In the hall of Myeongdong subway station, in the popular shopping district of the same name in central Seoul, most passengers routinely flow to the correct exit during the early evening rush hour, often without taking their eyes off their phone screen. But foreign metro travelers regularly pause here for a moment in doubt. They look around, at the subway map which, with its 24 lines and almost eight hundred stations, is something of a colorful plate of spaghetti. Then they also study their screens, point to something, discuss, and move on – sometimes hesitantly, sometimes decisively.
“The metro is difficult to understand here,” says Aline Busicchia (35) from Sydney, who returned from Shanghai two days earlier with two friends. The three live in Australia, but are on a tour in South Korea and China and are in the middle of the hall discussing extensively. They are looking for a shopping center and want to know which line to change to.
Grandmother
Perhaps the Seoul subway company should promote its interactive, artificial intelligence-powered service a bit more information screens, the first of which was put into use in Myeongdong in December. Answers to frequently asked questions can be found in thirteen languages, but lost travelers can also use the system to talk in their own language to an employee in the office on the other side of the semi-transparent touchscreen.
Aline had not yet noticed the screen she had been standing next to all this time. But now she wants to give it a try. When she taps on the glass, a station employee comes on the other side, who first has to restart the system but then starts a smooth conversation – he in Korean, Aline in English. The translation of their questions and answers appear like a chat conversation on the glass between them. They should have had something like that in Shanghai, says Aline's travel companion Israel Machado (33) from Brisbane. “Everything was done there with WeChat and no one spoke English.”
However, the translation does not seem to work completely flawlessly: “There is one of the grandmothers in my neighborhood,” the voice computer puts into the mouth of the station employee. But Aline and her friends are satisfied: they have to change to line 4 and later to line 2.
A little later Rin and Nomura, both 19, arrive. They come from Osaka, Japan and are in Seoul to spend their spring break. With her centimeter-long, carefully painted nails, Lin taps the screen and asks for help in topping up the balance on her metro ticket. She has to come inside for that, but Rin also thinks it is a useful service, public transport is complicated here if you don't speak the language. But Seoul is “great,” they shout before running to their subway.
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Mainly Japanese and Chinese
Japanese and Chinese are the most commonly used languages on the screens, which, after the initial three-month trial period in Myeongdong, have been installed in another 10 subway stations frequented by foreign visitors, such as Gimpo Airport, and in the popular entertainment districts of Itaewon and Hongdae. “Most employees speak reasonable English,” explains Myeongsin Hong, assistant manager at the Euljiro 1-ga metro station, which is just a short distance away. “So we just do that live. But a lot of people come from China and Japan, and we don't speak those languages.”
When asked via the translation screen, he says that he finds the system useful and that he is happy with it, but he has not had much traffic yet – about five customers around noon. Perhaps this is because the screen at this station is not in the hall, but behind the door of an information office. Only a fairly inconspicuous billboard in the pedestrian tunnel directs travelers there.
Hong is not afraid that the AI system will replace human staff in the future, he says. Press spokesperson Kim Young-chan of the Seoul metro company also denies in an e-mailed explanation that this is the intention. “The duties of station staff are much broader. They provide traveler information, but also handle complaints, monitor safety and manage the facilities.”
Thirty million tourists
The screens – developed by South Korean AI company Konan – are part of an ambitious plan to boost tourism in the capital, Kim explains. Seoul hopes to soon attract thirty million visitors a year, more than double the number before the corona pandemic. They would have to spend an average of 3 million won (more than 2,000 euros) per person.
The capital is specifically focusing on other countries in Asia, such as Malaysia, Thailand and Vietnam, where local tourist offices are being opened. Malay, Thai and Vietnamese are three of the other language choices available on the screens. Kim cannot say how many tourists currently use the metro in the capital. But last year, according to data she sends, almost three million one-way tickets were sold, a ticket specifically intended for foreign visitors. Myeongdong Station is by far the most popular with more than four hundred thousand tickets.
The tourism plan further provides, among other things, a giant Ferris wheel and a huge hot air balloon which should offer tourists a spectacular view of the city from next summer, one hundred and fifty meters above the Han River. Although it also says it is aware of the dangers of 'overtourism', a problem that affects residents of the historic Bukchon district with its traditional Korean houses – hanoks – already complaining about it.
None of this is necessary for Lily (24) and her brother Ben (23) from Colorado. They are backpacking and having a great time in Seoul. Lily, standing in the hall of Myeongdong station, checks their route on her phone, which is difficult because Google Maps does not always work properly in South Korea. She has seen the screen behind her, but she doesn't like it. “I prefer contact with real people.” She tried the live translation service yesterday, “but there was no one on the other side of the screen.”
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