Foreigners have difficulty in using local SNS

This is a screen capture of a personal homepage of Cyworld, one of Korea’s social networking sites. The Korea Communications Commission (KCC) said in report Wednesday that over half of foreign residents have difficulty using local SNS because they only provide Korean-language services. (Photo: Korea Times)

Over half of expats in a survey by the Korea Communications Commission (KCC) here found difficulty using local social networking services (SNS) because of language problems.

The government organization said Wednesday that 53.5 percent of the 1,086 foreign residents it surveyed have not used Korean language SNS in the past one year.

The rate is low compared to Koreans as three out of four locals have blogs and use other local SNS, the study said.

Of the immigrant workers, foreign wives, children of interracial marriages, and international students surveyed, 67.1 percent said that they were aware of Korean SNS sites. But they said they didn’t use local sites because they only operate in Korean.

Of the 366 foreign wives that took part in the study, 63.4 percent said they have difficulty in using local SNS.

Their number was the highest among the groups surveyed, though foreign immigrant workers and children of interracial marriages also showed a similar response.

Of the 369 foreign immigrants and 229 children of interracial marriages, about one of two from each group said they could not open accounts for local sites.

International students, on the other hand, had less difficulty, as 82 percent of them were local SNS users.

Those surveyed said they found difficulty in understanding the fields they have to fill out to sign up to local sites.

Korean-language education

“The procedure to become members of SNS operated by Korean firms is too complicated and also they ask for too many details, including personal information,” the study stated. “To understand those details, a foreigner not only has to understand Korean but also should be aware of social circumstances in this country and that’s where the difficulty comes from.”

The study was conducted to understand how the increasing numbers of foreign residents cope with living in Korean society.

“With more people relying on the Internet and online communities, especially SNS, to find information, it’s important to give expats more chances to open accounts for local SNS,” it said.

It also suggested more active Korean-language education and supplying computers and digital devices to those without any access to them could solve the problem. <The Korea Times/Yi Whan-woo>

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