# English or Chinese at Olympics in Beijing? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [July 13, 2001, 3:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/english-or-chinese-at-olympics-in-beijing/72375 "2001-07-13T15:36:38Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 10\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![sdimbert](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/sdimbert/32/20204_2.png) [@sdimbert](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/sdimbert)\ **Post date:** [July 13, 2001, 3:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/english-or-chinese-at-olympics-in-beijing/72375/1 "2001-07-13T15:36:38Z")
Back in September of 2000 (During the 2000 Olympic Games), I [posted](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?threadid=40199) the following question: > [@](#): > > \*\* > Why do foreign countries identify themselved in English? > > Why do Chinese divers wear bathing suits that say “China” (in English) instead of writing it in Chinese? > > Why does the Romanian gymnastics coach wear a jacket that says “Romania” in English instead of Romanian? \*\* I got lots of interesting Olympic Trivia and a few WAG’s, but no real answer. I suggest reading the thread - it’s not that long - because the issue is interesting and because I’m about to sort of re-ask it as I ask a related question: _If_ the rule of thumb is to use either the French (official language of the Olympic Games) or the language of the Host Nation as often as possible at the Games, will the Chinese teams’ uniforms say “Nippon” instead of “China” in 2008? Will it be in English characters, or Chinese? Will the American Atheletes’ uniforms say “USA” or its Chinese equivalent? What _is_ the Chinese equivalent of USA, anyway? ---
**Author:** ![friedo](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/8edcca/32.png) [@friedo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/friedo)\ **Post date:** [July 13, 2001, 4:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/english-or-chinese-at-olympics-in-beijing/72375/2 "2001-07-13T16:14:48Z")
Nippon is Japan, not China. China in Chinese is “Zhong Guo” (pronounced approximately jong gwaw in Mandarin) which means roughly “middle country” The US is “Mei Guo,” (may gwaw) a phonetic approximation of “America” that conveniently also has the word for “country” in it. I have no clue about the Olympics, however. ---
**Author:** ![evilhanz](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/ba8739/32.png) [@evilhanz](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/evilhanz)\ **Post date:** [July 13, 2001, 4:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/english-or-chinese-at-olympics-in-beijing/72375/3 "2001-07-13T16:18:02Z")
> [@](#): > > _Originally posted by sdimbert \* > \*\* … will the Chinese teams’ uniforms say “Nippon” instead of “China” in 2008?_\* Unless the Japan is preparing to conquer China in the next few years, their bathing caps surely won’t say “Nippon”. I suspect that things will remain the same. I don’t recall any differences when the Games were held in non-English speaking nations - Yugoslavia, Japan, Norway, USSR. I don’t have any cites or proof, though. ---
**Author:** ![sdimbert](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/sdimbert/32/20204_2.png) [@sdimbert](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/sdimbert)\ **Post date:** [July 13, 2001, 4:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/english-or-chinese-at-olympics-in-beijing/72375/4 "2001-07-13T16:57:17Z")
Thank you, both of you, for correcting my error. Anyone else have an answer? ---
**Author:** ![China\_Girl](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/8c91f0/32.png) [@China\_Girl](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/China_Girl)\ **Post date:** [July 13, 2001, 5:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/english-or-chinese-at-olympics-in-beijing/72375/5 "2001-07-13T17:42:43Z")
[QUOTE] \*Originally posted by sdimbert \* - will the Chinese teams’ uniforms say “Nippon” instead of “China” in 2008? - “Nippon” is Japanese for “Japan.” There is no good ways to put Chinese into Roman letters as easy as Japanese language. English is a worldwide used language. I do see Chinese team has “China” printed in Chinese on their team uniforms, probably you did not notice them, or it’s just because you did not understand them. In this case why not just say “China,” a more commonly known words instead of some confusing terms, such as “Zhong Guo” (Chinese for “China” in an uncompleted form.) or itself printed in Chinese characters. If the 2008 Olympic host Nation is China, the official languages will be both, of course, Chinese and English. If you just care about their uniforms, do not just focus on their bathing suit, the words printed on the bathing suit is for hundred million viewers to easily identify what team they represent. Probably you may see somewhere on their jackets has Chinese Charactors saying “China,” but most likely you wouldn’t know what those charactors look like… The Chinese equivalent of USA pronounce as “Mei Guo.” I don’t have any softerware on hand to show how “USA” is written in Chinese. I think in 1990 Beijing sucessfully hosted the Asian Games. I was still in elementary school, so I do not remember too much about it. One thing that I know is most teams from other countries do not have Chinese on their uniforms, so I do not think American athelets’ uniforms will be any changes. ---
