English and etiquette classes are all part of Beijing’s effort to get its population to speak English to welcome the millions of foreigners expected to flood to the city in this Olympic year.

Worried that its citizens’ notoriously poor command of the language will embarrass the country and lead to unfortunate misunderstandings, the Chinese government has embarked on a massive program to teach the population basic English.

The Olympic drive has spurred an English learning frenzy all over the country. People are learning English to be more ‘internationalized’, as organizers put it.

The residents are more than happy to attend the Public Welfare English Class for Citizens in the Olympic community and role-play as foreigners and volunteers.

Jian Jia, a graduate student at a Beijing university who is part of the Olympic Volunteer Programme, has been teaching the class for more than three years.

Jian said, ‘You cannot see them as students. Their English may not be as good as that, but their enthusiasm is better. Actually some of them can speak very good English and have no problem conducting simple conversations.’

Beijing’s Olympic organizers have amassed 400,000 English speaking recruits in preparation for the influx of foreigners.
Source: Reuters