When Beijing was bidding for the Games in early 2001, some 15 percent of Beijingers had "a fairly good knowledge" of English, according to the People's Daily. It quoted then-mayor Liu Qi as saying that about 600,000 people, including pensioners but excluding school and college students, were also learning the language.

By the end of 2006, local authorities had closed in on their 5-million target, with a reported 4.87 million residents having a basic command of a foreign language, mostly English.

However, most of these people are under 30, creating a yawning generational gulf that the city is struggling to bridge.

Liang said that her BOCOG students span the whole spectrum in terms of English literacy, with marketing staff rating highly.

The total number of beneficiaries of the online project alone will be 5,000, she said.

Police go multilingual

Meanwhile, Beijing's police are also getting in on the act, with officers approaching Beijing Foreign Studies University (BFSU) in April asking for help.

Some of the police officiers will soon receive teaching materials from the school tutoring them to deal with basic conversations in eight foreign languages.

The college plans to begin a program next month targeting senior officers with degrees from foreign universities who will deal with issues like security at the Games, said Zhao Yuan, director of the bureau's training department.

Some 60 percent of Beijing's police officers should have passed an English language test by the end of this year, she said. The test was introduced six years ago.

Free lessons

Yuanpei Translation, which is supplying its services voluntarily for the Games, is offering free lessons to city residents in a handful of languages.

Yuanpei, which views the Olympics as a long-term investment in building its corporate image, was selected as the Official Translation and Interpretation Supplier of the Games last year. It can provide translators in 84 languages.

General Manager Jiang Xiaolin said Chinese companies were best equipped to get the job done for Beijing 2008.

"Chinese is the official language for next year's Games, and only Chinese translators with a full understanding of our culture can do the job with the utmost competence," he said. "We have been researching Chinese culture since 2003."

Yuanpei has also volunteered to provide translation services for about 20 start-ups in Beijing's Zhongguancun High-tech (Industrial) Park.

Starting from April, it provided free courses to Beijingers in eight languages including Arabic, Russian and German.

"Although it was expensive to rent the classrooms, I'm happy to help improve Beijing's foreign language environment," said Jiang, who hopes to see the capital become more of an international city.

"It would be rewarding to see an Arabian being greeted in his mother tongue here."

As for the city's mission to develop speakers of other languages, authorities are focusing on high school and university students, and citizens with a basic grounding in English.

Beijing Speaks Foreign Language Program, the main driver for the city's foreign language campaign, has sent out free textbooks and a-v materials for its focus group. Their goal is to train 20,000 people this year in simple daily conversational Japanese, French, German, Russian, Spanish and Korean.

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