Olympics why is french spoken first

Many have argued that English should be the first language. One letter writer to the Daily Express newspaper noted that it was only after Baron de Coubertin saw the revived modern Olympic Games in Much Wenlock , Shropshire in the late s, that he was inspired to bring the Games back to France. Prolific Open Source developer who also works in the online gaming industry during the day. English is not really the world language… Even here in the USA. English, which was first colonized by the English and Great Britain, was never officially declared the national language.

French is still widely used around the world. A plethora of places in Africa have French as the official language. France itself and some other European countries have French as the national language too, like Belgium and Switzerland.

No French is not as widely used in the world as some other languages, but it is hardly dying. The Olympics are very traditional so they are probably sticking with the original as mentioned in this article above. Plus you have to think of the nations that actually compete and participate in the Olympic games. Sure, but that's not the point. The OIF's chief goal is promotion of the French language, and their members do not take that job lightly. OIF isn't just silently observing the games, either.

Per the press release, the group has recruited more than 1, French-speaking Korean volunteer translators to assist Francophones at Olympic venues, so if you remember your high school French and need to know which W. More than athletes from OIF member countries will be competing, and OIF will provide French translation during all athlete press conferences. Interestingly, according to Rule 23 [correction] of the Olympic Charter, French is an official IOC language, alongside English, but should a discrepancy between a French text and an English one occur in any IOC document, the French text prevails, so in many ways it is the most important official Olympic language.

The Olympics, like most businesses, operates in a multi-lingual world where discrepancies are bound to occur. Considering translation or interpretation services from Rapport International? Get started today! Rapport International provides written translation, spoken interpretation and multilingual communication services for local and global companies. But signs are unlikely to appear in French, and few Olympic volunteers are likely to speak French.

The good news for French is that the trend is likely to change when Paris holds the Summer Olympics. Facebook Twitter Email.