Seoul to Launch Friend Matchmaking System for Foreign Youth

Seoul’s new program will help connect foreign national adolescents with local friends who have moved to South Korea as a result of an international marriage or employment, after an ideal age to learn a new language, the Seoul government announced yesterday. (Image: Seoul’s Ondream Education Center)

SEOUL, May 17 (Korea Bizwire) – As a growing number of young foreign nationals are struggling to integrate in South Korean society after moving to the country during their adolescence, the Seoul Metropolitan Government is taking matters into its own hands with a new friend matchmaking project.

Seoul’s new program will help connect foreign national adolescents with local friends who have moved to South Korea as a result of an international marriage or employment, after an ideal age to learn a new language, the Seoul government announced yesterday.

Based on mutual interest in the media and entertainment, the new local government-backed friend matchmaking program will see 50 foreign adolescents currently living in the Gwanak, Guro, and Geumchon districts meet up with 50 other South Korean middle school and high school students to create media content and participate in woodworking projects.

Those who wish to participate in Seoul’s friend matchmaking project have until May 23 to apply at a district office in Gwanak, Guro or Geumchon.

South Korean participants will be rewarded in the form of certified volunteer hours when they successfully complete their role in the project.

Apart from Seoul’s main friend-making events, expenses for those who wish to meet their newly made friends outside the project will also be covered.

Since its establishment in the summer of 2015, Seoul’s Ondream Education Center has been helping foreign nationals in the city by offering Korean language classes.

In Seoul alone, there are more than 4,000 immigrant children of multicultural families, many of them living in Southwestern Seoul.

Broken down by nationality, Chinese nationals accounted for over half, while Vietnamese and Japanese followed, accounting for 13 percent and 10 percent, respectively.

Immigrant children of multicultural families are officially defined in South Korea as those who came to the country after their parent remarried a South Korean national or brought their children from their home country to move to South Korea after living apart.

Due to a lack of Korean language education, many immigrant children have a hard time integrating, with a significant number of them unable to attend school.

For more information, visit http://www.ondreamedu.com/ or call 070-7712-7191.

Hyunsu Yim (hyunsu@koreabizwire.com)