By John Redmond
The Seoul Metropolitan Government hosted the 11th Seoul Town Meeting with expats last Friday, at Seoul City Hall’s Seosomun Annex, with Mayor of Seoul Oh Se-hoon in attendance.
The aim of the meeting is to diagnose expats’ needs and share ideas on solving challenges facing expats living in Seoul.
The theme for the event was “Multiculturalism and its Implementation in Seoul” and “Seoul’s Air Quality.”
The event has become an annual meeting between Seoul city officials and foreign residents in Seoul since 2001.
Many expats including international students, migrant workers, international marriage immigrants and city officials attended the meetings. This year’s honored guests were the ambassadors of El Salvador, Pakistan and Uzbekistan.
Unlike previous meetings where only domestic experts presented, the city extended the opportunity for resident foreigners to make presentations as well, to facilitate more diverse opinions, ideas and perspectives.
For the first topic of “Multiculturalism and its Implementation in Seoul,” Tatania Primakova, a freelance Russian translator/interpreter, and Prof. Blaz Kriznik, a Slovenian professor in the Department of Architecture at the University of Seoul, were some of the presenters.
For “Seoul’s Air Quality,” Nguyen Duc Luong, a Ph.D. candidate from the Global Environment Center at the Korea Institute of Science and Technology (KIST) was the foreign participant.
These topics were chosen after collecting opinions in foreign communities, through an online preference survey, after which they received final confirmation from heads of the Global Village Centers.
To date, many foreign participants’ suggestions have been put into action, including “jeonse” (renting houses after putting down key money) and “weolse” (paying monthly rent). Others that have been put into action are issuing check cards that foreigners can use overseas, establishing an online reservation system for foreigners to book and purchase tickets for performances, providing space for foreign art clubs, and establishing a comprehensive website for foreigners to book sports facilities. Along with these, a project of constructing sports facilities is under way.
Around 1,600 expats from around 60 countries have participated in the Seoul Town Meeting since its launch in 2000.