Twenty middle and high school students from immigrant families are translating children’s picture books for distribution to elementary schools across Seoul, the Seoul Metropolitan Office of Education said Thursday.
Three picture books from Korea, Honduras and Morocco will be translated into Chinese, Russian, Vietnamese and Mongolian as part of a project led by the education office in cooperation with local publisher Asian Hub.
The finished books will be distributed in December to elementary schools across the city that offer Korean language classes for students from multicultural families. Each set will include the books in five languages, including Korean.
The participating students and outside language experts will review the translations to make sure elementary school students can follow the stories and understand their cultural context.
The participating students will also read the stories aloud, and readers will be able to listen to the recordings by scanning QR codes printed in the books.
“It is meaningful that picture books created by (immigrant) students in their mother tongue are helping younger students who are learning Korean,” said Seoul Education Superintendent Jung Keun-sik.
“I hope the immigrant students can take pride in their language and culture, and boost confidence and self-esteem through this experience.”
minsikyoon@heraldcorp.com
