According to Liu Yang, head of the “Beijing Speaks Foreign Languages Program” and the “Office for Standardization of English Translation of Beijing Public Signs” (sic) declared these days in a press conference that at the end of last year 4.87 million Beijing residents were able to speak English. By the time of the 2008 Olympic Games, 5 million people (= “35% of the total population of Beijing”) will speak English. (article of 13 April in Beijing Today)
That’s reassuring for the IOC. They must say again “Beijing is doing great!”
Problem is, I fail to locate those millions of people. Who knows where they are hiding. Maybe they are all pretending not to speak one single word of English as for now and will surprise us all in August 2008.
Till then, don’t venture around in Beijing without a translator or at least the address of your hotel written in Chinese.
The Swissotel is a good example. I don’t think I ever found any driver who knew that hotel by its English name. The hotel exists since long, is one of the landmarks in the area.
But say “Gang Ao Zhong Xin” and they all take you there. (It actually means Hong Kong & Macau Center in Chinese….).
No wonder government officials have credibility issues with announcements like that.