From my count there are about 140 teams from non english speaking countrys about 50 of which speak mandrin, 25 of which speak spanish, and the remainder of which have 1-8 teams each with their own languages.
My first question would be if those teams are expected to provide translators, the event will provide traslators, or if nonverbal communication is recommended.
My second question (more aimed at non english speaking teams) is would be if it would be usefull for me to learn a 10+ words in a handful of languages for things like corrner, mobile goal, ring ect. for quicker communication during the match.
Well… or you can look for Singapore teams to do a bit of translation for you too
In the earlier years, we did use our bilingual ability as a selling point to get us picked by some top teams.
But nowadays, it is not really necessary anymore. Most teams would have at least 1 person that is able to converse in English.
And always bring a printout of the playing field along. A picture says a thousand words. It is much easier to use the printout to communicate with any other teams.
And last resort - there is always a google translate to fall back on,
To be 100% honest i have personally never encountered a foreign team that could not speak English. I have competed at worlds for 3+ years competing with teams from china, singapore, germany, taiwan and plenty of other countries and they have all spoken pretty much fluent English . as for providing a translator i dont really thikn that is nessesary. in todays great age with the internet we have accsess to things like Google translate and plently of other language translation websites and apps that will get the job done.
Answer to your first question: most of the time, from what I’ve noticed, teams that speak other languages don’t have a dedicated translator. Usually, one or two members of the team will speak English to a certain extent, and if they don’t, you can probably try to use diagrams to communicate.
Second question: This would definitely help! You should probably learn these words in at least Chinese and Spanish, as those are some of the languages I’ve encountered at worlds.
On our FRC team we regularly meet teams from non-English speaking countries. Generally they know enough that pertains to the game/robots to communicate the ideas, it may take a bit longer but it get’s the job done . Seeing as English is the most spoken language in the world a lot of non English speakers choose it as their second language.
