“Ni hao!” Don’t be surprised to hear immigration officers at the airport greeting or chatting with Chinese travelers in Mandarin.
“Ni hao!”
Don’t be surprised to hear immigration officers at the airport greeting or chatting with Chinese travelers in Mandarin.
Immigration officers will be taught basic Mandarin to help them communicate with Chinese travelers visiting the Philippines, according to the Bureau of Immigration.
The agency has partnered with the University of the Philippines (UP) Diliman, which will provide language tutors to more than 50 immigration officers.
“We hope to address the language barrier by teaching our immigration officers the basics of conversational Chinese,” said Grifton Medina, personnel section chief of the bureau.
Foreigners may not be allowed to enter the country if they cannot satisfactorily answer questions, such as their travel itinerary, intended length of stay and purpose of travel.
They may also be barred from entering the Philippines if they are deemed undesirable aliens and would end up as a burden to the state.
Chinese tourists are the second biggest group of visitors to the country. From January to November, the Bureau of Immigration recorded 796,487 Chinese visitors.
