hankyoreh

Emergency texts sent by the South Korean government

At 6 pm on May 13, an emergency alert popped up on the phone of Zaid (pseudonym), 34, an Egyptian living in Gimpo, Gyeonggi Province.

“Anyone who visited the Itaewon or Nonhyeon neighborhoods of Seoul after Apr. 24 is allowed to be tested anonymously even without symptoms. Please stay at home until you’ve gotten in touch with a community health center,” the alert said, in Korean.

 Since Zaid doesn’t speak Korean, he tried to copy the text of the message so that he could paste it into automated translation software. But the text couldn’t be copied. Zaid gets several emergency alerts every day, but he doesn’t know what they mean. His only option is to keep wearing a mask and do what he can to fight the disease on his own.

Non-Koreans need up-to-date information about the COVID-19 outbreak that originated in Itaewon, a neighborhood that’s frequented by foreigners. But the emergency alerts aren’t available in languages other than Korean, a situation that some say needs to be rectified.

Hankyoreh reporters confirmed on May 18 that the text of emergency alerts sent to mobile phones can’t be copied. The method used to transmit the alerts complies with international standards that prevent recipients from copying the text or sending a reply, but there’s no reason why those standards have to be followed.

 Samsung and Apple mobile phones don’t allow the text to be copied, but LG phones do. “The copying function isn’t prohibited, so we provide it in the interest of customer convenience,” a spokesperson for LG Electronics said.

Samsung, Apple phones can’t copy text of emergency alerts

The result is that Samsung or Apple phone users who don’t speak Korean have trouble figuring out what the emergency alerts mean. While the Ministry of the Interior and Safety provides disaster information in English and Chinese via its Emergency Ready application, which is designed for non-Koreans, it has done little to promote the app. Furthermore, the app is useless for foreigners who don’t speak English or Chinese.

As of Monday, more than 10,000 people had downloaded the Emergency Ready app from the Google Play Store, a tiny fraction of Korea’s foreign population of more than 2 million people.

“More action should be taken, such as providing the emergency alerts in more languages and promoting the app,” said Won Ok-geum, director of a migrant advocacy center called Donghaeng (which means “going together”).

“We’re exploring the option of also providing a Japanese translation of the emergency alerts. We’ll also promote the Emergency Ready app in partnership with the Korea Tourism Organization,” said an official from Korea’s Ministry of the Interior and Safety.

By Kang Jae-gu, staff reporter

 Please direct comments or questions to [english@hani.co.kr]