Football speaks all languages - University of Innsbruck
That is the motto of the project seminar “Multilingualism in Football”, which Prof. Eva Lavric has just successfully completed at the Institute for Romance Studies with a group of committed and football-loving students. On Tuesday, June 21, 2022, they presented their results in the form of a final event that was as interesting as it was enjoyable.
It started right away with a sporting event: Two professionals performed sophisticated and impressive ball tricks for the large audience – without breaking the lecture hall windows. Then came a self-made video in which footballers gave short statements on the importance of communication and languages in football. And immediately afterwards the audience was challenged: in a quiz that could easily compete with the show of millions, football knowledge was queried. It turned out that the teachers at the University of Innsbruck were clearly ahead of the students and residents of the participants, who were also in the audience. Prof. Jannis Harjus from the Institute for Romance Studies won, closely followed by Dr. Alfonso Merello Astigarraga from the same institute and from Prof. Wolfgang Pöckl, Emeritus of Translation Studies.
Then it’s on to serious science: Participants Kristian Babić, Emanuela Carboni, Theresa Hölbling, Hannes Schöffthaler and Alessandra Zingarelli shared how they all first used their relationships to get in touch with clubs and players. The resulting network extends from Austria (Tyrol, Vienna, Graz) through Croatia down to Rome to the Latina association. The interviews conducted with a number of football professionals confirmed the difficulties that newly hired legionnaires have to face if they do not speak the national language – English as a lingua franca is only of limited help. The newcomers at clubs are supported by interpreters and club managers, but mostly by teammates who have the same or a related language as their mother tongue. This often creates small groups in the team that get together according to languages, which can be bad for the team spirit. Coaches also come either from abroad and have language difficulties or from Germany and do not perceive the problems of the legionnaires – especially if it is the regional dialect that excludes the foreign players. But there are also positive examples where the whole team and the coaching staff end up learning the native language of the largest legionnaire group…
The conclusion is a live interview with two footballers: the seminar participant Kristian Babić (ex-professional) and his brother Renato Babić, who played for Wacker Innsbruck this season.
Prof. Eva Lavric explained in her introduction: “We have already intensively selected the question of multilingualism in football in two selected project seminars – in 2009 and 2016. Many of the findings are confirmed by further surveys, but there are always completely new aspects. We will also publish the results in the form of an essay, and maybe this time there will be one or the other student who would like to deepen the topic in the form of a master’s thesis or a dissertation. The research questions in this exciting area are far from exhausted.” The participants baked marzipan footballs for the buffet, which was very fitting.
(Eva Lawric)