Olympic effort from linguist cop

Updated 13.47 Sun Jul 27 2008

Keywords: French., Polish, Danish, Portuguese, Italian, Finnish, Russian, Japanese, Swedish, Dutch, German, Spanish, Olympi Games, BeijingEnglish, Officer Liu Wenli, language expert, Chinese Policeman

The Chinese are doing their best to make Beijing as welcoming as possible ahead of the Olympics.

Special police officers are being drafted in to act as information providers, helping visitors navigate their way around the Chinese capital.

Liu Wenli is determined to learn as many foreign tongues as possible before the competition kicks off in less than a fortnight

One officer in Beijing is taking his role more seriously than most of the other 40,000 English speakers drafted in to help the Games run smoothly.

Liu Wenli is determined to learn as many foreign tongues as possible before the competition kicks off in less than a fortnight.

He may not be fluent yet but he can say hello and welcome in English, Spanish, German, Dutch, Swedish, Japanese, Russian, Finnish, Danish, Italian, Portuguese, Polish and French.

The self-taught policeman has made such a name for himself he has even been chosen to carry the Olympic torch.