Some days back a leading London paper carried a preview of the preparations Beijing has made for the Olympics. I have no problem with the comments about Beijing or the Chinese - good and bad - the writer makes. After all, everyone sees in a country what he or she wants to see.
But I'd like to make a point or two about one of his complaints. He is frustrated that the Chinese haven't done enough to learn English. He actually makes fun of the kind of English he encountered on drives around the city. This, he moans, is sure to make things difficult for foreigners coming to Beijing for the Games.
No great revelation that. Everyone knows the language barrier is one of the big challenges on travels to other shores. Everyone also knows that learning foreign languages can both be a practical advantage and an intellectual joy.
The Chinese know that just as well as any other people. The Olympics may have prompted thousands of them to learn English. But they have been learning English anyway - much before Beijing was chosen to be the Olympics host city.
More and more Chinese learning English was one of the commitments China made itself - and to the world - in its preparations for the big event. And, it would be churlish to complain that China's efforts in this regard were not serious. From street signs to announcements on public transport to English lessons to thousands of volunteers and cabbies - there is enough evidence to suggest that the Chinese have done quite a lot to make the Olympics travel somewhat easier for foreigners. Arrangements have also been made for a cabbie driving a foreigner to take the help of an English interpreter by dialing a translation service.
Well, many of the learners may not have gone far. Understandably, this will cause English-speaking foreigners some inconvenience. But can - or should - one really complain too much?
For one thing, the Chinese can turn back on the foreigners and ask, "Won't it have been a great help if you too learnt some Chinese as part of the preparations for your trip to Beijing?" Or, they may even question the propriety or wisdom of foreigners making such a demand on the Chinese.
It'd actually be more gracious to appreciate all that the Chinese have done to speed up and widen the learning of English, especially for the Olympics. While I have a fair idea of the problems the language barrier can cause, I can't help asking a few questions.
Did the world insist that the ordinary Japanese learn enough English quickly before the Tokyo Olympics, that the Spanish did so before Barcelona or the Greeks before Athens?
I've traveled much in the world without speaking any other language than English. In many lands, I've traveled on the back of one or two words. All that I had in my language kit on a travel in Greece was kali mera (good morning) and kali nikta (good night). In Italy, it rarely went beyond gracias (thank you), in Japan konnichiwa (good day) and arigato gozaimashta (thank you) and in the Arab world practically nothing. If I spoke a little French on travels in France, the French wouldn't know what language I was speaking.
Two quick points. The ability to speak in another tongue is great and to be cherished. But human beings are too intelligent to be struck totally incommunicado without the help of language. They know many other ways of communication, the easiest and most decent of which is the smile. And, take it from me that the Chinese make amends with smiles and other offers of help when they can't help someone with words.
The second point, to my mind, is worth more serious thought, especially if you are a genuine traveler. Just think of how the greatest travelers of all time - men like Marco Polo, Ibn Batuta, Francois Bernier or China's very own Xuanzang long before all of them - walked untrodden paths across the globe without maps, language help or Lonely Planets - in those ancient days.
Those complaining of the language barrier, alas, are no travelers; they are just tourists wanting to have travels made easy. All fun and adventure would be gone if the world were really flat and spoke in just one tongue.
E-mail: ashis@chinadaily.com.cn
