With Beijing's success in becoming the host city for the Olympics, many volunteers are making preparations to do their bit to help the city concentrate on some weightier, more pressing matters and make the 2008 Olympics one of the best ever. 　

　Some volunteers, such as retired former foreign language teachers, and professionals who picked up languages while working overseas, have arranged to volunteer as translators. They can speak and write in English, Japanese, French, Hebrew, Mongolian, German, Russian, Spanish, Hungarian, Korean, Persian, Indonesian, Malaysian, Indian, Thai and other languages. 　

　Old people, young people ... age did not matter. The bottom line for all volunteers was competence and a willingness to give their time. 　

　A speaker of three foreign languages, Liu Xiaoshu, 82, has spent his 20 years in retirement developing Chinese-English computer translation software, hoping that one day he can make good use of it. Now he can, and no one could be more excited at the prospect. He wasted no time in calling the committee and volunteering his skills and software. 　

　He said, "I'm still in good health, and I'm sure my skills will be of use to the Olympics". He further commented: "Beijing is becoming much more international now, so hosting an Olympic Games will definitely be of more help to the city. I don't know precisely what kind of job the committee will give me, but I will be happy to take on whatever needs to be done." 　

　Aged just 12, Chen Yiyuan is so far the youngest Chinese to volunteer as an English translator. A high-performing grade-six student at a primary school, he speaks fluent English with an American accent - as a result of regular visits to three English corner conversational clubs in Beijing. 　

　"I feel very uncomfortable if I miss even a single visit to the English corner," he said. "I love English very much. I will probably be at university in 2008, the right time to do something for that year's Olympics". 　

　Jiang Ming, a seven-year-old student at a Primary School in Beijing who used to hate learning English, gave his parents a pleasant surprise last week when he grabbed his Olympic English handbook and accompanying cassette tape from his bookshelf and sat down for an evening of hard work. His change of mind was apparently influenced by several boys and girls who recently appeared on Chinese TV saying they wanted to be good English speakers so they could serve as volunteers for the Games. 　

　Certain taxi companies have also started evening classes, inviting English teachers to instruct their drivers in basic English. One taxi driver said, "Learning English is very important, no matter how busy I am, I always attend the evening English classes, and I want to be able to talk to foreign passengers myself when the Olympic Games is held in Beijing." His aim is to learn to speak the 900 most frequently used English sentences. 　

　An old woman from Beijing's neighborhood committee said, "I often meet foreigners asking for directions, and no matter how I and the other neighbors try to help them, through gestures, they just don't understand. Beijing will host the 2008 Olympic Games, so we should let foreigners see how great the Chinese are, and that even a common grandma like me can speak English. I believe Beijing's Olympic Games will be one of the best." 　

　For anyone who is involved, the Olympic experience is almost like being one of the athletes themselves. It's not the winning that is important but it's the taking part. Knowing that you are a part of something special, an event that will go down in history, you can look back on it and be able to say, "I was there, I was involved." 　

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