Korean Language Learning and Conversation

 The importance of language learning as an indispensable means of communication cannot be over- emphasized. The history of language as a means of communication is as old as the history of mankind. Language is a legacy that has been passed on from generation to generation. However, getting to be fluent in any language initially requires interest, effort and practice. The Korean language is not an exception. 

The Korean language is one of the most recently developed languages and it is said to be a scientific language. With some inputs from Chinese language and recently from English language, it is fast becoming a language that is spoken by many nationalities.

“Hallyu” which is a term in Korean language that means a growing popularity of Korean movies and TV dramas across Asia has also immensely contributed to growing pace of the language. Due to its simple characters with 21 vowels and 19 consonants and their distinct sounds it is simple for a foreigner to quickly grasp and hence can easily read .Pronunciation may seem difficult at first but becomes quite easier later. As a graduate of Korean language, literature and culture studies, I have come to appreciate the language and its People.

 Like any other language, learning Korean as a second language may initially seem difficult but soon becomes quite interesting once stated. We must resist the temptation of being afraid of making mistakes, as nobody is perfect in the initial stage of learning any language. Speak as much as you can but also take time to listen. A popular Korean maxim states”얼굴이 다르듯이 생각도 다르다” which means as the  faces of people are different, so are their thoughts. Some people are very expressive while others may be inexpressive. This may be due to lack of confidence and can be a barrier to learning a language. I find that committing to memory the basic everyday expressions and greetings as well as the patterns. Afterwards we can then treat each aspects of grammar to be practiced and improved upon. Practical benefit derived from conversation with the native Korean speakers is the learning of both the language and culture of Korea. Since language emerges from culture.

In conclusion, making an appreciable progress in the learning of the learning language starts with a keen interest in the language. Thereafter, with effort and continuous practice and without the fear of making mistakes in speaking, somebody can quickly and easily become a proficient Korean speaker.

Sanjaykumar@naver.com

Research Professor, GKI

인도관련 비즈니스 정보, 통역, 번역, 여행에 대한 정보

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저의 연락처는 010-2349-6001 입니다.

Rotaract Sports Festival for Foreign Workers

 On Saturday, May 28, Sports festival for foreigners was held at the Grand stadium of Suwon University. The festival has been organized by Rotaract club for the last sixteen years for a purpose of eliminating perception about the foreign workers and of helping them adapt to Korea.

 

[Picture of foreign participants from all over the World along with the members of Rotaract club members]

 

 The sports event officially started around 10 a.m after the opening speech of the president of Rotaract club. Afterwards, foreign workers and volunteers from Rotaract club of Suwon University enjoyed playing soccer, volley ball and other games.

 

[Picture: President of Rotaract club addressing the participants during opening ceremony]

 

 Foreign workers and their families from Phillipines, Uzbekistan, Nepal, etc. participated in this year's sports festival.

 

[Picture: A multicultural family participating in the festival ]

 

 There was no participation fee and all the participants were provided lunch for free. Moreover, many prizes were also awarded based on the performance.

 

Ahmad, SGC Correspondent/mahi.skku@daum.net

Translation: Sanjay Kumar (SGC Correspondent)

 

 

Delightful Festival for CIS Kids

 

On May 28, a festival for children was organized at Mokjeong Park in celebration of Children’s Day of CIS countries. CIS countries do celebrate Children’s Day like Korea, but the date is different. It is celebrated on June 1^st   whereas one in Korea is on May 5^th.

 

It is for third time that a festival for Children’s Day for CIS kids was organized in Seoul.Thanks to the efforts of the ‘KIMushki’, Children Culture Club of Russia and Central Asia, the performances have become diverse and the number of participants has also increased.

 

 

Along with the delightful concerts, toys, and medical goods are also donated to the  families in need. Accordingly, the children who are unable to participate in the festival can also feel the warmth of Children’s Day.

 

 

 By: Karmanova Evgeniia,  SGC Correspondent (Russian) 

 Translation: Sanjay Kumar , SGC Correspondent (English)

Africa Festival 2017: Africa, We are all friends

On Sunday May 5th, Seoul Africa Festival was held on the pedestrian street in front of , Dongdaemun Design Plaza(DDP) from 11 a.m. to 6 p.m.

  

This year's festival was divided into six zones, such as the community zone with Africa related organizations; market zone for selling Africa related goods; friends zone with embassies of African nations; culture zone for experiencing African culture etc, and knowledge zone consisting exhibitions and lectures. Although the duration of the event was short , it attracted a large number of foreign residents from different countries.

