“Ni hao!”
Don’t be surprised to hear immigration officers at the airport greeting or chatting with Chinese travelers in Mandarin.
Immigration officers will be taught basic Mandarin to help them communicate with Chinese travelers visiting the Philippines, according to the Bureau of Immigration.
The agency has partnered with the University of the Philippines (UP) Diliman, which will provide language tutors to more than 50 immigration officers.
“We hope to address the language barrier by teaching our immigration officers the basics of conversational Chinese,” said Grifton Medina, personnel section chief of the bureau.
Foreigners may not be allowed to enter the country if they cannot satisfactorily answer questions, such as their travel itinerary, intended length of stay and purpose of travel.
They may also be barred from entering the Philippines if they are deemed undesirable aliens and would end up as a burden to the state.
Chinese tourists are the second biggest group of visitors to the country. From January to November, the Bureau of Immigration recorded 796,487 Chinese visitors.
A number of them do not speak or understand English. “They speak only Chinese. So when we ask them the purpose of their travel and other questions, there’s a misunderstanding with our immigration officers. We want to address that,” Medina said.
The Bureau of Immigration tried to solve the problem last year by hiring 12 Chinese-speaking interpreters. But Medina said this would not be enough since the interpreters would be working 24/7.
“It’s better for the immigration officers to be equipped with Mandarin so they could communicate better with the Chinese nationals,” he said.
He recalled instances of Chinese tourists not being allowed entry due to their failure to answer the immigration officers’ questions satisfactorily because of the language barrier. They would later return to the Philippines, with complete documents to prove the legality of their travel to the country.
“We want to prevent these instances of misunderstanding due to the language barrier,” Medina said.
The immigration bureau signed a memorandum of agreement with UP officials in October, with the training of some 50 immigration officers to begin in January.
Immigration officers will be taught conversational Mandarin and how to ask questions pertaining to immigration formalities.
First to undergo the training are the immigration officers assigned to Ninoy Aquino International Airport. Those in other international airports will be trained later.