Getting help from city police in 9 languages
Print Edition
SHANGHAI’S 110 police hotline yesterday appointed 37 new translators, due to the increasing number of calls made by foreigners in recent years.
The translators were selected from different police departments and have received specialist training on handling calls.
New team members will replace some existing 110 translators who are required to return to their previous roles.
The now 60-strong team will cover nine languages — English, Japanese, Russian, German, French, Korean, Arabic, Italian and Spanish. The number of languages may later adjusted according to demand, said officials.
Since calls from foreigners can be transferred to them anytime, the translator team need to keep their cellphones switched on 24 hours.
Last year, Shanghai police hotline operators received more than 3,000 calls from foreigners. While some spoke good Chinese, some 2,200 callers used foreign languages — with English, accounting for up to 90 percent.
This figure marks a huge increase on 2003, when the police translator team was set up. At that time, the 19 team members dealt with only 80 calls in the first year.
While the number of foreigners in the city has increased since then, officers also speculate that the growth in popularity of the service can be attributed to their promotion of the 110 foreign language service and increased trust in police by foreigners.
Xia Meng’ai, 31, one of the team, told Shanghai Daily that they mainly received calls from foreign travelers. They translated the content to officers dispatched to the scene and then communicated with both sides when they met up.
Sometimes calls arrive at inconvenient times.
“I’ll always remember a call I received when I was taking a shower,” Xia said.
“We have to grab our cellphone immediately when it rings, no matter what you are doing at that moment.
“Callers are often very anxious when talking to us because they’re in trouble. But we can’t be affected by their emotions and need to remain calm.”
Xia cited a midnight call made by an Italian as the example.
“The caller spoke very fast and in a nervous tone. When I asked who he was, he kept saying a word zonglingsi.”
Xia was baffled for a while but then twigged that the man was trying to say “consul general” in Chinese.
The caller later turned out to be the Italian consul general who suspected that there were intruders in his home.
When police went to his residence, nothing was found and the possibility of a burglary was ruled out.
“Sometimes a caller’s emotions make them unable to give a clear statement. That’s when we have to be calm and reassure them and coax them to give more information.”
A local foreign expert praised this service after he called the hotline last year to complain about noise from the apartment below which was being renovated.
“I found the service to be very good,” he told Shanghai Daily.
After calling the police and explaining the situation, they quickly came round and spoke to the people working downstairs, dealing with the problem efficiently, said the foreign expert.
Xia said translators also need to learn the city’s road names, major hotel names and different countries’ accents.
Once she received a call from a Japanese man who spoke poor English and discovered his nationality from his accent. She then transferred the call to a Japanese translator.
- About Us
- |
- Terms of Use
- |
-
RSS - |
- Privacy Policy
- |
- Contact Us
- |
- Shanghai Call Center: 962288
- |
- Tip-off hotline: 52920043
- 沪ICP证：沪ICP备05050403号-1
- |
- 互联网新闻信息服务许可证：31120180004
- |
- 网络视听许可证：0909346
- |
- 广播电视节目制作许可证：沪字第354号
- |
- 增值电信业务经营许可证：沪B2-20120012
Copyright © 1999- Shanghai Daily. All rights reserved.Preferably viewed with Internet Explorer 8 or newer browsers.
