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Recent Visitors
They'll help in many tongues
2010. 3 March
A worker displays the uniform for the volunteers of the 2010 World Expo yesterday.
by Yang Jian
(shanghaidaily.com)
The World Expo 2010 organizer has recruited nearly 1,000 volunteers who can speak some of the world's less-spoken foreign languages - the largest such number in World Expo history, a senior Expo official said yesterday.
Most of them are postgraduate language majors at universities in Shanghai, selected out of the limited number of non-English foreign language professionals, said Xia Kejia, director of the Volunteer Department of the Bureau of Shanghai World Expo Coordination.
They'll speak languages other than Chinese, English, French, Spanish and Arabic.
Non-English foreign language professionals are in great demand, as the bureau expects most foreign visitors to come from Japan, South Korea and other Asian countries near China.
Some foreign volunteers have also been recruited, mostly from Japan and Spain, who served visitors at the 2005 Aichi Expo and 2008 Zaragoza Expo.
The organizer also recruited some South Koreans and Italians who will work at the 2012 Yeosu Expo and 2015 Milan Expo, the next two Expos after Shanghai.
Other foreign recruits are Shanghai inhabitants who can speak Chinese.
The 5.28-square-kilometer Expo site will have 2,535 volunteers serving visitors simultaneously on normal days. The number will be doubled during peak periods, including weekends and holidays, he said.
A total of 77,000 people from both home and abroad have been recruited as Expo volunteers, including 10 percent as reserve in case too many visitors enter the site.
All the volunteers will enter the Expo site in mid-April to take part in the five test operations to minimize things going wrong during the 184-day event.
The organizer yesterday unveiled the volunteers' uniform -mainly white and green with a logo resembling the Chinese character for "heart" on the T-shirt.
Sleeves and trouser legs can be removed in hot weather.