Soldiers at Forbidden City have mad foreign language skills  

故宫“翻译兵”走红 熟练用英语与外国游客对话

(ECNS)-- Armed police stationed at Forbidden City (also called Palace Museum) in Beijing are known for their foreign language skills. Among them, Yan Zhongbin is a multilingual soldier, the Beijing Daily said on Monday.

Yan, 25, is a business graduate of Qingdao University. He also holds a College English Test-6 (CET-6) certificate.

With the goal of being a soldier, Yan quit his job at a bank and joined the army a few years after graduation.

After being stationed at Palace Museum, Yan started learning about the former royal palace.

"We serve not only as live maps for Forbidden City, but also as tour guides," Yan said.

Since Palace Museum is a scenic spot that sees a great number of visitors from different countries, Yan and his colleagues have been trying to learn more languages to help visitors.

"Besides English, everyone on our team can speak some other foreign languages, including French, German, Japanese, and Korean," he said.

To better serve visitors, Yan is organizing training sessions for spoken English. He also encourages his colleagues to study languages by watching foreign movies.