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Swiss hockey language? | ||
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 Language Learning Forum : General discussion |  | |
| tommus Senior Member CanadaRegistered users can see my Skype Name Joined 5871 days ago 979 posts - 1688 votes  Speaks: English* Studies: Dutch, French, Esperanto, German, Spanish | Message 1 of 10 19 February 2010 at 3:19am | IP Logged | ||
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I'm watching the Olympic Games hockey game between Switzerland and Canada. The Swiss are playing very well. Score 2-2 after 2. The thought occurred to me that there are probably players on the Swiss team whose native languages are French, German, English and Italian. There are German-looking names and French-looking names, plus one native-born Canadian and one native-born Italian.
Does anyone know (or would care to speculate) what would be the working language of the team? I suppose playing on a sports team in your target language would be a good way to improve it. 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| datsunking1 Diglot Senior Member United States Joined 5590 days ago 1014 posts - 1533 votes Speaks: English*, Spanish Studies: German, Russian, Dutch, French | Message 2 of 10 19 February 2010 at 3:59am | IP Logged | ||
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I'm going to take a guess and say either German or English.
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| tommus Senior Member CanadaRegistered users can see my Skype Name Joined 5871 days ago 979 posts - 1688 votes Speaks: English* Studies: Dutch, French, Esperanto, German, Spanish | Message 3 of 10 19 February 2010 at 4:13am | IP Logged | ||
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Game over. Great game! Canada 3, Switzerland 2, in a final shoot-out.
I just found out that the Swiss coach is Canadian with a German name, and is from a German-immigrant part of Canada, played hockey in Germany and has been Swiss coach for 13 years. So the working language is probably German. Sure would be fun to know for sure. 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| Captain Haddock Diglot Senior Member Japan kanjicabinet.tumblr. Joined 6773 days ago 2282 posts - 2814 votes Speaks: English*, Japanese Studies: French, Korean, Ancient Greek | Message 4 of 10 19 February 2010 at 11:30am | IP Logged | ||
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I noticed at the last Olympics that the Swiss curling teams spoke German. I haven't seen them play this year yet,
though. I suppose it just depends on what part of the country the members all come from. 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| FuroraCeltica Triglot Senior Member United Kingdom Joined 6870 days ago 1187 posts - 1427 votes Speaks: English*, Spanish, French | Message 5 of 10 19 February 2010 at 12:55pm | IP Logged | ||
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I have always wondered about this. The Belgian soccer team for example, does the coach give team talks in French or Dutch
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| j0nas Triglot Groupie Norway Joined 5547 days ago 46 posts - 70 votes Speaks: Norwegian*, English, German | Message 6 of 10 19 February 2010 at 1:10pm | IP Logged | ||
They have two coaches, one for the Dutch speakers and one for the French speakers. And then the two coaches try to agree on stuff, but never do and therefore they lose most of their matches. 3 persons have voted this message useful | |||
| mattvdm Newbie United Kingdom Joined 5426 days ago 15 posts - 19 votes Speaks: English* Studies: French, Ancient Greek, Spanish, Russian | Message 7 of 10 24 February 2010 at 8:42am | IP Logged | ||
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Though slightly unrelated, have any native/non-native German speakers on here had experiences with 'Swiss German'?
Having spent time there I've heard alot about its differences with 'High German' and would be keen to hear how extensive they are. 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| RogerK Triglot Groupie Austria Joined 5080 days ago 92 posts - 181 votes Speaks: English*, German, Italian Studies: Portuguese | Message 8 of 10 15 January 2011 at 4:46pm | IP Logged | ||
I learnt my German in Vorarlberg, Austria which borders Switzerland and the dialects are very similar. So similar that even though I don't speak the dialect but understand it well enough I have been asked if I was from Switzerland. People from Vienna or the northern parts of Germany have great difficulty understanding the locals here and the Swiss. I regularly have students from Switzerland and occasionally I have to really concertrate in order to understand them when I first meet them. After a couple of hours there isn't usually a problem. With the many valleys in the Alps many dialects were developed over the centuries and many of them are quite different from one another. As a foreigner you could learn High German to a very high level, fly into Zurich and barely understand one word. It is that different. Back to the ice-hockey, Ralph Krueger was the Swiss national coach when this thread began. He coached in Vorarlberg in the 1990's and spoke a mixture of English and German when coaching. It depended on the player he was speaking to, but the team language was generally Engligh. He speaks fluent German and conducted Austrian television interviews in German. If you're interested I'm sure you could find him on Youtube. Ralph Krueger was appointed as the Associate Coach for the Edmonton Oilers, July 30, 2010. 2 persons have voted this message useful |
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