Two smiling faces. According to a recent online survey by Extrawhite, a maker of chewing gum, a quarter of the people in China never smile or smile less than five times a day. The survey found that only 2 per cent of Chinese people are willing to smile at strangers. To reverse this situation, a group of 40 students from the Humanities and Communications College of Shanghai Normal University launched a team of "smiling volunteers" last month. Their technique is simple enough: they smile at people. They carried out their first "smiling task" on Saturday at the Shanghai Film Art Centre, where they smiled at all the visitors and asked if anyone needed any help. "We started to prepare for this special team back in October," said Dai Ningning, a teacher at the college who is in charge of the team. But the team's work is not all fun and games. Dai suggested that the team's work also had a professional component. "Most of our students will be teachers after they graduate. Smiling is necessary for good teachers. We hope they will learn how to smile at each other properly before they become teachers," she said. Dai added that she had high hopes for the "smiling volunteers" team. "The team will recruit more members in the future. We have no special requirements for the students who want to be members of the team. The only requirement is that they have sincere smiles and helping hearts, and are always ready to assist other people," she said. Xu Xiaohong, a first-grade post-graduate student at the university, leads the team. She said that not all students found it easy to smile all the time. "When volunteers help other people, smiling is the best way to make other people understand that the volunteers are ready and sincere," she said. "Smiles can also erase a sense of strangeness among people who do not know each other." 点击查看更多双语新闻 (China Daily)

益达口香糖公司近日开展的一项在线调查显示，四分之一的中国人从不微笑，或每天微笑不到5次。此外，只有2%的中国人愿意对陌生人微笑。 为了改变这一状况，上海师范大学人文与传播学院于上月成立了一个由40人组成的“微笑志愿者”小组。他们所需要的技能很简单：微笑对人。 上周六，“微笑志愿者”小组在上海电影艺术中心执行了第一个“微笑任务”：面带微笑询问来访者是否需要帮助。 “微笑志愿者”小组的负责人戴宁宁老师说：“我们10月份就开始筹建这个小组了。” 但“微笑志愿者”小组的工作并不只是笑一笑这么简单。戴老师说，这一工作对他们今后的职业发展有很大好处。“我们学校的大多数学生毕业后都会当老师。微笑是一个好老师的必备素质。我们希望他们在走上工作岗位之前学会如何得体的微笑。” 戴老师说，她对这个“微笑志愿者”小组抱有很高的期望。 她说：“这个小组今后还会招募更多的成员。我们对想加入这一小组的学生没有什么特殊的要求。唯一的要求就是，他们要有真诚的笑容和一颗乐于助人的心。” “微笑志愿者”小组的学生负责人、研一学生徐晓红说，大家发现保持微笑并不是一件简单的事。 她说：“在我们帮助他人时，微笑是得到别人信任的最好方式。此外，微笑还能够缩短我们和陌生人之间的距离。” （英语点津姗姗编辑）