PHL TOP ENVOY LECTURES AT ELITE FOREIGN LANGUAGE HS IN SEOUL

By: Embassy of the Republic of the Philippines, Seoul

Daeil Foreign Language High School, working with the moderate major daily Kyunghyang Shinmun, invited Ambassador Hernandez to be the first envoy in five years to make a presentation to and field questions at Dasan Hall from their elite pupils, including 900 who watched in large screens in their classrooms in Seoul's northeast Songbuk-gu district.

In his 40-minute presentation, Ambassador Hernandez spoke about the 66-year relations between the two countries, highlighting major events including the deployment of Filipino troops during the Korean War and of Korean troops to help rebuild Leyte after Typhoon Haiyan. He also spoke about the large populations of Korean and Filipino residents in each other's territory.

The students, led by a Filipino-speaking group of 10 girls with experience living in various parts of the Philippines, made their own presentations before the Ambassador's lecture, highlighting the Philippines' diversity as a source of creativity and national strength in the 21st century and providing local color, such as Jollibee hamburgers and travel to Boracay, Palawan and Bohol.

Daeil Foreign Language High, headed by Principal Lee Yong-jae, offers the largest variety of foreign language curricula among all foreign language high schools in the nation, with all students required to study one among Chinese, Japanese, French, German, Spanish, and Russian, in addition to mandatory English- and Korean-language subjects, for three years.

The private, coeducational, college preparatory school was founded in 1983 as the first foreign language high school to be established in South Korea with the aim of nurturing future global leaders skilled at foreign languages. It is reputed to have the highest number of successful entrants to Korea's top three universities among all 2,200 high schools in Korea.

Daeil had held this ambassadors' invitational lecture before 2009, but discontinued the program from 2010 until 2014 before deciding to restart it this year with English language instructor Jiwon Ha as program coordinator.

–END–