Amb. Abdelmounaam Ahriz of Algeria hosted a reception Nov. 17 at Lotte Hotel in downtown Seoul to mark the 50th anniversary of the November 1 Revolution Day.
Attending the event were more than 200 prominent guests from local and foreign communities in Korea including Minister of Health and Welfare Kim Geun-Tae and members of diplomatic corps accredited to Korea.
The article was published on November 4, 2005 but the above reference is to last year's party. When I worked in Seoul I knew the previous Algerian ambassador. I knew many of the European, African and Latin American diplomats, and employees of embassies, foreign chambers of commerce and international corporations. In my experience the ability to speak French and English were a huge benefit working abroad. Almost all the major hotel executive chefs were French, Swiss or German and the place I ran was a foreign chefs hangout. I also had alot of American military officers who were customers.
I mention this because I thought it might be of interest to the North African, Middle Eastern and Muslim readers in particular. In my world being a Muslim French chef has worked out just fine.
Very interesting, indeed. I'm not surprised about the sucess of knowing French and English. After all, they are among the recognized official languages.... Also sounds like it must have been a nice reception.
Paz
Posted by: Paz | November 03, 2005 at 01:17 PM