China Education Television is gearing up to launch its new language education program, “Easy to Learn, Easy to Use ‘Travel Korean,’” starting this October.

The main objective of the program is to provide a creative way to help teach Chinese viewers simple Korean phrases that will come in handy during their travels in Korea, such as on how to order food.

“It’s the first time for us to collaborate like this with a Chinese broadcasting station to create a Korean language education program,” said Kim Gab-soo, director of the Korean Culture and Information Service, during a press conference held at the Press Center in Seoul on Wednesday.

“Many of you may already know that roughly 6 million Chinese nationals travel to Korea every year,” said Kim. “However, one of the biggest challenges that these nationals face is communication. Through this new program we are hoping to address this issue and provide a means for Chinese tourists to learn Korean and about Korean culture to make their travels here more pleasant.” 


CETV currently runs five channels throughout China. The stations have a combined total viewership of approximately 970 million overseas and locally.

All of the language program’s episodes will be filmed in popular tourist locations in Seoul and Gangwon Province. The show will be hosted in part by Zhou Yu Bo, the head Korea correspondent of the People’s Daily Online Korean language Chinese news outlet, along with a handful of other Korean and Chinese nationals.  

“It’s not just about learning Korean. Viewers will also naturally learn about Korea and Korean culture in the process,” Song Hyang-guen, chairman of the King Sejong Institute Foundation, said.

“And unlike other educational programs that broadcast inside a classroom studio, we have broken out of the studio and are filming on-site at various tourist destinations,” he continued. “I think this will really help people get a better grasp of where they will be visiting because they’re not only learning the language, but get a chance to (visually) experience these locations.”

By Julie Jackson (juliejackson@heraldcorp.com)