With the World Cup South Africa 2010 in full swing, we see over and over again multilingualism in vivid action. Players from different countries, training in international locations with trainers who speak different languages, interacting with diverse people and players and fans. Being a sports star ain’t what is used to be!
Have you ever heard the Gordie Howe quote about hockey players being bilingual? No, it doesn’t have anything to do with coming from Quebec:
All hockey players are bilingual. They know English and profanity.
– Gordie Howe
But in all seriousness, sports is one area where multilingualism is extremely prevalent, regardless of team. One reason is due to the fact that players are often recruited internationally. No longer are teams only made up of players from a single country of origin.
One of the favorite players on the Mariner’s baseball team here where I live in Seattle is Ichiro Suzuki from Japan. While we Americans are cheering on Ichiro game after game, fans in Japan are doing the same. His role as a high visibility, bilingual sports player creates a bridge which expands across continents, cultures and languages.
Although I wasn’t able to find a definitive list of current multilingual World Cup players (anyone know where to find that?), we know via articles and interviews that many, if not most, are multilingual. It goes with the territory.
Researchers have been intrigued by the role that bilingualism plays in sports. Colin Baker and Sylvia Prys Jones include an overview of Bilingualism in Sports in their Encyclopedia of Bilingualism and Bilingual Education (Multilingual Matters, 1998). Although the information is outdated, it is an excellent example of what we take for granted nowadays:
Star players such as Pele (Brazil), Cruyff (Holland), Maradona (Argentina), Klinsmann (Germany), Donadoni (Italy), Sousa (Portugual), Kanchelskis (Russia), Stoichkov (Bulgaria), Hagi (Romania) and Laudrup (Denmark) are all bilingual or multilingual. In some cases, second language acquisition has occurred when such players transferred to famous clubs in foreign countries.
Baker and Jones go on to include a list of bilingual referees from the 1996 European Football Cup, which reminded me of a recent article I forwarded via Twitter about multilingual referees learning words in different languages during this year’s World Cup. The reason is probably not what you think it is (and brings us back to the Gordie Howe quote)!
After Wayne Rooney swore at a referee earlier this week for being carded, FIFA felt that it would be appropriate to educate their referees in swearing in various languages and cultures. The hope is that refs will be able to understand more of what players say to them and the playing field (pardon the pun) will be leveled a little. Refs will be able to distinguish if a player speaking in his native language has sworn. If so, the ref will have definite grounds to throw a yellow card (a warning).
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