 

       

 When you enter the entrance you can see that different sales booth and the embassy booths of some of the African countries are set up on both sides of the street. The embassy booths offered information on tourism and culture of the respective countries, while traditional food and various delicate handicrafts could be bought from the sales booths. A wide variety of traditional activities such as trying on traditional attire and hair styles, drawing and tasting African wine were provided for free. Especially, in the middle of the festival street, there was a concert stage and many more interesting activities could be enjoyed for free. Especially, in the mid of pedestrian street, there was a concert stage and diverse performances such as story telling, traditional songs of Korea and Africa, fashion show were staged from 11 a.m. to 6 p.m. In addition, Djembe , the exciting/ soulful African traditional drum experience programs were continuously provided.

 

Many active organizations participated in this event. Seoul Global Center set up a booth to introduce services offered to foreign residents. The booth also provided simple pamphlets as well as counselling on various issues and pamphlets.

 

One of the participants of the event Vietnam said, " I go to know a lot about Aftrican nations and felt like I was doing something worthwhile by donating to welfare organization. Also, I saw some wonderful African sceneries in the photo exhibition and after seeing them I have decided to plan to go for a tour to Africa". 

 

 

Sanjay Kumar( SGC Correspondent, English)

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

International Spring Festival at Seoul Dwight International School

On May 13, International Spring Festival was held at Seoul Dwight International School. As the festival started at 10 am, the people started gathering. Until 11 am most of the crowd were students, however, as the time progressed, huge crowd of about 300 persons including parents, teachers and people related to the festival could be observed.

        

         Inside view of the sports ground in the school    

 Photo: Seoul Global Center

 On this occasions such as World food festival, many traditional games, airbounce and outdoor games were also organized in the school premises and it could be easily participated only by visiting the tents. The parents spent quality time with the children and it was amazing to see them enjoying food of different countries during the lunch.

                                    

Greenpeace activists conveying the importance of saving environment

Photo: Seoul Global Center

 

The children showed interest in recovering the global warming issues and visited the Greenpeace tent while some of the products flea market attracted the children as well. However, world food festival having foods from more than 15 countries was most popular event among the parents as well as the students. They enjoyed foods from countries such as Australia, India, Turkey, France, Pakistan, Koream Neitherland, Canada, Philippines, Thailand, Italy, Japan etc.

        

 Visitors enjoying a happy visit to the fair Photo: Seoul Global Center

 

Apart from these, juice corner, advertisements of language training, jumbo dance, clothes and dentist also set up tents. Seoul Global Center offered a free jagae making experience and became very popular among the children. The children showed lot of interest in making the Korean jagae. One of the children among them said, "This experience is very interesting. I am so happy to receive a gift too" and attained affection from his parents. During the festival, it was possible to meet foreign teachers of Dwight International School followed by various programs such as shool tour, art and crafts etc. The book fair consisted of many books ranging from Harry porter to cartoons. The Flea market attracted attention because of the availability of many useful products of daily life such as books, gifts, cartoon books, pottery etc.

    

       Parents and students enjoying jumbo dance Photo: Seoul Global Center

 

The jumbo dance was enjoyed on the tunes of lively music and people had lots of fun trying the jumbo dance. It was a global cultural environment in a pleasant weather and observing the number of visitrs, it can be said that the event made feel the essence of globalisation.

 

 

Sanjay Kumar, 

Correspondent , Seoul Global Center

국제 봄 페어, 서울드와이트 외국인학교에서 열려

 5월 13일 토요일, 서울드와이트 외국인학교에서 국제 봄 페어 가 다채롭게 열렸다. 국제 봄페어는 10시에 시작되자 점점 사람들이 붐비기 시작했다. 오전 11시까지는 학생들이 대부분이었지만, 11시 되서는 외국인 선생님, 학부모, 관계자들까지 방문하여 약 300명 정도로 많아졌다. 이 날 세계음식문화축제와 함께 다양한 전통놀이, 에어바운스, 아웃도르 게임과 유익한 체험이 준비되어 있었기에 각 체험부스를 누구나 참여할 수 있었다. 학부모들은 학생들과 놀이체험하고, 점심시간에는 세계의 다양한 음식을 즐기는 모습이 매우 활기차보였다.

                    

             그린피스 담당자는 자연보호의 뜻을 전달하고 있다. <사진제공=서울글로벌센터>

아이들은 지구온난화의 극복을 위해 활동하고 있는 Greenpeace부스를 방문하여 자연보호에 관심을 보이기도 했다. 또 프리마켓의 제품을 꼼꼼히 보는 아이들도 있었다. 하지만 무엇보다도 음식문화축제에는 호주, 인도, 터키, 프랑스, 파키스탄, 한국, 네덜란드, 캐나다, 필리핀, 태국, 이탈리아, 일본 등을 포함한 약 15개국의 신선한 음식이 준비되어 있어, 학부와 아이들에게 제일 인기가 높았다.

