A big farewell party was hold at the Bird’s Nest last Sunday evening. The beautiful fireworks not only lightened the sky of Beijing, but also the heart of everyone who cared about the Games. At the end of the closing ceremony, the International Olympic Committee President Jacques Rogge praised the Games as “truly exceptional”. Through this Olympic Games, people around the world knew more about China, and more people became interested in Chinese.
There is no doubt the opening ceremony dazzled the world by blending the Chinese unique elements with the modern high-tech performing patterns, including expressing one of the Games’ themes “harmony” by using the Chinese character “和”.
Visitors were keen on Chinese, according to the Beijing Evening News, just in the first week of the Games, over 500 foreign athletes and coaches have come to the popular Chinese Learning Center in the Olympic Athletes’ Village to learn Chinese and get their Chinese names. The most frequently used words were: 谢谢(thanks), 你好(hello), 再见(goodbye).
Teachers also assisted with Olympic-related vocabulary and conversation, like “祝贺你获得金牌(congratulations on your gold medal)”.
Hope more people will like Chinese and learn it!

They were obsessed with Chinese?
I think we need to be a bit more humble and let the foreigners compliment us instead of us complimenting ourselves, especially in this way.
Why you use a 0.5 RMB picture ;)
haha~
ok, thanks for your advice:)
I'm compensating her for her work.
China's successful, China proved to the world, China has followed a commitment, held a a high-level session of the Olympic Games.
Yes, China was successful in many things and proved to the world many things. Unfortunately, not all of them were good things.
China is improving. Though is speed is fucking slower than we expected :(
At least, it's trying to improve.
LoL, actually, Aw Guo, I think China has improved a lot and I hope it continues improving. It is just unfortunately there are a lot of things that have not improved and a lot of terrible things that continue to happen that make people very disappointed. I also think the government does a really awful and annoying job of propaganda and always trying to make itself look good. I think the government needs to spend less time trying to save face and more time trying to do the right thing and actually improve the country and its systems for the people and not just themselves.
No one and nothing in the world are perfect.
Sometimes mistakes,problems and failures just like mirrors, through which we can get a clearer reflection of ourselves and the things around us.
I hate this word "harmony"
I don't like 和 at all
That depends on how you understand it. I don't think the word "harmony" means any bad thing in English.
You're right, "harmony" should have good meanings. Unfortunately, especially for those of us in China, the government's overuse of the word has made it into a joke with negative meanings. :(
Everything is a joke. Damn :(
waiting for next game