Rodong Sinmun promoted visitor reactions on July 24, saying “The more you see Wonsan Kalma Coastal Tourist Zone, the more wonderful and remarkable it becomes.” (Rodong Sinmun·News1)
North Korea is providing intensive training to tour guides scheduled to work in Wonsan and other tourist destinations across the country.
“The main tourist areas received party instructions in early August to focus on training tour guides for foreign visitors. Training programs launched nationwide on Aug. 21, and Wonsan is pouring resources into the program,” a source in Kangwon province told Daily NK recently.
The training programs are being directly managed by officials from the Workers’ Party of Korea’s Cadre Department. The Wonsan program, in Kangwon province, is training 20-30 people, including graduates of provincial foreign language universities and guides-in-training with the State General Bureau of Tourist Guidance.
Emphasis on proper attitudes and behavior
According to the source, the training program emphasizes basic attitudes and professional standards that all tour guides should follow. Trainees receive detailed instruction on handling and entertaining tourists, along with dress codes and behavioral guidelines, and must memorize related slogans and phrases.
The program also dedicates considerable time to phrases foreign tourists commonly use.
Strikingly, trainees are being told to avoid certain English loanwords and South Korean expressions commonly used in North Korea. For example, trainees must say dajin-gogi gyeopppang (“double bread with ground beef”) rather than haembeogeo (from “hamburger”) and eseukimo (“eskimo”) or eoreumboseungi (“ice confection”) instead of aiseukeurim (from “ice cream”). Karaoke machines, widespread in South Korea, should be called “on-screen accompaniment machines.”
“The goal is to teach tourism professionals to consciously use North Korean vocabulary and expressions while carefully avoiding South Korean-style expressions and foreign loanwords they may have been using unknowingly,” the source explained.
Tourism as foreign currency strategy
Since tour guides will play a key role in the government’s strategy of making tourism a new source of foreign currency, the source explained, the party wants to instill proper speech habits and equip them to prevent foreign ideology and culture from entering the country.
But trainee guides are frustrated with the program, particularly the lessons about prohibited words and expressions. “We would presumably have to use foreign words for foreign tourists to understand us,” one trainee commented.
Nevertheless, trainees are careful to watch their words and keep their opinions private. “Being a tour guide is a good job, and if you say one wrong thing, you could be kicked out of the program,” one trainee noted.
The training program is scheduled to last three months total. After completion, trainees will take an exam to determine whether they’re hired as tour guides.
“The test will comprehensively assess basic attitudes, dress, terminology knowledge, regulation memorization, and foreign language skills. Only those who are fully prepared will remain in the program,” the source said.
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