 이외에 쥬스 코너, 어학원, 옷, 점보댄스와 치과 같은 분야를 광고하는 목적으로 온 부스도 있었고 서울글로벌센터에서 무료로 제기 만들기 체험은 많은 각광을 얻었다. 특히 어린아이들과 초등학생들은 제기 만드는 것에 큰 관심을 가졌다. 제기 체험을 여러번 한 아이는, " 이런 체험이 매우 재미있다. 선물도 받을 수 있어서 아주 좋다"라고 하며, 함께 참석한 부모도 매우 뿌듯해하였다. 국제 봄 페어에서는 드와이트 외국인선생님과의 만남도 가능했으며 학부모와 관계자들은 스쿨투어도 했으며, 공예 체험 프로그램도 있었다. 북페어에서는 해리 포터를 비롯하여 인기 문학책도 많았다. 프리마켓 코너도 있었는데 옷, 책, 작은 선물, 만화책, 청자와 같은 일상생활의 필수품이 있어 사람들의 인기를 많이 얻었다.

            

 신나는 음악과 함께 점보댄스도 중간중간 있었기에 때때로 사람들은 춤을 추며 즐거워했다. 활기찬 날씨에 야외의 모습은 매우 글로벌 문화의 분위기를 즐길 수 있는 공간이었다. 전 프로그램의 참석자 모임으로 보아, 세계화를 잠시나마 실제로 느낄 수 있던 행사였다.

서울통신원 선저이 꾸마르
globalsanjaykumar@gmail.com

Appointment Ceremony for the 6th Seoul Quality of Life Monitors at Seoul City Hall

The appointment ceremony and orientation for the 6^th Seoul Living Monitors 2017 was held at Seoul City Hall on 18^th of March 2017. It was the second orientation in a row after the first orientation held on Feb. 27. Monitors consist of 80 members in total, 70 foreign residents from 33 different countries in Asia, Africa, Europe etc., and 10 translators from Korea.

 

 

                                       Photo Courtesy: Multicultural division, Seoul Metropolitan Government

  

  According to the multiculturalism division of Seoul Metropolitan Government, Seoul Living Monitors Program has started with the vision to seek areas where foreign residents in Seoul face difficulties, to study successful policies of other countries and to propose plans to the Seoul Metropolitan Government for enhancing living conditions in Seoul. The Living Monitors would take initiative to improve areas related to tourism, medical, immigration education, public transportation, business, academics, safety, legal issues and other inconveniences by discovering excellent models from overseas and suggestions would be made and forwarded to the government for further action. Furthermore, they would make an on-site inspection, inform the relevant department and directly confirm about the action taken.

 

  As the monitors working in diverse fields, their areas of monitoring are also diverse. The results of the last year’s monitoring consist of installing cycle stands, using the same station names in different languages, marking bus information both in korean and english at Seoul Bus Station Transfer Center and marking the direction to destinations near the entrance. The program aims at interacting one another and making Seoul more globalized not only through monitoring but also through various programs such as health and safety education, discussion on human rights education for foreign residents, Korean history and culture, education etc.

 

 The coordinator of the program Hae Yeon Choi said that the foreign residents from 33 countries with different stories actively participated in this program appreciated the activities as a great chance to interact with one another.

Reported By: Luisa (SGC Correspondent, Uzbek)

Translated By: Sanjay Kumar( SGC Correspondent, English)

 

 

Foreign residents can also apply for job-seeking program by Korean Job Center

Job Center of the Korean Ministry of Employment and Labor offers many programs to support Koreans seeking jobs. Currently, there is no separate program for foreign residents. However, foreign residents with visas such as F-2, F-4, F-5 and F6 are eligible to receive the counseling from Employment team of the Job center. 

 

                          

                                                     [Photo: Entrance gate of Employment Team located on the 5th floor of

                                                                       Job Center , Western Seoul]

 

 The job application procedure starts with showing a valid alien registration card. After receiving the counseling, job seeking application should be submitted to the Employment center for the counseling. The applicant should write down his/her information such as qualification, staff experience, field, salary expectations and other details.  

 

 Around 14:30 on April 11, a 29-year-old Indian student in Korea a 34-year-old Bangladeshi student visited the Employment team located on 5^th floor of Job Center, Western Seoul and applied for job-seeking program. The resumes of the two were uploaded on www.work.go.kr and recommended two staff companies to the Bangladeshi foreign student based on his profile. One of the staffs said that there have been few matches between foreign applicants and companies, but if they keep applying through carious job portals, they will get good results.

 

 Applicants cannot register or upload their resumes by themselves on worknet.go.kr unlike other job portals such as Saramin and Jobkorea. Only the staff of Job center can do. If the resume is registered on the website, they can see job advertisements on not only worknet but other job portals at the same time, It is noteworthy that there are 44 Job centers Korea and 7 out of them are located in Seoul. 

