Tennis umps try out their Chinese skills

Speakers: Sam Duckett and Lu Sirui

[Photo: thinkstockphotos.com]

Foreign umpires at the China Open have been unintentionally entertaining the crowds and earning hearty applause with their attempts at Chinese.

Some of the officials, who come from a range of countries, are using very basic Chinese for the first time at the Beijing tournament to give instructions to the ball boys, ball girls and unruly spectators.

Among the words they have learned is the equivalent of towel to remind the ball boys and girls when players need a wipe-down and then saying "xiexie" (thank you).

Umpires have also learnt the Chinese word for new balls and are saying "xiexie" to the crowd to urge them to be quiet.

Spectators have lapped it up, applauding or cheering each attempt - and having a giggle when the pronunciation is a bit off.

Ashraf Hamouda, chief of umpires at the China Open, said some of the 16 non-Chinese umpires had taken it upon themselves to learn the language for the first time.

He said, "four or five of them have books and they try to get the right pronunciation from the Chinese." 

The audio clip is from Studio+, produced by CRI.