Multilingual books available for children

By Chung Ah-young

As Korean society becomes more multicultural, publishers and libraries are stepping up efforts to release books written in diverse languages for children from multicultural families.

The monthly magazine “Library & Libro” has launched the first volume of “We Are One” as a multilingual introduction periodical for children’s books for multicultural families.

The first volume introduces 16 children’s books written in six languages ― Korean, English, Chinese, Vietnamese, Thai and Mongolian, along with audio files recorded by native speakers. It has been distributed to public libraries and multicultural family support centers around the country.

The publication includes various stories that delve into Korean culture, history and society such as “Seolbim” written and illustrated by Bae Hyun-ju; “The Path We Walk Along Together” written by Kim Su-jung and illustrated by Han Sung-ok; “Whose Shoes Are These” written and illustrated by Jung Hae-yeong; and “Sawing Away a Gourd, Throwing Yourself into the Sea Indangsu” written by Shin Jeong-min and illustrated by Choi Sun-young.

Along with an introduction to the Korean books, “We Are One” contains a lot of useful information for the public libraries and articles on reading culture.

The periodical will be published every month in the same format. For more information, call (02) 736-7841.

Also, the National Library for Children and Young Adults has published two traditional fairy tales ― “Red Fan and Blue Fan” and “The Lazy Man and the Strange Cow” in five languages ― English, Chinese, Vietnamese, Thai and Mongolian.

The books have been made into animations available at www.nlcy.go.kr to encourage interest and understanding among multicultural children.

The library said that the multilingual publication will help children better adapt to the Korean environment and society though enjoyable, cultural stories.

They have been placed at 750 public libraries across the nation and 158 multicultural support centers.