Simonov A Varvara dons protective gear for volunteer translation work at a hotel in Guangzhou, Guangdong province. [Photo provided to chinadaily.com.cn]

"I have about 30 students in my Chinese class. Some have just come to Guangzhou. Some have been here for a long time but can't speak Chinese well. They speak English or French and want to learn Chinese. They come from countries like Guinea, Angola, Mali and my country. Teaching Chinese here is very interesting."

Mubua has been studying business Chinese at schools in Guangzhou for four years.

Simonov A Varvara, a Russian who has been engaged in the garment trade in Guangzhou for about 18 months, has been working as a volunteer doing Russian and English translation during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Varvara came to Guangzhou, where foreign trade is highly developed, after studying Chinese and logistics in Beijing for six years.

At the height of the pandemic, "many people needed my help so I applied for a volunteer post. Some foreigners came in March and April", she said.

Varvara has helped more than 30 foreigners since then, sometimes face-to-face and sometimes through phone calls or WeChat.

"The job may take a few minutes or a few hours. Some people wanted to move to another hotel, and it took me two hours. Now they contact me sometimes for translation," Varvara said.