SEOUL, 8 July 2014 – Korea’s first and leading English-only broadcast radio channel featured on-air on Tuesday, 8 July 2014 a 10-week pilot project run by the Philippine Embassy together with the Seoul Metropolitan Government and two Filipino community organizations to teach Filipino language to Filipino-Korean children.

Traffic Broadcasting System English FM (tbs eFM), which is run by the Seoul Metropolitan Government, picked up media coverage on the multicultural project days after Philippine Ambassador to South Korean Raul S. Hernandez launched it on 14 June 2014 at the Seoul Global Center (SGC) in Jongno, central Seoul. DJ Ahn Jung Hyun, who hosts 1013 Main Street, a daily entertainment and lifestyle talk show from 10 to 12 am on 101.3 MHz, featured First Secretary and Consul Roderico C. Atienza as the program’s main guest from 11:30 to 11:50 am to hear more about the “Wika Nga! Filipino Language Classes for Filipino-Korean Children”. The Embassy conceptualized the weekly program together with Filipino language instructor and course designer, Mr Ronel Laranjo, president of Pinoy Iskolars sa Korea (PIKO) Inc. and one of the project partners, together with the SGC, and the Seoul Filipino Parents and Children Organization. Mr Atienza explained that the project objectives go beyond language, incorporating as it does gender-sensitive and child-friendly lessons on Filipino culture, values, and traditions that are vetted by the Social Welfare Attaché Lucita J. Villanueva, who also runs simultaneously family development sessions with the children’s Filipino mothers. Wika Nga! has been designed to teach 15-20 children aged 6-12 basic Filipino grammar and vocabulary in 10 sessions every Saturday at 9:30-11:30 am, culminating in a Filipino Camp on 9 August 2014, that would involve the participation of other PIKO members in games and a picnic with the children’s parents. DJ Jung Hyun, the long-time host of the popular talk show “Heart to Heart” on Arirang TV, also asked about the difference between Filipino and Tagalog as well as how the multicultural programs run by the Korean national and local governments complement the project and assist in furthering true multiculturalism in Korea. An audio file of the tbs eFM 1013 Main Street interview may be accessed at the Embassy’s Facebook page at https://www.facebook.com/PhilippineEmbassySeoul.