Nearly twenty prospective narrators are studying history in a classroom located on the third floor of the Korea Tourism Organization building in downtown Seoul. The subject matter for the day’s class is Kim Do-hyung’s “Hanyang Fortress Seen through Pictures.”

My presentation for today deals with Hanyang Fortress seen through the photos. I took pictures of various locations in Seoul, starting with Sungryemun, and told stories related to those places. This is my second class and the next class will be taught by someone else on the city’s architectural and historical features and other background knowledge.

These people gather here for a four-hour class twice a week, with an aspiration to become narrators. What motivated them to work as a narrator?

(Man) I was a civil servant until I retired last year. A new job was hard to come by, but I couldn’t just sit around idly with nothing to do, so I decided to take part in this wonderful program. My field is in cultural assets. There is a plan to register Hanyang City Fortress as a world cultural heritage. Then there would be many visitors and I want to guide them through the fortress.
(Woman) I retired from teaching last year. I love walking and I used to organize a walking tour in which I would guide people through the city’s old palaces. When I learned about this narrator program, I signed up immediately. In the past I would tell people only about the information I found on the internet, but I get to learn the whole story through this class. I like the fact that it’s so educational.

Interactive learning programs, tour of historical sites, forest walks, museum visits – these activities could become rather boring if there are no knowledgeable guides or narrators to explain the significance of the places and things you see and make the experiences more fun and educational. These days it is rare to see a museum or a historical location without a narrator. Reflecting the rising demand for narrators, the recent course on Hanyang Fortress Walls narrators drew more applicants than initially intended. Here’s Kim Jin-su of Jongno District Office in charge of its tourism programs.

This year there were eighty applicants. Last year the number of applicants was 1.5 times more than the class capacity, but this year we needed ten narrators and the class was for 17 people, but we got 80 applicants. So we had to conduct interviews to select only the required number of students.

Narrators are not confined to historical and cultural subjects. Their specialties range from forests, flora and fauna, science and technology, and indigenous wildlife to museum exhibition, ecology, and even back alleys. Wherever there are things to see, there are narrators to explain them. It is, after all, the era of storytelling.

At Seoul Forest located in Dduk뚝 Island in Seongdong District in Seoul, two rounds of forest exploration program, once in the morning and once in the afternoon, take place every Tuesday, Wednesday, and Friday.

The group tour is kept to only twenty members for the sake of intimacy and focus. They explore for an hour and a half every part of the forest, which burst in beauty these days as spring flowers start blooming under warm spring sunshine.

A volunteer forest narrator makes the exploration program more enjoyable and today’s narrator is Ms. Jung In-sook정인숙.

I started when they were looking for volunteer forest guides back in 2005 when Seoul Forest first opened. I underwent the certification program for forest narrators at the time. There are so many things to study if a person wanted to become a forest narrator. I had to go to lectures about plants, insects, birds, and ecology. The most worthwhile moment is when I see people marvel at the forest. There is a big difference between just seeing the forest and deeply appreciating it. I find it really meaningful when people realize the significance of this forest after listening to my tour.

The contents of the Seoul Forest exploration programs differ depending on the time of the tour and the subject matter.

Weekday programs for adults deal with such topics as the geographical features of Seoul Forest, its ecological importance, and various flowers and trees found in the forest.

On this day an elementary school’s environmental studies club took part in the forest’s historical and ecological tour program. The club’s supervising instructor says he always brings his students to participate in this program when they get a chance to visit Seoul Forest.

These students joined the environmental studies club to learn about the environment. I signed up for the program because they will think more about the environment when they listen to the explanations about the forest and trees. It’s a small group so the students would be able to focus better. I have to admit that I learned the names of some birds for the first time here. Anybody can come and have a good time with this tour.

Young students walk around the forest, touching the blossoming trees, and learn something completely new about the trees, like how the trees defend themselves instinctively against outside threats. Then even those who were not that keen about nature or environment would slowly become interested in their surroundings.



(Girl) I just wanted to breathe in clean air and goof around a little. But now that I’ve heard the narrator’s explanation, I got to learn much about the forest.

And those who were interested in the forests to begin with find themselves even more immersed in nature.

(Boy 1) I wanted to work in forest or nature conservation. In this program I learned something I didn’t know before, like how pine trees survive the winter. This experience was different from when I just visited the forest. Now I feel closer to the forest.
(Boy 2) I was very interested in forests. I searched the internet for more information on forest and found out about this forest exploration program. I found it more interesting and now I know more about the trees. I want to volunteer as a forest narrator, too.

Seeing these young students become more interested in the forest and more curious about the ecology, the forest narrator Jung In-sook feels that her time is well spent.

This is not a job to make a living out of. It’s more like lifelong learning. I have to study to give these tours and walking in the forest makes me healthier in mind and body. When I first started working here, there was a volunteer who was in his seventies. Now that seven or eight years have passed, he would be almost eighty. I started when I was in mid-thirties and I’m now in my forties, which means I can do this for another forty years or so. Even when I get older, I will be able to enjoy the forest and nature.

Hanyang Fortress Walls narrator Lee Yong-ok이용옥 is leading a group of tourists to the city fortress. Lee was chosen as a member of the first team of Hanyang Fortress Walls narrators half a year ago.

I got the certificate in September. I really enjoyed learning about the culture and history of our city, and I find it worthwhile when people like my tour and say nice things about it. I find it rewarding when people realize through my storytelling how hard our ancestors worked.

A Hanyang Fortress narrator like Lee Yong-ok works four hours a day and gets paid 35 thousand won, or about 31 U.S. dollars, just enough to cover her transportation and meals. So they are basically volunteers. But they earn much more than money – they gain confidence about their abilities, energy to go out and talk about the subjects they love, and pride about the city and ancestors.

When I first started out, I couldn’t answer the questions promptly. It was not easy speaking in front of a group of people. But as I got used to it, I became proud of myself for knowing so much about our history and grew more confident when my friends told me that they had a new respect for me. As I started studying Korean culture and educating people about it, I realized that we should do our utmost to safeguard and preserve our cultural relics and restore damaged ones.

During the program the eyes and ears of the visitors are solely on the narrator. The narrator is their leader.

Listening to her explanation is much better than just walking along the walls by myself. I can talk about it with my children and share the experience. I learned something new, something I learned by rote back in school came back to me today. It invigorates my life and it is nice to walk with my friends.

Some of the visitors had such a good time, they think about becoming a narrator themselves.

My friend and I talked about studying about Songpa District, where we live now. It has the Mongchon몽촌 earthen rampart, Wirye위례 Fortress, and other historical sites from the Baekje era. We decided to study about them, because Songpa District Office has a program similar to this one. My friend and I are going to become Songpa District narrators. We should get more familiar with the place we live in.

But it’s not easy becoming a narrator. The Hanyang Fortress Walls program sponsored by Jongno and Jung Districts cover not only historical matters, but also emergency responses and other topics. Here’s Mr. Kim Jin-su of Jongno District Office in charge of its tourism programs.

The training program is comprised of ten lecture classes, five on-the-job training sessions, and eight rounds of fieldwork. That’s 24 classes, totaling 70 hours. We also teach public speech, storytelling techniques, and accident response measures. Applicants must take all these classes before becoming eligible to take a narrator certification test.

A narrator’s job is not an easy one. They must have the dedication, commitment, and knowledge if they want to be the deliverer of accurate information and genuine inspiration. That is the best way to make people listen and learn.