No one has ever taught an English football fan how to behave at a match. It seems like a very good idea. China is doing just that for the Olympics next year.

More than 200 Beijing Olympics cheer-squad volunteers are being taught at a time how to cheer and respond — in several cases for sports of which they have not close association.

These cheering training courses have been organized by Beijing Federation of Trade Unions. The courses are aimed at helping Beijingers better understand the different sports featured at the 2008 Games, and also instruct them how to be an enthusiastic and well-mannered audience.

Chen Huiping, one of the organizers of the group, says cheer squad training began in early June and aimed to prepare Beijingers for China’s biggest-ever sporting event.

He said, ‘People shouting out bad language when watching sport games is definitely not the public image we want to present to the world in the coming 2008. So, when we found that Japan and South Korea had promoted good manners among their people before the Olympic Games held in their countries, we wanted to do the same in China too.’

Cheering from Beijing Workers’ is a program driven by the federation, whose branches in different districts in Beijing have taken an active part.

Almost every week over the past five months, a training course on knowledge of the Olympic Games and good manners has been held across the city and more than 80,000 workers have taken part so far.
Source: China Daily