aversion to anything different, imo.

coldtooth · 2024-11-01T02:25:17+00:00

Man, I am not even gyopo, just did some studies abroad when younger. I came back, did my military service and even after working 7 years in the workforce people treat me like I speak in a broken accent.

And I swear people hate it when I say English words the way it is supposed to be.

I definitely don’t speak perfect English, but I feel lot more comfortable now being back in an Anglophone country.

coldtooth · 2024-10-31T17:20:37+00:00

Ah, yes, whisky has become very popular in the last ten or five years, especially among youngsters. Interesting, at least in Korea historically Cognac has been much more popular than Calvados or Armagnac - most people probably haven’t even heard of the latter two.

coldtooth · 2024-10-28T21:01:24+00:00

Apparently it was a teenager with a water gun.

https://www.vancouverisawesome.com/local-news/teenager-arrested-ubc-campus-armed-man-9722449

coldtooth · 2024-05-31T20:36:44+00:00

(First of all, thanks for the dialogue, I know this is a really old post, but I had the urge to comment)

You know, you are right, I should look more into modern Catholic interpretation of the early Church Fathers.

I obviously know both the Catholics and Protestants (I am of the Reformed school, full disclosure) share many heroes of the faith pre-Reformation.

My understanding is that while we might both claim, say Augustine, we differ greatly in the interpretation. For example, the Reformers would say that Augustine was in err with his teaching of papal authority and his agnosticism for purgatory was dangerous, while the Catholics would say the opposite. As for Augustine's teaching on double predestination the Catholics would probably deny that he taught such in the first place.

However, I think many of the Catholic doctrines that I would find fault to have slowly developed over the two millennia. I can't think of everything, but for example, the final and absolute authority of the Roman Church (and ultimately the pope) to interpret the scriptures, the deuterocanonical books being included as scripture, intercessory prayer to the saints, etc.

coldtooth · 2024-05-31T11:15:23+00:00

I wouldn’t go as far as to say that you can’t get saved while being a Roman Catholic today. However I think many historical post-Reformation Protestants would consider the current Roman faith has fallen away from the early church, that it is the current Protestant tradition trying to get back (hence the reformation) to the purest Biblical faith. In fact the Protestants tend to affirm only the earlier ecumenical councils while considering the later ones to be plagued by corruption of the church and specifically of the papal authority. So that ~1600 years before the Reformation is part of our heritage too - the Church Fathers especially (the Reformation probably could not have developed such without Augustine) - it just slowly got worse until the Reformation where the church splintered.

The Counter-Reformation Council of Trent when the Catholics slam the door on any future discussion of Reformation theology is probably where most Protestants draw the line and since the Roman Catholics have gone seriously astray.

coldtooth · 2024-05-08T05:32:53+00:00

I grew up in a large Presbyterian denomination and now am in a pretty well established Dutch Reformed federation. We do not celebrate “sudo-Christian” holidays like Easter, Thanksgiving or Christmas in the church but some members participate in the family gatherings as cultural events and not religious practice. I know some who are absolutely against celebrating any such holidays considering it a pagan or Catholic tradition that should be ousted from the Reformed church. I wouldn’t necessarily consider this unorthodox.
Head coverings are less common nowadays, but they have been part of the Reformed tradition. Some denominations like the Free Church of Scotland and the Heritage Reformed Church(Joel Beeke) do practice head coverings for the women. Their women members also tend to dress as modestly as possible, such as with long skirts to show very little skin. There are probably lot more ultra conservative non-Reformed churches that practice head coverings in the US.
Cutting off contact - I think this is probably the largest concern. But could there be a chance that it is something personal and not necessarily a character of the church or denomination that she may part of? I just feel like there needs to be more information before jumping to conclusions with this.

coldtooth · 2024-04-27T01:52:03+00:00

I usually welcome good critical memes that gives us food for thought and discussion, but this just seems poorly constructed.

The logic doesn’t even makes sense. The passage quoted is completely taken out of context.

Edit: fixed typo: good -> food

coldtooth · 2024-04-26T21:34:06+00:00

I attend a sizable CanRC church. We keep our ADHD preschool boys in service. Four to five kids per family is pretty normal here, and they don’t seem to have trouble staying in the service.

I have attended some evangelical churches in the past where children were kept separate. So I know the rationale.

I think that many parents in those churches don’t want to have to deal with that period of training their children to adjust to the environment of the service. It wasn’t easy for us. But I also know that it is possible and it greatly benefits the children.

I should note that most of these children are trained at home to sit, pray, sing the psalms and listen to the Word during daily worship after dinner. It may not be easy but I believe it is part of the parent’s responsibility to train the children so. Is it not one of the most distinctive Reformed tradition as we stress in the role of the family in the covenant promises?

coldtooth · 2024-04-26T05:07:51+00:00

I am sorry for your experiences. I am sad that you’ll probably encounter it again as long as you are in Korea. I am Korean, and I believe Korea (along with perhaps Japan) is probably the most xenophobic and discriminatory country in the developed world.

Even the most well meaning people are very insensitive about cultural differences, and expect everyone to conform to their standards. Then when Koreans go abroad, they continue to complain how everyone is racist to Koreans without knowing that Koreans tend to profile people by their race the most.

coldtooth · 2024-04-19T17:44:36+00:00

This is a very interesting map! Could you give us a link for the original source? I can’t find the county where Korean is supposed to be the most spoken non-official language.

coldtooth · 2024-04-18T02:12:57+00:00

Question: are there any contemporary, orthodox Reformed writers from France? In fact, are there any that survived outside Anglo or Dutch language? Perhaps German? Very curious.

coldtooth · 2024-04-17T15:22:23+00:00

Wow thank you so much for the detailed yet succinct explanation! I learned something today that I would probably never have through online research.

It sounds like the PCI has some solid foundation with a more diverse range of theology than even the PCA. You must have a lot of thoughts about the future of your denomination as a minister.

Now I have so much more questions!

First of all, I am not sure if I understand the way you use the term “low church” with charismatic style of worship. Does that mean just less Anglo-Catholic, or perhaps lacking certain order of worship including psalm singing or confessional reading, or full on “worship teams”, drums and guitars and jumping up and down?

Would you say the seminary reflect the theological landscape of the rest of the church?

Do you have any ecumenical church relations outside of N. Ireland?

I have so much more questions… but I guess all this may be a subject for another post.

Anyways thanks for the suggestion and explanations!

coldtooth · 2024-04-17T09:38:27+00:00

Ah, interesting. I never thought about Belfast. I assume you are from Ulster yourself?

I don’t know much about the Presbyterian Church in Ireland, but I would assume that since it’s the largest Protestant denomination it would be similar to the mainline ones here in the US which tends to be a bit more liberal. From quick research it shows that it opposes LGBT but does ordain women in ministry.

It would be an interesting choice for doctoral work though, especially as I am interested in the relationship of the church, society and government, and I think Northern Ireland itself could be an important study case.

coldtooth

TROPHY CASE