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50 public servants complete course in Colombian Spanish

Fifty Ghanaian diplomats and public servants from 14 institutions have completed a three-month course in Colombian Spanish language and culture in Accra.

They were drawn from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Regional Integration (MFARI), Ministry of Tourism, Culture and Creative Arts, Ministry of Youth and Sports, Ministry of Communications, Ministry of Aviation and Ministry of Defence.

Others were from the Ghana Police Service, Ghana Immigration Service, Ghana Investment Promotion Centre, Ghana Broadcasting Corporation, National Folklore Board, Ghana Museums and Monuments Board and Narcotics Control Board.

This is the sixth in the series of the “The Colombian Spanish Language Course for Ghanaian Diplomats and Public Servants” introduced in February 2014 to consolidate bilateral relations between the two countries.

The completion of the course facilitated by Pontifical Bolivarian University, Colombia, brings the number of beneficiaries to 200.

At the closing ceremony on Tuesday, Ambassador Albert Yankey , Chief Director of the MFARI,  said the course was a manifestation of the cordial relations the two countries had.

He said the current global economy required multilingual interaction and cross-cultural understanding, thus the ability to communicate in other languages could help achieve professional and personnel career goals.

“As diplomats and public servants representing Ghana, the learning of a second language will not only help you to interact smartly with people from other cultures, but it will enable you to achieve greater diversity in your thinking, creativity and cognitive development,” he said.

Based on these, Ambassador Yankey urged the participants to make the best of the opportunity and also keep practising what they had learnt to keep the acquired knowledge alive, adding that “language is a living thing. If you fail to practice it, it will completely die” he said and congratulated the trainees for their dedication.

He thanked the Colombian government for the partnership and expressed the hope that the relation between the two countries in the field of education would be advanced through similar programmes.

Colombian Ambassador to Ghana, Claudia Turbay Quintero, said Ghana was one of the 25 countries hosting the course, noting that it was not only about acquiring a second language but the opening of the mind to other culture.

She reaffirmed her country commitment to support similar initiatives to consolidate the relation between Ghana and Colombia.

The trainees showed off their newly acquired knowledge through poetry recitals and musical performances in Spanish.

BY JONATHAN DONKOR

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