The volunteer: Bodyalik Liliya

The volunteer Bodyalik Liliya.[Photo/China Daily]

She speaks Russian, Chinese, English and Uzbek and she is all fired up for volunteer duties during the Guangzhou 2010 Asian Games.

Nineteen-year-old Russian student Bodyalik Liliya, currently studying at the Sun Yat-sen University in Guangzhou, will provide language and reception services during the opening and closing ceremonies. She will also play interpreter to the Russian dance troupe performing at the opening ceremony on Nov 12.

"China has undergone an amazing change in recent years. I like the college and business atmosphere in Guangzhou," she says.

But it was far from love at first sight. For one, there was the language barrier.

"For me, the Chinese language seemed so difficult to learn." Her first stop in China was Harbin, capital of Northeast China's Heilongjiang province, where she first studied Chinese for two years.

It was her mother who persuaded her to come in 2007.

"My mother has traveled to China. She told me the country is undergoing big changes in social and economic development," Liliya says. A year ago, the robust foreign trade development in Guangzhou attracted her southwards.

"I wanted to try business Chinese and Guangzhou is a traditional foreign trade center in China."

The Asian Games has provided her the perfect opportunity to get to know China even better through her volunteer work. As a volunteer, Liliya gets to learn more of the cultural and social history and development of Guangzhou.

"I feel I am part of the city now since I benefited a lot from being involved in the volunteer service. It helped realize my dreams," she says.

She missed out on volunteering for the Beijing Olympics because she was too young.

"I did not want to lose the chance again so I rushed back to submit the application after I saw a volunteer recruitment notice on the street."

Liliya is just one of the hundreds of volunteers from overseas countries and regions during the upcoming Asian Games. As of October, more than 100,000 people from outside Guangdong have volunteered, the games organizing committee said.

The organizers had planned initially to recruit about 600,000 volunteers for the games.

The final number of applicants came to more than 1.5 million because of the overwhelming response.

Foreign volunteers recruited will provide mainly translation, hosting and medical services during the Games.