1. World Cup Kicks Off June 11 - Are You Ready?
This article was originally published on the Acclaro blog.
Category: Culture
It's Only the Biggest Single Sporting Event of the Year
You don’t have to be a ―footie‖ fan to feel the excitement
building around the upcoming World Cup. The scale of this event
dwarfs that of any other sport in the world — yes, even the
Super Bowl, the NBA playoffs or the entire yearly audience for
professional golf tournaments. The proof is in the numbers:
according to FIFA, the sport’s governing body, the last
tournament in 2006 in Germany had a total cumulative
television audience of more than 26 billion people in 214 countries and territories.
The upcoming tournament between 32 national teams kicks off with a match between
host-country South Africa and Mexico on June 11. For billions of fans all around the
world, day-to-day life will grind to a halt for 30 days as they cram bars, pubs, theatres,
friends’ houses — anywhere there is a television — to watch and shout and groan and cry
as they root for their country’s 11 players on the world stage.
So Many Teams, So Many Languages...
The World Cup is indeed very nationalistic, but at the same time, it’s an event that spans
borders, bringing people, cultures, and languages together. A good case in point is South
Africa, the host country, where there are 11 official languages.
While English is the most widely understood, it is the mother
tongue of just eight percent of the population. The actual
dominant mother tongue of the Rainbow Nation is isiZulu and the
official match ball of the 2010 World Cup is named ―Jubulani,‖
which means ―happy‖ or ―to celebrate‖ in that language.
Now imagine adding 15 additional languages into this broad spectrum of linguistic
diversity, as 31 nations send their player to South Africa to compete.
Page 1: World Cup Kicks Off June 11 – Are You Ready? Copyright © Acclaro 2012

2. It's going to be a wild ride — and we're going to be covering all sorts of linguistic and
cultural phenonema that arises during the 30-day event. Stay tuned to the Acclaro blog
for frequent updates and observations. Better yet, subscribe to our RSS feed to receive
posts in real-time, so you'll never miss a kick.
About Acclaro: Acclaro is an international translation and localization company that
helps the world’s leading brands succeed across cultures. We translate websites,
marketing campaigns, documents and software to give clients an authentic voice in
key language markets.
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Page 2: World Cup Kicks Off June 11 – Are You Ready? Copyright © Acclaro 2012