On The Team

Probably doesn’t make a lot of sense from the title, but I’ll try to detail it in more sense now. While watching the Olympics today, I noticed that on the jerseys of players from each country, their country’s name and their name is written in the English language. Why is that? Was the language voted to be the universal at the Olympics?

Jerseys are not paid for by China or the Olympic committee so they can be in whatever language the team wants it to be. Most feel that English (as the most common international language now) would be understood by the largest amount of people. However, I actually saw German jerseys that had both english and chinese on them. Also, sponsors who pay for this kind of stuff, including the Olympic are trying to reach the biggest audience, which means using english. So it really depends on the preference of the teams and the sponsors who pay for their clothes.

5 Responses

1. Alan B Says:
   March 31st, 2010 at 5:43 pm

   Also, why is the Beijing 2008 logo in English? Is it because they are trying to attract the English-speaking audience? The official languages of the Olympics are English, French and the language of the hose country.
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2. Incarcerated Bert Says:
   March 31st, 2010 at 6:15 pm

   English is generally considered the most international language, business and everything.
   btw The country with the most english speaking people in the world is China. Think about that.
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3. Mark Says:
   March 31st, 2010 at 6:43 pm

   It’s because the major broadcasting network of the olympics is NBC and it’s major sponsors are English speaking.

   The major sponsors of the Olympics are also wishing to attract most of the ‘almight $$$’ and this means to have the audience able to recognize the athlete and/or team in their home tongue…which happens to be English.

   I believe the universal language of the Olympics is French though.

   I don’t believe either of these are related to the other.
   References :

4. Polyglot Habs fan+ Hockey Player Says:
   March 31st, 2010 at 6:50 pm

   However one feels about it, the fact is that English is being used more and more as a "common language" between people from different countries if neither speaks the first language of the other. (Like if a Greek is trying to speak with a Japanese)

   As a French citizen this saddens me but even I have to adapt to the change.
   References :

5. Cinnimon Says:
   March 31st, 2010 at 7:10 pm

   Jerseys are not paid for by China or the Olympic committee so they can be in whatever language the team wants it to be. Most feel that English (as the most common international language now) would be understood by the largest amount of people. However, I actually saw German jerseys that had both english and chinese on them. Also, sponsors who pay for this kind of stuff, including the Olympic are trying to reach the biggest audience, which means using english. So it really depends on the preference of the teams and the sponsors who pay for their clothes.
   References :

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