On July 25, Shermanie Harry from the Caribbean island of Dominica will be among the first batch of foreign Olympic volunteers to start work in Beijing.

"I'm very glad to be a volunteer at the Games, as it will help me make many new friends," the 22-year-old from Roseau, the island's capital, said yesterday.

Over the past two years as a student at Beijing's Capital University of Economics and Business, Harry has learned to speak fluent Putonghua.

"The Olympics is not about just one country. Chinese people should also do something to help," she said in Putonghua at a swearing-in ceremony for the volunteers.

Huang Keying, deputy director of the Beijing Olympic Spectator Call Center, said: "About 20 foreign volunteers will start work at the center on July 25."

Most of them have studied in China, he said.

Volkan Gurcan, from Istanbul in Turkey, said: "I will be the only person answering people's questions in Turkish."

Gurcan said he took the Chinese name huoshan, as it means "volcano", just as his given name does in Turkish.

"The Beijing Olympics is a dream for all Chinese people, and although I'm a foreigner, I wanted to share that dream, so I choose to be a volunteer," the 25-year-old international trade student at Beijing University of Aeronautics and Astronautics, said.

"I love Beijing. After the Games, I will continue to study here," he said.

Most of the overseas volunteers arrived in Beijing last month. They will help out at the Main Press Center, the International Broadcast Center and competition venues.

Their responsibilities will include collecting quotes from athletes and officials and writing press releases.

(China Daily July 17, 2008)