Multilingual Call Center Provides 24-Hour Online Language Services for the Winter Olympics
The 2022 Winter Olympics are in full swing, and behind the wonderful events is the diligent work of tens of thousands of service personnel. The high-level language service is a brand embodying the international image of the host country and city.
In order to provide remote multilingual interpreting services for all stakeholders during the Olympics, the Beijing Organizing Committee for the 2022 Olympic and Paralympic Winter Games set up a Multilingual Call Center in Beijing Foreign Studies University (BFSU). Based on the Beijing Multilingual Service Center, the Call Center provides third party interpreting services in 21 languages, including English, French and Russian, for Beijing 2022 Winter Olympics and Paralympics. This is the first application of remote simultaneous and consecutive interpreting services in the Winter Olympics, and the service duration and number of languages provided have also set a record in the history of Winter Olympic Games.
Formerly known as Beijing Olympic Multilingual Service Center, Beijing Multilingual Service Center provided language services in 44 languages for the Olympic family via telephone during the 2008 Olympic Games and accomplished its mission successfully. After 2008, the Center was retained as an Olympic legacy and incorporated into the overall urban development plan of Beijing to provide long-term language services for the capital city. Since 2010, Beijing Multilingual Service Center has been operating for more than 4,000 consecutive days and provided 24-hour online language services to foreign friends through Beijing12345 and other hotlines, greatly enhanced the multilingual environment of Beijing.
Since the start of its Olympic service this year, the Call Center has dealt with more than 500 calls from competition venues, the Winter Olympic Villages, volunteer bases, media centers and so forth, promptly assisting with issues involving media interviews, pandemic prevention and control, transportation and hotel arrangements. By providing 24-hour interpreting services covering all languages used during the Winter Olympics, the Call Center helps to ensure a successful event.
Composed of faculty staff and students, 96 volunteers from BFSU offer their high-quality language services to the Winter Olympics, just as BFSUers did during the 2008 Olympic Games. Volunteers from BFSU will continue to contribute to a “Simple, Safe and Wonderful” Winter Olympics.