The GuangZhou Asian Games Organising Committee (GAGOC) signed a contract with the Guangdong University of Foreign Studies (GDUFS) on April 26 and they will cooperate with each other to establish a multi-language service centre for the Guangzhou 2010 Asian Games.

Officiating guests at the ceremony included Xu Ruisheng, Vice Mayor of Guangzhou Municipality and Executive Deputy Secretary General of GAGOC, Zhong Weihe, President of GDUFS, Gu Shiyang, Deputy Secretary General of Guangzhou Municipality and GAGOC, and Xu Guobin, Deputy Secretary of CPC Committee of GDUFS, as well as other officials from GAGOC Volunteers Department, External Relations & Protocol Department, china Telecom Corporation Limited and 300 other volunteers from GDUFS.

Mr Xu expressed in his address that the language service is an integral part of the Games services during the Guangzhou Asian Games and the multi-language service centre will provide the telephone interpretation service support in nine languages of English, Japanese, Arabic, Korean, Russian, Thai, Cambodian, Indonesian and Vietnamese for guests from Asian countries and regions, acting as an vital platform to enhance the mutual communication and create a close band of friendship.

Xu hoped that university/college students enrich and serve the Games with their language talent and expertise; and it is an opportunity of a lifetime for them promote the chinese culture at an international arena as well as to practise the Games Vision “Thrilling Games, Harmonious Asia”.

As introduced by Mr Zhong, GDUFS will provide 5,441 Games-time volunteers to offer a wide range of professional volunteering services for Olympic Family Assistants (OFA), National Olympic Committees (NOCs), AGNS (Asian Games News Service) editors and flash quote reporters; some will take up the job of generalist volunteers at the Headquarters Hotel of the Guangzhou Asian Games, Guangzhou Baiyun International Airport, Guangwai Gymnasium and Guangzhou Gymnasium; and they will provide telephone interpretation services in nine languages for the OCA VIPs, and athletes, technical officials, accredited media from different countries/regions provided that face-to-face interpreting is unavailable.

The organiser even went further to present the service procedures and working scenarios of the multi-language service centre through an onsite simulated rehearsal and Mr Huang Ka, Deputy Director of GAGOC External Relations & Protocol Department, delivered an inspiring lecture to volunteers working for the multi-language centre for the upcoming Games.

Located in the 6th Teaching Building of the North Campus of GDUFS, the Guangzhou Asian Games Multi-language Service Centre is established both by GAGOC and GDUFS. There are 20 agents handling inbound calls (four for English, three for Japanese, Korean, Russian and Arabic respectively, and one for Thai, Cambodian, Indonesian and Vietnamese respectively) 24 hours a day during Games-time. Interpreters are made up of teachers and students from GDUFS, among which over 38 percent hold a master’s degree or higher and 73 percent have studied abroad.

Target groups of the interpretation service

A. Tier I: VIPs of the OCA Family

a. President, members of the Executive Board and other officials from the OCA

b. High-level executives from the OCA marketing partners

c. Guests invited by the OCA President

d. President, Secretary General and the third representative of each NOC

e. President and Secretary General of each International Federation (IF)

f. President and Secretary General of each Asian Federation (AF)

g. President, Members and other officials of the IOC

h. Officials of the Olympic Solidarity headquarters

i. Independent observer/members of Athlete Outreach Programme of World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA)

j. President, Vice President, Secretary General and Members of Executive Board from other Asian Games Organising Committee

k. High-level executives from sponsors

l. High-level executives from broadcasters

B. Tier II: Dignitaries from home and abroad

a. Representatives of the royal family, head of state, head of government

b. Ministers to Ministry of Sports and other high-level government officials

c. Leaders of the Chinese Communist Party and P.R. China

d. Leaders from central government, provincial governments and municipal governments

e. High-level officials of GAGOC

f. Guests invited by GAGOC

C. Tier III: Technical officials, delegation members from Asian countries/regions

D. Tier IV: Media and sponsors

E. Tier V: Staff of GAGOC

Service procedures at the multi-language service centre

A. Coordinators at the multi-language service centre distribute the hotline information to target customers through GAGOC staff. In total, there are nine hotline numbers for nine languages respectively.

B. Those in need of the interpretation service dial different hotline numbers accordingly.

C. The interpreter answers the call and reminds the caller that their conversation will be recorded and headsets instead of speakers are recommended during the conversation which probably touches sensitive topics.

D. Once the interpreter gets what the caller talks about, he/she will require the caller to pass the phone to the third party.

E. The interpreter keeps a journal.

Hours of service at the multi-language service centre

For the Guangzhou Asian Games, it operates 12 hours a day (8:00-20:00) from October 25 – November 4, 24 hours a day from November 5 – 30.

For the Guangzhou Asian Para Games, it operates 12 hours a day (8:00-20:00) from December 5 – 7, 24 hours a day from December 8 – 21.