In almost every area China has the Olympics wondrously well organized. The last two mountains to climb are pollution and language. Something plainly is being done about pollution especially as the world’s press has picked it up as an useful and continuing story. Language is something else again. According to a report issued by Ministry of Education (MOE), China has set strict standards on the use of both Chinese and English in the service industry.

The report showed that China has regulated the Chinese to English translation for such service as washing rooms, restaurants and hotels to help visitors to know where they are and what they are. The regulation also includes ways of translation for Chinese cuisine. A coordination work team has also been established to carry out language training programs.

Statistics suggest that by the end of 2005, more than 4.1 million residents in Beijing had learned foreign languages. That is 30% if the population.

This statement needs to be regarded in the light of the definition of the world ‘learned.’ The writer learned French at school and is a whiz at telling you that his uncle’s pen is in the garden of his aunt. Which is interesting but less than totally useful. So it could be said one has ‘learned’ French without having the faintest idea how to speak it in the real world. So the suggestion that 30% of the population of Beijing has ‘learned’ English may well, on the face of it, be true. That is not to say that they can speak and understand English. At least, not well. This is not true of the younger generation. Young students possibly would be the best bet as interpreters. (In our illustration there is no apparent problem in communication. This encounter happened during a friendly match between China and Queen’s Park Rangers.)

Nearly 200,000 people in 11 businesses such as tourism have received some language training to improve service for the Olympics.A number of books on the English speaking during the Olympic Games and the volunteer service training have been published. The map of Beijing is also published in Chinese, English and French on the official website of the organizing committee for the Beijing Olympics.

Li Yuming, an official with the Ministry of Education in charge of language administration, said that the language usage for the Olympic Games still had problems.

For example, China has two table tennis players Ma Lin and Ma Long.
If you put their given names ahead of their first names, following international practice, their names will appear the same as ‘L. Ma’ which is confusing.

The official also said that translation of the names of places and roads in Beijing also need some regulation.

This will be the one area that will be difficult to get right. Reverse the situation and think of the games in, say, London. And imagine the majority of the visitors are Chinese.

How successful would London be at making sure enough people learned enough Chinese to be useful? Quite so.
Source: JongoNews