At the national mountain-climbing training base in the suburbs of Beijing, Zeng Ji gets up every morning at seven, eats breakfast at eight and is in English class by nine.
Zeng is one of some 4,000 2008 Beijing Olympic National Technical Officials (NTOs) trying to polish their English-language skills heading into the Olympics this summer.
Due to a lack of proper language training and little exposure to international tournaments, most Chinese NTOs are not confident with their English skills.
"It is a big challenge for many Chinese technical officials to conduct an effective communication in English," Zeng, a swimming NTO, said. "Chinese referees have no problem with the technical stuff written in English, but we really need to improve our spoken English to make a better impression in front of the world."
Zeng does six hours of English lessons and another two hours of homework every day. He takes weekly written tests and an extra course on Wednesday nights. He is only allowed to speak Chinese on Sundays.
He and his classmates will have to pass an oral exam to finish the 10-week language crash course for the big event in August.
The 2008 Olympics will see more Chinese technical officials since it is common practice for the host country to provide local staff for event operation. These "technical officials" typically include judges, referees and other sport-specific officials.
An event may have both international and national technical officials, depending on the rules and regulations of each particular sport.
Zeng said many NTOs need to deal not only with athletes and coaches, but with other referees and officials if controversies occur.
In order to help the NTOs clearly communicate with people on and off the court, Beijing Games organizers last year hired a language company to run intensive training camps for 120 NTOs.
At the training camps, NTOs are divided into three groups according to their language levels. They first work on pronunciation and study basic sentence structures. Then they practice listening and oral skills in Games-related situations. In the final phase, they focus on technical terms and vocabulary.
The language training will continue after the 10-week camp as each student is required to take monthly online tests in listening, oral, reading and writing.
"My goal is to pronounce the names of swimmers properly and announce the results correctly at the Olympics," Zeng said.
