A whole lot of lingo

Since the Games have started, Beijing has become a whole new world. There are people here from literally every country in the world. We were sitting in a restaurant the other day where the only Chinese people in the place were the servers! What a drastic difference from our first few weeks in Asia. I've heard a TON of Russian, French, Italian, German, Belarussian, Greek, Dutch, Spanish, Arabic, Malay, New Zealand English, Aussie English and British English... and very, very little American English. There are so many languages flying around that it is impossible to keep things straight sometimes. And just when you think you can rely on the host country for a bit of consistency... you learn about this:

Here’s the quick and dirty when it comes to the Chinese language. Since China has 55 very different ethnic groups across 9.6 million square kilometers, the “language barrier” extends beyond us Western folks and even separates the Chinese citizens. Patrick, who is one of my fellow Purdue students here, grew up in Shanghai. He speaks fluent Chinese but is often misunderstood and can’t communicate easily with the people here in Beijing. Apparently people from Beijing, Shanghai, and Hong Kong all speak different dialects, different pronunciations, of the very same language. Patrick says that Beijinginites have a distinct accent in which they add an “errr” sound to the end of everything.

In addition, there are two distinct sects of Chinese, Mandarin and Cantonese. So things can get really interesting around here. Our Chinese volunteer friend Li says that in his hometown there are different characters than regular, widely accepted Chinese. These characters are more symbolic in nature and have a flavor that's closer to the hieroglyphics of the Egyptians.

Given all the diversity in language experienced on a daily basis, I'm sure you can imagine what life is like as a Flash Quote Reporter. The gap between the very modern and prospering American English and the ancient Nakhi Chinese dialect is enough to constitute separate worlds! Plain and simple, there are things that just do not translate. These two, for example, are so uniquely not the same that one could classify them as different modes of communication altogether.

At work, we've got quotes coming at us in all these languages, and we're trying to get them all filed in British English in just 10 minutes after they're delivered by the athlete. Can you imagine scribing a quote about the "four heads god" listed above without losing any detail or significance?

Welcome to my job at the ONS.

XOXO