Friendly Beijing cop greets visitors in Japanese (and other languages)

With all the negative news posted in the last couple days, I’d hate to give this site’s readership the impression that all the media coverage about China on Japanese TV is bad news. There are actually plenty of positive reports about the Olympics, such as the following FTV report about a friendly Beijing police officer:

The police officer has been studying English for years, and in preparation for the Olympics he learned to greet tourists in 13 different languages, including Japanese. The Japanese news cameras follow him around while he chats with foreigners in French and English, apparently well enough for them to understand what he’s saying. The police officer tells the Japanese reporter that he has studied foreign languages so he can introduce foreigners to the changes going on in Beijing.

The Japanese reporter closes the segment by mentioning that a survey showed about a third of Beijing residents were interested in learning English. However, most foreign tourists have said that they have encountered very few individuals that speak any English, and they find themselves using gestures and pointing to words in guide books to communicate with locals.