Many people often ask “how many languages are there in the world?”, and while the answer is far from simple (see Richard Loyer’s blog), I’ve been looking at how many languages will be spoken at this year’s World Cup.
Recently I watched the live coverage of Real Madrid unveiling this week’s Manager, Jose Mourinho, who conducted the press conference in Spanish, English and Italian (having recently left Inter Milan, Senór Mourinho also had to answer questions from the attending Italian press) – flitting between the three languages with relative (enviable) ease – despite none being his native language.
"A quote? Pick a language, any language!"
As the press conference got underway, my girlfriend, who speaks fluent Spanish, explained to me how difficult it can be going back to dealing with a language you might not have spoken for a few years, as Mourinho was doing – which was also perhaps why the English TV interpreter was “making things up”. Her words, not mine.
Furthermore, she added that conducting a press conference between any language pair from three is a truly impressive feat.
I nonchalantly pointed out that Mourinho had, for years, been an interpreter at Barcelona for the late, great Sir Bobby Robson and subsequently “fell into” football management from there – so this should be no problem for him. As a Manchester United fan, I wasn’t giving him any undue credit and, as it turns out, I was of course very wrong not to do so here.
This got me thinking about what it must be like for the players and referees dealing with multiple languages at the World Cup, and how media networks decide which languages to cater for (commentary-wise) in countries where multiple languages – and dialects – are spoken.
There’s also the dilemma for non-English native speakers in the UK trying to understand World Cup TV coverage from Adrian Chiles, or worse, Chris Waddle (who always gets on TV during the World Cup and still struggles with the word “penalty”, despite England always losing on penalties and whose penalty kick in Italia ’90 is, presumably, still in orbit). Sorry, I digress…
Chris Waddle after his World Cup Italia '90 "pelantee" miss against West Germany
Now, while I carefully navigate this article well clear of any “football is one language” clichés, it turns out that while people from every country on earth will no doubt be tuning into the World Cup, there are quite a few languages and dialects spoken by the footballing nations of South Africa 2010. Over 70 of them in fact (as far as I can find).
In South Africa alone for example, there are 13 main native languages in addition to English. They are: Afrikaans, Ndebele, Northern Sotho, Sotho, Swazi, Tswana, Tsonga, Venda, Xhosa, Zulu, Sepedi, Tshivenda and Xitsonga. All of which we can cater for at Applied Language Solutions, may I add.
So, it seems there are countless ways to say “…and England have lost on penalties, again” – I just hope that nobody has to say it this time. Especially Chris Waddle.
Do you live in a multi-lingual country? If so, are there usually language restrictions on World Cup coverage where you are?
Leave a comment and let us know.