Demand escalates for tour guides with foreign-language skills

Sharing culture

Jin Zhengwen, 31, has worked as a tour guide for nearly six years. He holds a Mandarin-language tour guide license, but can speak fluent Korean. Jin said what he cares about most is the satisfaction he gets from his work, and explaining China's cultural heritage to visitors.

"I worked in South Korea from 2016 and returned to Yanbian Korean autonomous prefecture in Northeast China's Jilin province around 2018," he said. "I'm from a Korean ethnic group, but spoke very poor Korean before I went to South Korea and honed my language skills there."

Jin said a good tour guide needs to connect with his or her clients. "From my experience, it's of great importance to resonate with foreign travelers and get to learn their real needs," he said.

The travel agency he works for has about four tour guides who speak Korean. However, in peak season it is in dire need of temporary staff who can speak Korean, he said.

"A foreign-language speaking guide might have been a good money-making job 10 or 20 years ago, but things have changed in recent years. The job is not that stable, and many of my peers work outside the prefecture or in big cities for higher pay," he added.

Song Xueyan is a 43-year-old Russian-language tour guide who started his career in 2008 in Hunchun, Jilin, which shares a border with Russia.

"Russian was my college major. I thought my language skills would return to zero if didn't use them for a long time, so I decided to be a Russian-language tour guide," he said.

"It's not an easy job because I need to be on call 24 hours in case the travelers have some emergencies."

Seasonal fluctuations mean the pay is not steady, Song said.

"In peak season, I earn about 400 yuan a day guiding a tour group, while the payment falls to 200 or 300 a day in the slack season," he said. "I usually head to Sanya, the coastal city in southern province of Hainan during, the slack season."

Around 2020, amid the COVID-19 epidemic, he started operating his own social media account to teach Russian free of charge. During that period he also began foreign trading and gained a teaching certification.

"I'm always grateful that my language skills gained me a place in society. Foreigners are no different from us, and communication can help us understand each other," he said.