JAKARTA, Aug. 30 (Xinhua) -- "Are you a Chinese reporter?" a girl wearing a volunteer red T-shirt, with hair wrapped up in a beige headscarf, asked in Chinese.
After receiving a positive answer from Xinhua reporter, she smiled and said, "I can speak a little Chinese."
The girl, who called herself Fangfang, is a junior at a university in Jakarta, specializing in public relations.
According to the organizer, a total of 13,000 volunteers have been recruited for the Asian Games, and their hard work is indispensable for the smooth running of the events. Fangfang is such a volunteer.
As a volunteer, Fangfang's job is to deal with the media, including assisting journalists and inputting athletes' comments into the information service system.
Fangfang enjoys the volunteer work very much. "I especially like receiving emails from reporters. They ask me various questions and I answer them," she told Xinhua.
Fangfang also enjoys the opportunity to communicate with Chinese journalists and athletes, as she is learning to speak Chinese now.
"When I was a child, I watched Chinese news programs with my father. Although I didn't understand it then, Chinese sounded special to me," Fangfang said.
"Also, I like China and I am very interested in Chinese culture, so I decided to learn Chinese," she added.
Fangfang started to learn Chinese in January last year and is currently attending a private course at a training institution in Indonesia.
At first she was stressed trying to remember Chinese characters, but after studying for more than a year, "it is much better now."
In her spare time, Fangfang also listens to Chinese songs online and learns to sing them by herself.
Fangfang said that she plans to study Chinese for one year after graduating from university, and then she will study "management" at a Chinese university in 2020.
But her real dream is not a career in "management" but to become a photographer.
"I will visit various areas in China during weekends and holidays after I go there to study, and I will take a lot of photos there," she told Xinhua with a bright smile.
"Now I always seek opportunities to practice speaking Chinese, but sometimes I can't make myself understood," she said.
But such obstacles have not affected Fangfang.
At the end of the day, when Fangfang saw the same reporter again in the mixed zone of the venue, she waved with a big smile and shouted hello in Chinese.
