Multilingual phrasebook for Belarusian police prior to 2014 IIHF World Championship

MINSK, 25 September (BelTA) - The Academy of the Belarusian Interior Ministry has written a phrasebook for Belarusian police in anticipation of the 2014 IIHF World Championship which will be held in Minsk, BelTA learnt from head of the liaison office of the Academy Sergei Chebotaryov.

“The size of the book is 10x14.5cm to easily fit into a pocket on policemen’s uniform,” Sergei Chebotaryov said adding that the phrasebook includes phrases in English, German, Polish, French and Spanish. These languages were chosen because people who speak them are the most frequent visitors of the sporting events held in Belarus.

The book includes four parts which will help the police communicate with foreign guests. These sections are “Addressing people,” “City orientation,” “The state traffic police” and “Helping crime victims”. The latter was included in the phrasebook not long ago and is designed to help understand foreigners who became victims of a crime. The section includes standard phrases which can be used in such situations: “What did the criminals look like?” or “Where did they escape?” and others.

First such books were written by the Academy in prior to the 1980 Summer Olympic Games in Moscow. “Of course they were thinner and contained only phrases in Russian and English. The present phrasebook has slightly more than 100 pages,” Sergei Chebotaryov said.

Sergei Chebotaryov added that 75 policemen from Minsk and the oblast will enroll in English language courses as from 1 October. Further 75 people will begin the courses from 20 January 2014. It is also possible that about 300 students of the Academy of the Belarusian Interior Ministry with a good grasp of English and German will take part in maintaining public peace during the championship.