Feng Xiaodong, chief referee of the 2008 Beijing Olympic Games' track and field's throwing events, is among 5,000 BOCOG staff who recently finished their English training ahead of the Olympics.

"English is important to me because I need to communicate with foreign athletes and international technical officers face to face this summer in the Bird's Nest," said the 45-year-old, one of China's top athletics referees.

"(Because I was) poor in English, I cannot quickly tell a foreign athlete he fouled, which wasted the competition's time at the 2006 World Youth Championships of Athletics," she lamented.

"The training is very strict and there was a test on every Saturday. Together with my classmates, among whom the oldest is 58, we worked very hard because we could become the Games' referees only if we passed the final exam."

But after three months of English training, Feng said she will have more confidence when facing foreign athletes at the Games in August.

"So does William," she said.

William is the English name of Beijing Olympic diving referee Wang Kenan, who was Feng's classmate and monitor during English training.

"The most difficult thing when learning English is that, from the outset, my classmates and I were all afraid of speaking English. With mutual encouragement and the help of good teachers, we opened our mouths and made progress step by step," said Wang, the former 3m springboard synchronized specialist of China's 2004 "Diving Dream Team".

At the Athens Olympic Games, Wang's fall on his last dive in the synchronized springboard final caused him and his partner Peng Bo to lose the gold medal at their first Olympic competition.

"This summer I can talk with foreign technical officers directly. My English is not fluent, but it will be more convenient for me as I don't need to totally depend on an interpreter," said the 28-year-old, who had never learnt English before because he had been too busy training since the age of seven.

Feng and Wang's English course was run by the official language training supplier of the Beijing Games, English First (EF), who helped hone the communication skills of national technical officers, venue managers, interpreters and other BOCOG staff.

EF was the language trainer for the 1988 Seoul Olympic Games and is currently the world's largest private educational company specializing in English.

"We are proud to help China talk to the world," Bill Fisher, EF's China CEO, writes in the preface of the company's English-language Olympic brochure.