I think at least they know 'some' English. I mean the basic one that usually used to communicate with the umpire and the service judge.
Do most OP's have a working knowledge of the English Language? Arguing with "empires"? You mean like if this guy was keeping the score? Guess we can all slip on the banana peel of language. ____________ But the original question is an interesting one. Obviously not all people are good at learning languages. So does the BWF provide a phrase book to help players cope on the world tour? Perhaps they should. Essential words and phrases like: Hello. Thank you. Serve. Receive. Have you seen what Reiko is wearing today?
Sorry for confusion, suetyan. I didn't mean that Reiko was wearing something special today. I was only joking that the level of interest in that poor overly-ogled woman is such that a reference to her might well be in any "common badminton phrase book", if such a thing existed. (it wasn't that clear...or funny. sorry) BTW, what are you wearing today?
There are phrases listed in the rule book for umpires to communicate to players. They are the "official" terms that umpires must use when speaking to the player. I have, however, umpired at a US tournament (Boston Open) where there were young Chinese players who came from one of LYB's academy to play. They spoke no English at all. After the coin toss, it was very hard for me understand whether they wanted to serve or receive and they had to do certain motions. The only English word I heard from some of them is thank you.
They would need to know how to count from 1 to 21 (or to 30 if necessary) in order to serve from the correct side of the court. Also words like "let" and "interval" I suppose
Well to answer this question it really depends. For badminton since interviews aren't nearly as big for the pro players as for tennis players, they can usually get by without learning the English language since most interviews aren't in English for them. And even then, many of the top players don't like giving in depth interviews after games, or at least in English. As said above they need to learn the bare minimum key words to be able to play as most matches are officiated in English. Madbad said earlier that they need to be able to count, but as a reminder numbers are not exclusive to the English language, they're in all languages =p. However numbers are said in English during matches. For tennis players, most interviews are done in English through many languages are used depending on the player. It's interesting to see because players often develop a good amount of conversational English and improve their speaking skills while on the tennis tour. Rafael Nadal has come a long way in the last 5 years from an interview he had at wimbledon around 2006 to now. His english was so broken because he never had to use English much except know the bare minimum to understand officials. But now he's able to do interviews in English with no problem, and he seems to enjoy it. But as mentioned earlier, English has a much bigger base in tennis than it does in badminton despite it being the "official" language used in both sports.
