In one year 4 billion sets of eyes will focus in on Beijing for the 2008 Olympics. Beijing is turning itself inside out to be prepared: improved traffic management, good air and water quality, good weather, sports infrastructure and all the services needed to stage the world’s biggest sporting event. High on the list of critical needs are languages –specifically foreign languages. China will be inundated with foreign tourists and sports fans during the Games. And that’s not to mention swarms of official sports teams, business people and the horde of foreign media.
Chinglish is on the hit list too. Even Chinese menus are being sanitised so that dishes like “Government Abuse Chicken” (gongbaoji), “Burnt Lion’s Head” (hongshao shizi tou), Husband and Wife's Lung Slices (fuqi feipian), and Chicken without Sex Life (tongziji) are transformed to the less edifying: Sauteed Diced Chicken with Peanuts, Stewed Pork Balls in Brown Sauce, Pork Lungs in Chili Sauce, and Spring Chicken! Here’s hoping they won’t resort to Number 32 and Number 19!
China’s Olympic organisers face an urgent need for skilled interpreters and translators. Translation and interpretation work for the 2008 Games will involve over 100 languages, but English, French and Spanish will be in greatest demand – not just to meet the needs of tourists and official visitors – but also for the very specific and demanding needs of the international sports media.
Officials estimate that during the 2008 Beijing Olympic Games some 16,000 media from more than 200 authorised international broadcasters will pour into Beijing and other host cities. In a nation already short of top flight interpreters and translators, the Games will create a new challenge. Recent research surveyed 15,000 professional translators and interpreters in China and found that less than 1.3 percent of them are experienced or good at sports translation.
A lot of money is at stake. According to research conducted by the Science and Technology Translators Association of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, an Internet language service provider for the website of the Beijing Organizing Committee (BOCOG), the value of Olympics-related translation and interpreting business will run to hundreds of millions of dollars. They estimate that 10,000 sports translators and interpreters will be needed for the 2008 Games. BOCOG is looking for 4,000 volunteers to support the Games – and who can help cover the 56 languages that will be spoken.
The solution? According to authorities special training courses will be set up to make sure China can meet the demand. But it won’t be an easy task. China is already critically short of high quality interpreters and translators and to bring an interpreter up to international standard requires more than a short course of training. As the Olympics approach the demand – and cost – for skilled professionals will only increase. Even international recruitment is not being ruled out.
Everyone, it seems, will be looking for good linguists – not just the sports media. Chinese press reports that the Beijing Emergency Medical Centre is looking for multi-lingual people to handle emergency medical calls from foreigners during the 2008 Beijing Olympics. Wang Xue Li Hong, an official at the centre told the China Daily that with tens of thousands of foreigners expected during the Games the centre would need to handle a lot of calls – and that is the tip of the iceberg.
It might not work for medical emergencies, but a Spanish language call centre for the Olympics was launched in mid-2007, a joint project between China and Spain and aims to give visitors from Spanish-speaking countries information on transport, weather as well as the reservation of tickets and hotels. The information will be drawn from a database of Beijing and Olympics data and the interpreters will be located in Spain. It is anticipated that as the Beijing Olympics draw near, more foreign language call centres will be launched.
Sport inspired the last round of signage - it was in the late 1980s that Beijing started using English signs for the 11th Asian Games in 1990. Perhaps as a result of the amusing signs that resulted, in 2002 the Beijing Speaks to the World Committee was set up with a panel of Chinese and foreign experts to teach basic English and also advise on signs. It is currently collecting incorrect English signs from around the city, and Beijing citizens are expected to take part in this campaign to clear out “Chinese-styled English signs” or what we love to call Chinglish. Many of us will be disappointed to see some of the old favourites like “Extraordinary Door” and “Site of jumping umbrella” and “convenient noodles” being placed in the “unrecycling rubbish receptacle”.
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