By definition sports is referred to as an activity involving a physical use of energy and skill to perform a particular task normally competition against each other. It is also a form of entertainment.
Sports, like music is referred to as a universal language because people of different backgrounds, cultures, languages and geographical locations come together for competitions in ‘alanguage’ they all understand best.
Sports are physical ability with a collective or organised participation. This means that though the participants are strangers, when the sport begins participants are no longer strangers since they all know what and how to do it.
Because of the common rules and regulations in sports, the participants effectively communicate while on the sports court without any problem, hindrance or miscommunication.
The Olympics is so far the world’s largest sports event with over 200 nations that participate in the various categories available. The event has the winter and summer games and therefore goes on for a specific period.
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Sports as an economic activity
The word sports has for some times been referred to as a leisure activity. However, sporting in the contemporary world is a major economic activity. We have witnessed people earning lots of cash out of sports. We even hear corruption allegations involved in field of sports.This therefore makes it an economic activity than just leisure.
Forms Sports
There are various types of sports, some include
Golf
Basketball
Athletics
Soccer
Football
Pool
Swimming
Wrestling
Boxing, etc
But at the end of the day, when the games are done, there has to be a form of communication to all these participants from the various corners of the world aside from the common rules and regulations on the court or pitch. This is where the real need for effective communication gets in.
At the end of the games or competitions they all go back to their various accommodations for refreshments, rest and leisure. During this time, interactions are unavoidable between the participants from the different regions and countries and may not necessarily have a language in common.
This is where language barrier sets in and thus, people from the same region, country or those who speak a common language separate themselves from the rest due to failure to locate more common grounds other than sports to bring them together.
Translation and sports
When it comes to sports, translation services can’t be avoided. This is an activity which collects people of different languages and cultures and therefore for easy communication, translation has to be employed. Businesses operating near places where sports activities take place will earn more if they translate their products and marketing materials into different languages for easy identification and communication to the foreigners. It is wise to study carefully which countries will participate in a particular game and their respective languages so that we localize your brand to suit different languages and cultures that may be involved in the game.
International sports for example like World cup or Olympic Games attract people from various parts of the world. This could be an opportunity for businesses from the host nation to make more money. The question here is how do you make your product look friendly to the foreigner?
Businesses such us restaurants and hotels will need to have a translation of their menus to suit the demands of foreigners. We know very well that different menus sound strange and unwelcoming to some people. For example cuts ear in a Chinese restaurant may mean a real ear of a cut to an African coming from Kenya. Accommodation facilities too need to have localized information in different languages; of course the reception needs to welcome visitors in the language they are comfortable with.