SA tourism wants to speak Chinese and Russian
The Department of Tourism has officially launched a programme to train its first group of front line staff in Russian and Mandarin.In 2013‚ the South African government signed an agreement to cooperate with the People's Republic of China in the tourism sector. This gave rise to the partnership to train locals in Mandarin in order to improve the service provided to Chinese tourists to South Africa. Russia had signed a similar agreement back in 1998‚ but this was reinforced into a stronger partnership in 2014.There are 20 people from across the country learning Mandarin while eight are learning Russian. The top performers in the languages will get to spend between two and four weeks in the country whose language they have mastered.The people are from all races‚ age groups and their common denominator is that they are tourist guides and front line staff in the tourism sector in South Africa. The Mandarin training will wind up at the end of the November while the Russian group will end at the beginning of the same month.According to the Chinese Embassy‚ 58 000 tourists from the Asian nation visited South Africa in the first half of 2016.Addressing the launch‚ held at the Hilton Hotel in Sandton‚ Chinese deputy ambassador Li Song said the relationship with South Africa was growing and at its best levels ever. Song congratulated the trainees on their journey and said it would have value in their live going into the future."You will not regret all the time and energy that you put in the learning of the Chinese language. Your language skills will pave a way for a lot of opportunities in the future."Song added that there were other language partnerships with the departments in police‚ international relations‚ and basic education.Deputy Minister of Tourism Tokozile Xasa said language was a key component of how people experience the country they visit."Although the world continues to transform into the digital space.. that can never replace human contact. A welcoming greeting for a traveler in the language that they understand brings confidence that they can get information‚" said Xasa. - TMG Digital...
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