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Earlier today, SNSD attended the 2010-2012 Visit Korea Year event at the Lotte Hotel in Sogong-Dong, Seoul.

During the proceedings, the ‘Visit Korea Year Committee’ formally appointed our girls’ as honorary ambassadors for the 2010-2012 Visit Korea Year campaign:

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A committee representative stated that:

Recently, K-Pop has been spreading all over the world. We hope that by appointing Girls’ Generation, the stars leading the Hallyu Wave, as our ambassadors, Korea’s tourism will improve and more people will know about our culture.

When questioned about their thoughts on becoming new ambassadors alongside other Korean personalities such as Bae YongJoon, Kim Yuna and the cartoon character, Pororo, the girls’ commented that:

We are incredibly honored to be appointed as the new ambassadors of this campaign, and we will use this opportunity to spread the Korean culture overseas. Also, since the Hallyu Wave is centered on K-Pop, we feel that as singers, we should do our part in helping to promote Korea… While promoting overseas, we realized that fans were singing along to our Korean songs and that a lot of them were also learning the Korean language. Because of that, we realized just how important our image is.

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Shortly afterward, SNSD had the privilege of meeting the wife of South Korean President Lee Myung-bak, First Lady Kim Yoon-ok, who gave them a tour of the Blue House.

First Lady Kim shook hands with all of the girls’ and had the following to say about them:

You all look prettier in person than on TV.

They then sat down to discuss the Hallyu Wave and it’s influence across the globe. The First Lady remarked that:

I don’t know if it’s because I saw you all on TV often, but you seem familiar. I’m very thankful for you working so hard to inform the world about Korea… Please inform the world about Korean foods as well.

At one point during the discussion, Sooyoung commented:

I recently saw the First Lady reading a book to children with visual impairments.

In response, First Lady Kim replied:

I do volunteer work, reading to children in multicultural families where the mother does not speak Korean, once a month. There is an inadequate supply of Braille books in our country.

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Credit: Tetsuya@SONEms, zheming@soshified, danceQfan@soshified, grandma deer@soshified, gayqueenful@soshified.com (translation), Sakura29@soshified; pictures as tagged; respective youtube uploaders.