What language does the ref use in the World Cup ?

[caransom]

Just watching the Uruguay v France (ie. Spanish speaking v French speaking) match which is being refereed by another nationality ref (Chinese/Japanese I think). What language does the ref use when talking to the players ? In fact, is there a general 'language' that refs use in order to talk to players? I assume if there is it is English but if anyone has an answer I would like to know ! Thanks.

[boxtops]

I just googled and there are several reports that all the referees have been learning English swear words so they will recognise them - what a sad reflection of the language they expect to hear on the pitch!

[evedawn]

sorry to hijack a thread but I see boxtops is on and...I wanted to say thanks for all the help (from others too by the way) and the exam was FINE!!!! (box and others have answered loadsa Q's the past few weeks for me)! Anway....ENOUGH !! I WILL NOT HIJACK ANYMORE :-)

[boxtops]

Great news evedawn (sorry caransom) - I am really pleased for you, glad to have been able to assist!

[mollykins]

I've heard that aswell box.

But in general refs try to learn as many languages as possible and they find one that can speak the lingo of both teams but won't be biased ie actually coming from the same country.

[factor-fiction]

Hi mollykins- was it Maths paper 2 today?

[Buenchico]

Referees will normally use English unless, of course, they speak the language(s) of the players (and/or of the other officials).

Prior to refereeing an international youth tournament in Germany, I took great care to ensure that (at the very least) I knew how to say numbers in German and French. (So that, for example I could call 'nine' to indicate that I'd stopped play because British No 9 was offside but call 'Acht' if it was the German No. 8). I'd also tried to learn some words and phrases related to throw-ins, penalties, etc. At the start of the first match I confidently walked to the centre of the pitch, only to realise that I hadn't got a clue what 'heads' or 'tails' are in German and French! ;-)

Chris

[mollykins]

sorry for another hijacker caransom - yeah factor it was, and went better than the non-calc, i answered al lthe questions fully on this paper, but i'm not sure about the last one it was crafty. You had to find the tan of an angle then from the same shape work out the size of a line, but you had to use cos! which i figured out, after coming up with a rediculous answer.

[mollykins]

lol chris, how did it work out?

[AlBags]

What language do you use Molly? ; )

sin .. cos ... tan ..takes me back ..
logarithms and log tables too.
I got an A in Maths GCE O level, Molly. I'm sure you can, too, if you persevere.

[Buenchico]

It's amazing what you can do with a bit of pointing, Molly ;-)

[boxtops]

Gee Chris, I know I'm off form tonight, I was looking back through this post for something to do with brickwork....

[mollykins]

thanks albags, so far i've done whats worth 1/2 of the gcse and got an 'a' but these two exams were the hardest but todays wasn't as bad as i expected. So far the toughest have been non calc and triple physics.

[Barmaid]

lol Chris. There was a witness in court today whose first language was not english, me, my opponent and the Judge got by by talking very loudly (why do we do that?!) and lots and lots of pointing at pictures and diagrams!

[mollykins]

Don't worry chris, i've known people to blag their way through more important situations ie my maths lessons, not moaning, but one teacher couldn't say or spell the words; parallelogram, rhombus, quadratic, simultaneous, hypotenuse among many other vital words, and it wasn't of his accent well it was a bit, but he jsut couldn't say them, so he drew them on the board.

[AlBags]

^ Good luck with them anyways .. Should have said this earlier, really.
More you achieve now, the better it will be long-term.

[mollykins]

:D

[Buenchico]

Molly, that teacher reminds me of a young science teacher I worked with. She'd obviously never attended many lectures at college because she'd got through 2 years of A-levels and 3 years of degree work without realising that μg is the symbol for 'micrograms'. I found her teaching her class about 'mu grams'!

[mollykins]

This guy i'm on about was israeli or something and english was his third language well second and a half, he couldn't pronounce half our sounds so blagged his way through lessons.