Curious about languages

[Cruz_del_Sur]

What language do most ref's use while officiating?
Is there ever a language barrier with players?

Might sound a bit silly, but sometimes it's hard for me to empathise with the idea of having more than one official language in a country and being unable to communicate with a countryman.
Does happens in Belgium and Switzerland.

I expect most refs to work in english or afrikaans, but a 2 min google search showed me that about 30% of the people actually speak english and a little over 10% speak afrikaans, which might prove complicated.

Is this ever a problem or does the rugby community is overwhelmingly english speaking?
Thanks in advance.

 

[TRF_heineken]

What language do most ref's use while officiating?
Is there ever a language barrier with players?

Might sound a bit silly, but sometimes it's hard for me to empathise with the idea of having more than one official language in a country and being unable to communicate with a countryman.
Does happens in Belgium and Switzerland.

I expect most refs to work in english or afrikaans, but a 2 min google search showed me that about 30% of the people actually speak english and a little over 10% speak afrikaans, which might prove complicated.

Is this ever a problem or does the rugby community is overwhelmingly english speaking?
Thanks in advance.

Please provide a link on where you got those stats.

Because it will most certainly not be at Currie Cup level. All the refs at that level must speak English, and some of them can speak Afrikaans, and sometimes help the players if they don't understand English, which is highly unlikely at this level.

 

[Cruz_del_Sur]

The english language i took from here, which supposedly included as first and second/third/other lang

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_English-speaking_population

The afrikaans i got from the link below which states 6,85 M. Out of 55 M, that is roughly 12%, hence my comment.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Afrikaans_speaking_population_in_South_Africa


Thanks for the answers

 

[TRF_stormer2010]

Just about everyone in SA can understand English to some degree. The more rural might struggle to speak it well, mind you. You would be well able to travel and live in SA being only English-speaking. There are of course enclaves where you might struggle to get understood and some places where you might not be entirely welcome but we are talking minorities and hinterlands here for the most part.

 

[TRF_heineken]

The english language i took from here, which supposedly included as first and second/third/other lang

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_English-speaking_population

The afrikaans i got from the link below which states 6,85 M. Out of 55 M, that is roughly 12%, hence my comment.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Afrikaans_speaking_population_in_South_Africa


Thanks for the answers

May I suggest that you never use Wikipedia for answers... Most of it is wrong or very old and outdated.

Rather try http://www.statssa.gov.za/ - Statistics South Africa.

Have a look at the 2011 Census. It has an in depth graph of the languages, which provinces it is spoken by the amount of people, and percentages. You will see that according to 2011 statistics, there are nearly 2 million more Afrikaans speaking people in South Africa than English Speaking people. And that the language with the highest amount of people is IsiZulu.

But this Stat is only the Primary language the people chose for the census. It doesn't take into consideration the people that can speak both English and Afrikaans and/or another indigenous language.

Our laws at the moment are all published in English along with another language (Afrikaans or IsiZulu or IsiXhosa).

But it still doesn't answer the question regarding referees and players.

 

[Cruz_del_Sur]

Thanks to both.
Odd, wikipedia tends to be ballpark accurate for big number things like population, gdp, etc.

You will see that according to 2011 statistics, there are nearly 2 million more Afrikaans speaking people in South Africa than English Speaking people.

Had a look. What you say is true, but the difference is that it counts people speaking particular language as as a first language. The figures from my first link include second language. The english speaker's link lists 16,4 M english speakers vs 4,9 who do so as their first language. The afrikaans link says 6,85M, so that reconciles nicely with the 2 million (6,85 minus 4,9) you mention. But again, only as a first language.

Both of the sources i link (wikipedia) specify their source to be the 2011 Census.

Anyway, i got a good picture of how it works, so thanks to both again. Much appreciated

 

[TRF_heineken]

Thanks to both.
Odd, wikipedia tends to be ballpark accurate for big number things like population, gdp, etc.


Had a look. What you say is true, but the difference is that it counts people speaking particular language as as a first language. The figures from my first link include second language. The english speaker's link lists 16,4 M english speakers vs 4,9 who do so as their first language. The afrikaans link says 6,85M, so that reconciles nicely with the 2 million (6,85 minus 4,9) you mention. But again, only as a first language.

Both of the sources i link (wikipedia) specify their source to be the 2011 Census.

Anyway, i got a good picture of how it works, so thanks to both again. Much appreciated

Actually, the Afrikaans link specify their source as the 2001 census.

But the 2011 census doesn't have any statistic on the total amount of people speaking English or Afrikaans whether it's a first/second/third language. And by my calculation, Nearly all the Afrikaans speaking people that registered it as a first language can speak/understand English. There might be a few hundred thousand that won't speak or understand english who are in the rural areas (mostly the Northern Cape) but I would take a guess that at least 5 million of the first Language Afrikaans speaking people speak English. I am one of them.

Most of our local tv content is in English, because of the majority of people understanding it and getting it to as many viewers as possible.

 

[Cruz_del_Sur]

Actually, the Afrikaans link specify their source as the 2001 census.

From the Afrikaans link i posted, first sentence

South African census figures suggest a growing number of first language Afrikaans speakers in all nine provinces, a total of 6.85 million in 2011 compared to 5.98 million a decade earlier.

I cross referenced this with www.statssa.gov.za and it reconciles to the 6,9M mentioned above

http://www.statssa.gov.za/census/census_2011/census_products/Census_2011_Census_in_brief.pdf

page 23

Anyway, thanks again.