Railway English lessons help crew, passengers

Wang Fa, a 25-year-old crew member on the Z2 train traveling between Harbin and Beijing, now has a habit of paying more attention to the English slogans wherever he goes.

After he attended an English lesson by Feng Yan, from Communication University of China, the young man is full of enthusiasm for English.

"I want to know what the slogans mean and whether they express the correct meaning," Wang said.

In order to improve English among the staff, Feng Yan was invited by Harbin Railway Station's passenger traffic section to give a lesson to staffers from all six trains of Beijing Team traveling between Harbin and Beijing, on July 22.

Feng is a known for his One Sentence of Railway English a Day account on Sina Weibo, the popular micro-blogging website.

He devotes himself to standard railway English and has given English lessons to the railway staff in many parts of China.

Feng, who was born in Beijing in 1982 and grew up in Switzerland, has mastered 10 languages and now teaches international culture at Communication University of China.

Trains were the only vehicle that took Feng Yan between home and school during his boyhood in Switzerland, and he has traveled by train nearly 200,000 kilometers through 16 countries and regions.

"Railway has become one of my good friends since I was a little boy," said Feng. "But when I came back to China in 2000, I dare not choose trains because they told me that Chinese trains were dirty and ran slowly."

It was not until 2008 that he had the chance to experience Chinese railway, invited by a friend.

"That trip entirely changed my previous impression of Chinese railway," Feng said. "It was clean and comfortable, and ran fast."

From then on, he began traveling by train in China, and he has achieved his goal of traveling through every railway station in the country, covering 110,000 kilometers.

"I haven't traveled by airplane for two years, and I like Chinese railway," he said. "Harbin is my wife's hometown, and Z16 and Z15 are our first choice between Harbin and Beijing. So when I was invited to give a lesson in the city, I accepted without hesitation."

Yang Ying, secretary of the Beijing Team of the passenger traffic section of Harbin Railway Station, said: "Before the lesson, we asked the staff to provide what they wanted to learn and what problems they met during their studies of English. Then we sent the information to Feng so he could prepare the lesson."

A three-hour lesson attracted nearly 100 students, with an average age of 26, including conductors and crew members.

"Almost all the staff except those on the train took the lesson," said Yang, who also attended. "Because of the limited space, more than 20 students had to stand outside the classroom."

Feng showed a presentation to explain the optimization of standard English and gave very detailed lessons on daily English and business problems, which are commonly seen in the railway service.

"The content of Feng's PPT was very rich, and he used lots of animated examples, such as some ridiculous mistakes both in China and foreign countries, which made us study easily and grabbed hold of our memories," Wang Fa said.

"Unlike Chinese passengers," he continued, "some foreigners like to stand on the platform until the train starts moving. After learning how to express myself, I can easily call them to get on the train before the train leaves, in order to avoid danger or mistakes."

Also, speaking good English can help crew members communicate with foreign passengers.

"Last month, a tourist with a group from Russia told me he liked Chinese trains, which were clean and comfortable. And he felt happy that he can talk with us in English," Wang added. "It's different from airplanes, where the pre-recorded English explanation makes passengers feel bored."

Each train between Harbin and Beijing can get about 20 foreign passengers, especially during the peak summer season.

"It's necessary to improve the English level of our staff, especially the crew members," Yang said. "We all hope there can be more chances to have such lessons in the future."

Feng has filed notes with 1,000 sentences of railway English for all the stations in China for free.

"Besides railway English, I also pay attention to the English slogans in other places, such as the airport, the highway and the shopping mall," he said. "There are also mistakes there, and I hope I can make my effort to correct them."

Feng created a free website in 2010 to provide railway information to foreigners and has received lots of feedback.

"Lots of tourists asked me about railway information through e-mail, and many of them told me they like my website because it provided them useful information," he said.