Foreign residents share stories at COVID-19 summit

The Korea Times

The Korea Times

National

Tue, September 26, 2023 | 07:29

Society

Foreign residents share stories at COVID-19 summit

Posted : 2020-06-01 16:55

Updated : 2020-06-01 18:07

Foreign residents participate in a talk show about the COVID-19 pandemic on the opening day of the Cities Against COVID-19 Global Summit, Monday. Screen capture from YouTube

By Kim Se-jeong

Seoul's Cities Against COVID-19 (CAC) 2020 online summit opened Monday with a promotional session in which foreign residents of the capital shared their opinions on the pandemic from their observations here and what they heard from their home countries.

"In France, where a kiss and hug are essential to a greeting, they disappeared. My father told me about a new one-second greeting where they say hi and turn away quickly so as not to receive a kiss or hug," Rose Kizgin from France said in Korean during the session, which was held in Korean.

"In China, people now have a new style of greeting which is touching the other person's foot," Ginger Jiang from China said.

The first session of the CAC2020, being held by the Seoul Metropolitan Government, featured seven foreign residents of Korea from China, the U.K., Finland, Russia, France, South Africa and Nepal.

Sujan Ratna Shakya, from Nepal, said Nepalese are still under lockdown and suffering a shortage of sugar and milk. "Nepal has a big tea culture. As more people spend time at home, they drink more tea."

Panelists had many things to say about masks. Almost all said while they were amazed by Seoul citizens faithfully wearing masks when going outside, it's only recently that people in their home countries have been wearing masks.

"In the past, only sick people wore masks and people didn't like to wear them. Now, it's not that we don't like to wear them, but we don't have enough," Kizgin said.

Julia Barlund from Finland said masks for ordinary people didn't exist before in her country and that the pandemic created a business opportunity for producing masks domestically.

Following Monday's talks will be a series of sessions in which representatives from the world's cities will share their experiences in responding to the pandemic in everything from quarantine and welfare to education, culture and sports and their future implications.

The most important session, according to the city, is the mayors' meeting scheduled for Tuesday night, Seoul time, in which Mayor Park Won-soon is likely to propose founding a new international body facilitating cooperation in handling infectious diseases among cities around the world.

Visit eng.cac2020.or.kr for more information about the CAC2020.

skim@koreatimes.co.kr