But if you're not a regular viewer, you might be confused about why they're speaking French at the opening ceremony , rather than Korean. It's because Rule 23 of the Olympic charter establishes two official languages for the games: French and English. That means that all signs, paperwork, announcements, and the like are to be in both French and English, and if there should be any disagreement between the two versions, "the French text shall prevail," as the charter states. Other languages are expected to be spoken at the games, of course, especially if neither is the official language of the host country.
That may seem a bit tiresome, but when you've got millions of people from about a hundred countries all descending on one city for a couple of weeks, it helps to cover your bases. It's a curious mix of languages at the Olympics, particularly when you consider the fact that the most popular language , Chinese, was left off of the list, and according to the language learning site Babbel, French and German aren't even in the top Sorry, Pierre!
But why? Is it because French is still considered to be the language of diplomacy? For centuries, political delegates from around the world learned to speak French. French is the first language of the Olympic movement — which is based in the French-speaking city of Lausanne — in honour of Frenchman Baron de Coubertin , who developed the modern Games in the s. 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.
Yet is by no means consistent — for instance, there are no French translation announcements in the Olympic Boxing arena. Another view I have is that the IOC should give Japan the Olympics again so the people of Japan could enjoy them and move the rest of the host cities back 4years and give them more time to prepare. But why is the French announcement made before the English in an Anglophone country? Perhaps English speakers should bear this in mind, and this time be content with second place?
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