Buddhist experts talk in tongues

By Zou Qi  |   2008-7-10  |     ONLINE EDITION

A GROUP of Buddhists fluent in foreign languages will help look after Shanghai's Olympic visitors.

According to the Shanghai Jade Buddha Temple, 11 Buddhists graduated from the Shanghai International Studies University last month after completing a special course in foreign languages which took four years to complete. Four of the graduates specialized in English while the others majored in German, French, Japanese and Korean.

All the 11 graduates will act as guides for athletes and coaches who visit the Shanghai Jade Buddha Temple during the Beijing Olympics.

"We have set up a service center for Olympic athletes and coaches, who can visit the temple for free and the monks who can speak foreign languages will act as volunteers," said Dr Xu Donglai at the Shanghai Jade Buddha Temple.

"Today, the world needs more and more Buddhist scholars, who can explain Buddhism to others in their own languages," said Xu.

"Many tourists come here in search of Buddhism and to explore the ancient glory of Chinese Buddhism, so we should face this challenge to get ready to communicate with people all round the world."

According to the temple, it attracts about two million tourists every year, nearly 600,000 from abroad.

"Noting the shortage of Buddhist experts who were proficient in foreign languages, the temple sent 15 Buddhists to SISU to undertake the special language training program in 2004," Xu said.

The courses were intensive for the students. According to one Ti Wu, who was the only expert to study French, he had to recite one French article every day and tell a Buddhist story in French at each class, as well as writing an essay in French every week.