Korean class offered to Singaporean tourism professionals
Participants of “Korean Language Training Course,” pose after the opening ceremony on Tuesday at the Singapore Tourism Board (STB)’s headquarters. Chung Hae-moon, eighth from left in the first row, secretary general of ASEAN-Korea Center, Leong Yue Kheong, seventh from left, assistant chief executive of STB, and Kim Wan-joong, ninth from left, minister of Korean Embassy to Singapore. / Courtesy of ASEAN-Korea Center
By Park Jin-hai
The ASEAN-Korea Centre has announced that it will provide Korean language program to Singaporeans in the hospitality and tourism businesses.
The center, together with the Singapore Tourism Board, has organized a “Korean Language Training Course” program between July 9 and Sept. 17 at the Board’s Training Centre in Singapore.
“ASEAN is the most visited region by Koreans. We hope that the program will further invigorate people-to-people exchange, an important pillar in building connectivity,” Chung Hae-moon, Secretary General of the Center, said at the opening ceremony, at the Singapore Tourism Board on Tuesday.
The 10-week program will provide basic level Korean reading, writing, listening and speaking classes, so that participants can get familiar with expressions commonly used at airports, hotels, and tourist sites.
It was launched by the ASEAN-Korea Center in 2012, as a way to promote tourism between Korean and ASEAN countries by giving Korean language training to those dealing with Korean tourists and facilitating better communication between them.
Leong Yue Kheong, Assistant Chief Executive of Singapore Tourism Board, also present at the opening ceremony, expressed high hopes by saying that more Korean tourists could come visit his country through the training program that eventually leads to the reciprocal bilateral relationship.
The program took place in Indonesia last June. This year, starting from Singapore, it will be expanded to include other ASEAN countries such as the Philippines, Malaysia and Brunei Darussalam throughout the year.
Singapore is a relatively small city state with a population of 5.3 million, but its place in the tourism industry is significant, being the third most favored ASEAN destination following Malaysia and Thailand.
Last year, 345,000 Koreans visited Singapore according to the data from the Korea Tourism Organization and Singapore Tourism Board. During the same period, 154,073 Singaporeans traveled to Korea.
The ASEAN-Korea Center is an intergovernmental organization established between the 10 ASEAN Member States and Korea. It strives to fulfill its key mandates of invigorating tourism and culture, at a time when the official launch of ASEAN Community is only two years away in 2015.