Korea’s first multilingual radio station aimed at foreign spouses of Koreans and other long-term residents will start services in August. The Woongjin Group’s charity foundation said on Monday it will set up a multicultural radio station and start programmes in Chinese, Vietnamese, Tagalog and Thai from 1 August.
After three months of preparation, the station will be on air 24 hours a day on audio music channel 855 of satellite television Skylife, and on digital audio channel 313 on cable television C&M.
The foundation plans to expand the service to eight languages later by adding Arabic, Japanese, Mongolian and Russian. “Although the number of expatriates living in Korea has surpassed 1 million, they are still experiencing difficulties adapting to Korean society due to the language barrier,” said Shin Hyon-ung, chief of the foundation.
“Our radio station will offer them opportunities to listen to music and literary works from their home countries, as well as running programmes like Korean language education and tips on searching for jobs in Korea, and providing legal and medical information.”
(Source: Chosun.com/R Netherlands Media Network Weblog)