DAEGU < invest Korea

Northern Gyeongsang Province said on Feb. 2 that it will conduct English conversation education for all of its staff members for two years.

The province will make about 2,000 public officials take English conversation classes to improve their English proficiency so that they can be engaged in promotion activities for tourism attractions and festivals or in economy and trade promotion-related operations in English.

The education will be classified into five levels consisting of beginner, intermediate and advanced levels for three months, respectively, 12-month-long application course and 3-month-long practical course.

The beginner, intermediate and advanced levels focus on teaching basic-level English and English conversation and English conversation for tourism.

Application course is designed to help students introduce tourism attractions, festivals and indigenous products in English and practical course aims at helping students write and speak about international relations in English.

Public officials can take classes via computers or smart phones before or after work, during lunch time or at home.

Aside from online classes, they can also participate in off-line conversation classes with English native teachers at the local government office on the 2nd and 4th Friday of every month.

Kim Gwan-yong, governor of northern Gyeongsang local office, said, "We will enhance our English speaking capacity to cultivate global talents, attract foreign investors and create jobs," adding that "We expect the English education will contribute to making public officials come up with various ideas in the globalized world."             

Source Text

Source: Yonhap News (Feb. 2, 2012)

** This is an English translation of a Korean news article.