Nov 14, 2009

Once a lifetime experience... YOG

The Youth Olympic Games - YOG is organised once every 4 years, and there are 5 continents, so after rotation, the next time YOG is going to be held in Asia, it will be 20 years later.

And there are 43 countries in Asia, let's just assume only 20 countries bid for the games, and by rotation again, the next time it will be Singapore may be 100 years later?!

So unless, we can live till 200 years old, we probably will not be able to participate in another YOG in Singapore again. And of course, I doubt the Organising Committee will want a 200-year-old volunteer, too even if we can live to 200-year-old.


That quote by the SYOGOC totally etched in my mind.
Yup, it is an once-in-lifetime opportunity.

And thus, here I am.
I am at the briefing for the recruitment of volunteers for Language Services. :)





There are about 150-160 of us, eagerly to find out the opportunities for us at YOG.

For those who have studied a third or fourth language (out of interest, of course) will understand this burning desire to put what we have learnt into use. And that's probably what is driving most of us in this lecture theatre.

The SYOGOC (they call themselves "Shiok" btw, instead of "SYO-GOC" :P) shared with us the various opportunities to volunteer as translators at media centre, Youth Olympic Village, Cultural Education Programme, behind the scenes as the Multi-Language Switch Board (where you can dial a number and ask for instant translation), or at information counters, or as NOC assistants, Protocol assistants, etc.

There are 34 areas we can volunteer in, Language Services is just one. And there are many many roles we can try out as well. Some would require additional interviews (for instance, the translators, the NOC assistants, Protocol assistants, etc).

Nevertheless, I am very eager to participate. Hope they call me up for an interview soon! :)

P.S: Wanna join me? Find out more!