What should be the International Olympic Committee's official language policy?

What should be the IOC's official language policy?

  • French, English, and the local or national language, as is now the case.

    Votes: 16 39.0%
  • The local or national language only.

    Votes: 5 12.2%
  • The national and local indigenous languages.

    Votes: 0 0.0%
  • The six official languages of the UN plus the local or national language if different.

    Votes: 1 2.4%
  • An international auxiliary language like Esperanto plus the dominant local language.

    Votes: 14 34.1%
  • Other answer.

    Votes: 5 12.2%

  • Total voters
    41

Kreskin

Doctor of Thinkology
Feb 23, 2006
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It should be whatever they want it to be. They aren't a government.
 

Machjo

Hall of Fame Member
Oct 19, 2004
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I started this poll as a spin-off from another thread complaining that French was given predominance over English at the Olympic Opening Ceremony, implying that the policy was likely one decided by the Canadian Federal government when in fact our government likely had little to nothing to do with it. This was likely the result of a long-standing policy of the modern Olympics of using French as its First official language, along with English as its second, both alongside the local or national language as might be appropriate if it is different from either of the official languages of the Olympic games.

Strangely enough, I'd never heard any Chinese complain that the Beijing Olympics had to be conducted in three languages. In fact, Beijingers were making great efforts in learning basic English as a sing of their welcoming spirit. And what do we do when French comes before English?Instead of bing thankful for the fact that we never need interpretation at any of the Olympic games around the world (which is not the case for most of the world's citizens), we bitch that our language is not numero uno. Britannnia still rules in the spirits of some I see.
 

Kreskin

Doctor of Thinkology
Feb 23, 2006
21,155
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That's a reasonable answer too. And if some don't like it, they're free to boycott the Olympics.

Absolutely. If someone doesn't like their policy then they shouldn't attempt to host the games.
 

Machjo

Hall of Fame Member
Oct 19, 2004
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A simple solution would be to say that the Canadian government should not fund the Olympics at all. That way, it would be a purely private sector matter, and then they could speak Klingon if they wish and it would be none of our business.
 

Mowich

Hall of Fame Member
Dec 25, 2005
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As far as hosting the Olympics, the IOC should sit down and seriously talk about having a single venue for the summer Olympics and the same for the winter sports. It is so costly to hold these games that some countries will never be able to host them.

Why not hold a vote on what country/ies would be the best places to build a permanent Olympic site(s) - one for winter, one for summer.

All the countries of the world could contribute to the cost of construction and then in holding the games.
 

countryboy

Traditionally Progressive
Nov 30, 2009
3,686
39
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BC
As far as hosting the Olympics, the IOC should sit down and seriously talk about having a single venue for the summer Olympics and the same for the winter sports. It is so costly to hold these games that some countries will never be able to host them.

Why not hold a vote on what country/ies would be the best places to build a permanent Olympic site(s) - one for winter, one for summer.

All the countries of the world could contribute to the cost of construction and then in holding the games.

Greece would be my choice for the summer games. State of the art facilities would only have to be built once. A winter one? Canada, of course! :-|
 

Risus

Genius
May 24, 2006
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38
Toronto
The IOC language policy doesn't really make a difference, since its the local olympic committee that calls the shots.
 

Machjo

Hall of Fame Member
Oct 19, 2004
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As far as hosting the Olympics, the IOC should sit down and seriously talk about having a single venue for the summer Olympics and the same for the winter sports. It is so costly to hold these games that some countries will never be able to host them.

Why not hold a vote on what country/ies would be the best places to build a permanent Olympic site(s) - one for winter, one for summer.

All the countries of the world could contribute to the cost of construction and then in holding the games.

Again, if the government just stops funding the Olympics, as it should, then the IOC could do what it wants. Seeing that this would mean that the IOC would have less money, what you propose is likely what they'd do anyway.
 

Machjo

Hall of Fame Member
Oct 19, 2004
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Greece would be my choice for the summer games. State of the art facilities would only have to be built once. A winter one? Canada, of course! :-|

Why 'of course'? Russia, Sweden, Argentina? Heck, even Peru. Though Peru is tropical, it does have elevated areas with permanent snow caps. I think Lebanon has such an environment too. Canada is far from the only country capable of hosting Winter Olympics.
 

Machjo

Hall of Fame Member
Oct 19, 2004
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The IOC language policy doesn't really make a difference, since its the local olympic committee that calls the shots.

Perhaps. But it still has to consider that many of the spectators are from around the world, and that owing to tradition, they'd essentially assume an expect both French and English to be provided side by side with the local language if it is different.
 

Hazmart

Council Member
Sep 29, 2007
2,265
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48
As far as hosting the Olympics, the IOC should sit down and seriously talk about having a single venue for the summer Olympics and the same for the winter sports. It is so costly to hold these games that some countries will never be able to host them.

Why not hold a vote on what country/ies would be the best places to build a permanent Olympic site(s) - one for winter, one for summer.

All the countries of the world could contribute to the cost of construction and then in holding the games.

I think that having the Olympics in only one location would take away something from them. Spotlighting a country I think is a large part of the excitement.
It is costly but a lot of the venues will be in use for many years and I don't doubt that there is a financial benefit to the host country from all these travelers!
 

Mowich

Hall of Fame Member
Dec 25, 2005
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Why 'of course'? Russia, Sweden, Argentina? Heck, even Peru. Though Peru is tropical, it does have elevated areas with permanent snow caps. I think Lebanon has such an environment too. Canada is far from the only country capable of hosting Winter Olympics.

I agree that there are many countries capable of hosting the games - winter or summer. The idea is that there would be permanent facilities that could be shared by all countries of the world thus cutting the intial costs of hosting the games.
 

Machjo

Hall of Fame Member
Oct 19, 2004
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I agree that there are many countries capable of hosting the games - winter or summer. The idea is that there would be permanent facilities that could be shared by all countries of the world thus cutting the intial costs of hosting the games.

Again, if the games were left completely to the private sector, this would likely occur naturally anyway. Obviously it would not be for any government to decide if it's not providing funding. But cutting off government funding would likely automatically cause it to choose a permanent location anyway, though of course that would be a decision for the IOC to make.