**Author:** ![Terminus\_Est](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/terminus_est/32/3087_2.png) [@Terminus\_Est](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Terminus_Est)\ **Post date:** [July 13, 2001, 5:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/english-or-chinese-at-olympics-in-beijing/72375/6 "2001-07-13T17:49:23Z")
My WAG is that whatever goes on the national uniforms is really up to the respective National Olympic Committee and/or national sports federation. The English name is generally used because it’s understandable throughout most, if not all, of the world. The three-letter symbols that you see for each country, e.g., [ul] [li]GRC - Greece[/li][li]JPN - Japan[/li][li]CHN - China[/li][li]GBR - United Kingdom[/li][li]USA - DUH![/li][/ul] are prescribed by [ISO 3166](http://www.din.de/gremien/nas/nabd/iso3166ma/), the International Country Code Standard. You can see the full list courtesy of the[United Nations Statistics Division](http://www.un.org/Depts/unsd/methods/m49alpha.htm). ---
**Author:** ![evilhanz](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/ba8739/32.png) [@evilhanz](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/evilhanz)\ **Post date:** [July 13, 2001, 6:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/english-or-chinese-at-olympics-in-beijing/72375/7 "2001-07-13T18:12:41Z")
Just for the record, the two official languages of the IOC are French (first) and English. All official correspondence is conducted in French. Announcements at the Olympic Games are repeated in three languages: French, English, and the official language of the host country. In some situations, speeches can be given in fewer languages, or in order of least-used to most-used to allow for greatest audience reaction at the end of the speech. There was some flap over this protocal in Sydney which you can read about here [http://www.theage.com.au/news/20000907/A50452-2000Sep6.html](http://www.theage.com.au/news/20000907/A50452-2000Sep6.html) . Otherwise, the IOC homepage is here [http://www.olympic.org/ioc/e/news/index\_e.html](http://www.olympic.org/ioc/e/news/index_e.html) . It appears that the official uniform of each nation is left to their discretion as I could not find any bylaws that specifically mention a language requirement. ---
**Author:** ![astorian](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/ad7895/32.png) [@astorian](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/astorian)\ **Post date:** [July 13, 2001, 7:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/english-or-chinese-at-olympics-in-beijing/72375/8 "2001-07-13T19:27:22Z")
The official language of the Olympics is French, as the modern Olympics were the brainchild of France’s Baron Pierre de Coubertin. However, everyone knows who REALLY calls the shots a the Olympics: whatever American TV network coughs up the most money for the rights! Without American television, the Olympics would go bankrupt overnight, so you can bet almost everything will be written in English, lest American TV viewers get confused and tune out. ---
**Author:** ![starfish](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/87869e/32.png) [@starfish](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/starfish)\ **Post date:** [July 13, 2001, 7:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/english-or-chinese-at-olympics-in-beijing/72375/9 "2001-07-13T19:47:05Z")
Without American TV networks coughing up money, most American pro sports teams would go bankrupt. The local TV market is the main consideration when setting up new teams. The only reason US cities want to host the Olympics is for the TV coverage. If it’s not on TV, it does not exist [to Americans]. ---
**Author:** ![evilhanz](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/ba8739/32.png) [@evilhanz](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/evilhanz)\ **Post date:** [July 13, 2001, 9:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/english-or-chinese-at-olympics-in-beijing/72375/10 "2001-07-13T21:32:14Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by starfish \* > \*\*The only reason US cities want to host the Olympics is for the TV coverage. If it’s not on TV, it does not exist [to Americans]. \*\* Take your stereotypical generalizations elsewhere. There is a distinct economic benefit to being a host city that goes beyond the promise of advertising revenue.