PRICELESS WORK OF ‘LITTLE LEAVES’
It’s always comforting to be warmly greeted by welltrained volunteers whenever you need assistance in direction or language at the National Exhibition and Convention Center. The guides, or marshals, helping the China International Import Expo run smoothly, have been given a nickname “little leaves” — small but important.
Some 6,300 volunteers are serving the ongoing CIIE, with over 4,000 based inside the convention center. About one of every five volunteered for last year’s expo.
The majority of the volunteers are Chinese students from 38 local universities and colleges. The rest were recruited from other provinces, as well as students from Hong Kong and foreign scholars studying in Shanghai.
Aime Gilles Prosper Bouiti Viaudo, who goes by Gilles, from the Democratic Republic of the Congo, is based at the CIIE media center information desk.
Gilles is a sophomore of Donghua University, majoring in architecture and environment. He is better known by his Chinese name Yang Shan, who led the vow during the volunteers’ motivation ceremony.
“I learned Chinese for three semesters after arriving in Shanghai. After knowing about the opportunity (of becoming a CIIE volunteer), I applied for it and received full support from the university,” Gilles said.
His working shift is from 1:30pm to 5:30pm, and his major duty is to give directions and provide other CIIE-related information to visitors, especially those speaking French.
“I have done voluntary work for the university library before, and this is my first service for an international convention,” he said.
“The greeting etiquette of different nations is what we need to pay attention to during work. People from certain countries don’t have the habit of shaking hands. Also, there are certain words we should avoid when talking to people.”
Gilles’ schoolmate Bertsetseg Dalaijargal, from Mongolia, is a second-grade postgraduate majoring in chemical biology.