9 February 2006
In acknowledging the need for Chinese-speaking tourist guides in the country
as well as the strategic positioning of South Africa as a home to
multi-lingualism, the Department of Environmental Affairs and Tourism partnered
with the Peopleâs Republic of China through its Embassy to train 18 black
tourist guides in the Chinese language. The long-term objective is to
capacitate black tour guides in language proficiencies so that they are able to
equitably participate in this very competitive tourism labour industry.
Gauteng province was selected to host this pilot language-training programme
from 1 March 2005 to January 2006. The programme is soon to be extended to
other provinces. The motivation for the choice of Gauteng is that the need for
Chinese âspeaking tour guides was reported by tour operators and travel agents
to be predominant in that province. For instance in its annual report on China,
South Africa Tourism has recorded that in 2004, of the nine provinces, most
Chinese tourists visited Gauteng 77,8%, Western Cape 58,4 %, followed by North
West 39,8%. This against the background that the number of arrivals from this
market leaped from 30 753 in 2003 to a whooping 42 409 in 2004.
Top expert led the training
In terms of the Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) between the Department and
the Chinese Embassy, the Chinese Government provided their expert in Chinese
language tuition and learning material, while DEAT paid for the teacherâs
travel and accommodation expenses. The training process followed an intensive
method of four half days a week with holiday breaks during the year. They wrote
the first semester examination in June 2005 and their final examination on 31
January 2006. The tourist guides that have completed the training are 13 from
the initial class of 18 because 5 of them dropped out of the training process
at different stages of training during the year.
Graduation
The 13 tourist guides who set for examinations and passed admirably well and
will be placed with local tour operators for experimental learning and later
taken to China for experiential internship. The success of this pilot group,
which will be manifested through the graduation ceremony, which is captively
themed: South Africa â Alive with Chinese language Possibilities and titled:
Bridging the Language Barrier will serve as testimony that this training
process works and was worthwhile engaging in. The trained learners gained a
significant amount of knowledge and ability to speak, read and write
Chinese.
Top officials from both the Department and the Chinese Embassy will preside
at the graduation ceremony while a forest of senior officials from the tourism
industry would be in attendance.
Date: 10 February 2006
Time: 09:00 â 14:00
Venue: African Window â Visagie and Bosman Street, Pretoria
Enquiries:
Edwin Sipho Rihlamvu
Tourism International Liaison
Tel: (012) 310 3940
Fax: (012) 322 5754
Cell: 073 902 4504
E-mail: erihlamvu@deat.gov.za
Issued by: Department of Environmental Affairs and Tourism
9 February 2006
Source: Department of Environmental Affairs and Tourism (http://www.deat.gov.za)