 

 The number of foreigners residing in Korea is increasing day by day and accordingly the number of foreigners with resident visa has also increased in the last few years. The foreigners with resident visa are eligible to apply for jobs in Korea but they are facing difficulties in seeking jobs. The Indian student said , “ If Job Center organizes diverse programs for foreign residents, they can be a great help to foreign job seekers”.

SGC Correspondent, Sanjay Kumar  

 

Launching Panel of Foreign Customers for the first time in Korean Financial arena

On April 12, Kookmin Bank (KB) launched panel for foreign customers in the financial world for the first time in order to understand the financial needs of foreigners and to develop and provide new services for them. The first panel consists of 12 panelists from different nationalities. Some of them are Counselors and Correspondents from Seoul Global Center. These panelists would speak for foreign customers in Korea.

                                                                       

     [Yun Jong Gyu, President of Kookmin Bank (eigth from the left) and Kim Nam Il, representative of Kookmin Bank minor enterprises  group( second from the left) and panelists/Photo:Kookmin Bank]

 

The appointment ceremony of panelists was held last Wednesday at 10 a.m inside the Headquarter of KB located in Myeongdong. According to Yun Jong Gyu, President of Kookmin Bank, the foreign panel would play an important role reporting on inconveniences, suggesting ideas about necessary financial services and extending opinion on entering the overseas market. Korea is an export-oriented country and observing the increase in number of the foreign residents, more open and global services are required in the current times, he emphasized. 

 

The KB panelists for multicultural and multinationals belong to different countries such as Russia, China, India, Bangladesh etc., have influential leadership qualities and critical abilities in their communities. The opinions and suggestions gathered from the Panelists during the advisory meetings for this year would be considered while improving the financial services.

 

Reported by: Ahmad , SGC Correspondent/ Bangladesh

Translated By: Sanjay Kumar, SGC Correspondent/ English

내국인을 위한 고용센터에 외국인도 구직 신청 가능

한국 고용노동부의 고용센터는 내국인을 취업하는데 도움을 주기 위해 다양한 취업 지원 프로그램을 운영하고 있다. 현재 고용센터에서 외국인을 위해 취업 지원 프로그램이 따로 없지만 거주 비자 (F-2, F-4, F-5, F-6등)를 소지한 외국인이라면 고용센터 취업팀에서 취업상담을 받을 수 있고 구직 신청도 할 수 있다.                                                                                                                                    

                                  [사진: 서울 서부 고용센터 5층 취업팀 입구]

구직 신청 절차는 먼저 고용센터 취업팀을 방문하여 외국인등록증을 제시한 후에 상담을 받아야한다. 상담을 받은 후에 고용센터에서 제공하는 구직 신청서를 작성해서 취업팀 직원에게 제출하면 된다. 신청서에는 구직자의 개인 정보, 학력, 경력, 희망 직종 및 희망 연봉 등 기본 정보들을 기재해야한다.

4월 11일 화요일 오후 2시 반쯤에 거주(F-2)비자를 소지하는 인도인 유학생 A씨 (남.29세)와 방글라데시인 유학생 B씨 (남.34세)가 서부 고용센터의 5층에 있는 취업팀을 찾아가 상담을 받은 후에 구직 신청을 하였다. 고용센터의 취업팀 직원이 구직 신청서의 기재된 정보를 바탕으로 이 두 명의 이력서를 고용센터에서 운영하는 취업포털 워크넷(www.work.go.kr)에 등록을 해주고 방글라데시인 유학생 B씨에게 맞는 구인 기업 2개를 추천해줬다. “워크넷을 통해서 국내 기업과 외국인 구직자랑 매칭이 되는 경우가 아직 많지 않지만 여러 취업 포탈을 통해서 여러 회사에 입사 지원을 하면 좋은 결과가 있을 것입니다”라고 취업팀의 직원이 말하였다.

사람인과 잡코리아 같은 다른 일반 취업포탈과 달리 워크넷에는 구직자가 직접 등록을 할 수 없고 이 포탈의 운영자 고용센터의 직원을 통해서만 등록이 가능하다. 포탈에 등록이 완료된 후에 회원 가입하면 워크넷뿐만 아니라 다른 취업포탈에 올라오는 본인이랑 맞는 구인 광고도 한꺼번에 볼 수 있다. 참고로, 전국에 총 44개 고용센터가 있고 그 중에 7개의 고용센터가 서울에 있다.

한국에 체류하는 외국인의 수가 점점 늘어나고 있고 동시에 거주 비자 소지자도 증가하고 있다. 거주 비자 소지자들은 취업에 제한이 없지만 한국에서 일자리를 찾는데 많은 어려움을 겪고 있다. “고용노동부 고용센터에서 외국인전용 취업 지원 프로그램도 있으면 한국에서 취업을 희망하는 외국인에게 많은 도움이 될 것입니다”라고 인도인 유학생 A씨가 말하였다.

서울통신원 영어담당 선저이 꾸마르 globalsanjaykumar@gmail.com