Even speaking Chinese with an accent, Beijing Olympic Games shooting competition official Bai Huajun felt he was like an elementary school student when learning English.

Bai, to be responsible for result service in shooting events in 2008, was one of the students in the English training class set up for Beijing Olympics organizers.

 

He practiced oral English with nine other colleagues during their six-hour-per-day training which takes place on weekends.

 

"Like what Chairman Mao said, we should look us as elementary school students, in terms of learning English. At first, I can hardly speak but now I have made big progress. I hope that I can speak fluent English in the future," said Bai.

 

And obviously he needs to improve more when he mistakenly said "homewife" for "housewife" and "friendly" for "friendship".

 

Chen Xu, a baseball competition director, said what they learned at school are far from enough at the Olympics.

 

"We mainly practiced writing and reading at school. But as Olympics organizers, speaking and listening are much more important," he said.

 

In addition to the training, the Beijing Olympics organizers also have an English corner in their workplace.

 

(Xinhua News Agency May 29, 2007)