(CCTV 06-10-2008 10:26)With the Beijing Olympics just around the corner, Team USA is training diligently. But as our correspondent Yang Fuqing finds out, they still took time off from their intense training to gather at the US Olympic Committee in Colorado for a specially designed lesson.

This class is more than just learning Chinese. It's a lesson offering important tips on Chinese customs, culture and etiquette part of the “be hospitable" Traveler program, the lesson was specially designed to promote cultural understanding and appropriate behavior among US athletes going to Beijing for the 2008 Olympics.

When you go to visit schools, the little kids will come out and applaud. They applaud things. The entertainers in the theatre they applaud to you. it is a very different culture and enjoy it, soak it up, have fun. Talk with them about it. They all want to talk with you.”

For US Olympic and Paralympic hopefuls, the benefit of this training is real. A recent survey showed that more than 40 percent of US athletes say they have inadvertently committed a cultural faux pas while traveling abroad to compete.

Roger Axtell says most tend to be centered on their own culture and know less about the rest of the world. But he says this is changing with the younger generation.

Roger Axtell said, “American tends to be what is known as ethnocentric, we seem to be centered on our own culture. We tend to think the axes of the earth goes down through the united states and everything revolves around us. most Americans have not traveled outside the united states, it's very sad. Fortunately, more and more of our young people, college students, university students, are starting to travel, study abroad, and that changes their whole concept of the rest of the world.”

Darryl Seibel, Chief Communication Officer, USOC, said, “Our athletes take very seriously the responsibility and the opportunity to serve as ambassadors for our country when they are on the global stage of the Olympics through the championships.”

The young athletes do have an open mind for an exotic culture like the Chinese one. They say that knowing various cultural nuances and traditions will benefit their performances on the field.

Mark Lopez, Taekwondo athlete, said, “Everywhere I go I want to be comfortable and to get my best performance I wanna feel like I know my atmosphere, I know my environment, so I like to get to know the culture of China. So when I am competing there, I will understand what to do and what not to do.”

Alexis Crimes, Volleyball athlete, said, “(but) I don't think it (the Chinese culture) is any harder than any other country. I just think that's something we have to learn to adjust to, to make sure we're welcoming to them. And we won't be offensive. I don't think it's any harder than anywhere else.”

The competitions and medals perhaps are important, but what's more important perhaps is the understanding among different cultures and different peoples. And that's exactly what the Olympic Spirit is all about.

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