Language is a bridge for human communication, and language services are an important factor in ensuring the success of major international sporting events. The Hangzhou Asian Games will draw on the experience of previous Asian Games to bring the voice of the Asian Games to the world through language services.

Multilingual Services Speak For the Asian Games

According to the requirements of the Constitution of the Asian Olympic Council and the host city contract, the language services for the Hangzhou Asian Games are mainly in Chinese and English, taking into account the other languages, and provide a high level of multilingual language services for the VIPs of the OCA family, athletes from different countries and regions, accompanying officials, technical officials, media and other types of personnel during the preparatory and operational phases of the Hangzhou Asian Games.

"To ensure successful preparations for the Asian Games and effective communication between participants from different countries and regions during the games, the Liaison Department of the Hangzhou Asian Games Organizing Committee has set up a language service business area, providing translation, interpretation, smart language and other services. The translation and interpretation teams undertake the important task of overcoming cultural barriers and contextual differences. "In order to bridge the linguistic gap and build a bridge of communication, translation should adhere to the principles of fidelity to the original meaning and smoothness of translation, and differences in cultural and contextual understanding should be taken into account." said Xu Jianfeng, the deputy director of the Liaison Department of Hangzhou Asian Organizing Committee.

Language Services for Hangzhou Asian Games Enter the "Smart Era"

In order to better respond to the Hangzhou Asian Games' concept of "green, smart, thrifty, and civilized", and reflect the characteristics of Hangzhou as a “Digital City”, the language services for the Hangzhou Asian Games also enter the "smart era". 

The "smart language" of the Hangzhou Asian Games is one of the 10 key projects of the "smart Asian Games". Currently, there are three smart solutions, namely simultaneous interpretation of remote conferences, multilingual translation service hotline in the form of APP module, and smart portable translation devices. In June 2020, the simultaneous interpretation of remote conferences was realized for the first time. During the Hangzhou Asian Games, the Hangzhou Asian Organizing Committee will also launch a multilingual translation service hotline in the form of an app module and smart portable translation devices.

Colleges and Universities Help the Asian Games to Speak Better

In order to offer better language services, Hangzhou Asian Games also absorbed an “external assistance team". On July 7th, the Hangzhou Asian Games Organizing Committee signed a framework cooperation agreement with Zhejiang International Studies University, and the latter will set up a volunteer service team for other languages to provide professional services for the Hangzhou Asian Games.