The city of Busan will develop a counseling and interpretation app in 13 languages with the Busan Global Center, Busan Immigration Office, and Onion Farm, an IT company.

According to a survey of expatriates in Busan last year, the most uncomfortable thing about living in Busan was communication. There was also a demand for support for interpretation and translation services within public institutions.

The counseling and interpretation app being developed will add a counseling and interpretation function to ‘Life in Busan’, a mobile application for comprehensive living information for expatriates, which is currently operated by the Busan Global Center.

There will be three new services added on: mobile-based counseling and interpretation, live interpretation/professional counseling, and real-time counseling chat service.

These services are provided in 13 languages ​​including English, Chinese, Japanese, Vietnamese, Indonesian, Russian, Uzbek, Mongolian, Myanmar, Cambodian, Thai, Filipino, and Korean. Supporters participating as interpreters can work after completing 100 hours of training in legal affairs, labor, and medical care.

The service will be operated for 12 hours from 9 am to 9 pm, allowing foreign residents to solve communication problems anytime, anywhere.

The app will be built in June and August, then will start a pilot operation in September and December, and start operating it in earnest from next year.

In addition, from next year, the number of participating interpreters will be greatly increased to 500 to expand the service.

‘Life in Busan’ is currently providing information on living in Busan and multilingual information on COVID-19.

From June, summer weather information in multiple languages in collaboration with the Busan Regional Meteorological Administration will be added, and the ‘consultation interpretation function’ will be added from September to establish itself as ‘the only essential mobile app for foreigners to live in Busan’.