Well, English is presently the language of choice for international commerce despite Mandarin and Spanish being more widely spoken. If you're to communicate with someone who's obviously not chinese, would you speak Mandarin first or English? If Mandarin is more universal than English, maybe you should type in Mandarin here so that the international community would know what you're talking about. And don't be sorry about adding any new information. I always thought sign language is universal, but I guess I should have given a better example. Universal language maybe numbers but when is the last time you carry a conversation in numbers? I think it's fair for all athletes to be able to understand some English to know what's going on on the court. They're all well-versed in the laws of the sport, so it doesn't require too much to understand what the officials are saying in English when they want to argue a point. If IBF wants to promote the game internationally, it's better for the players to be able to convey their thoughts in English with their international fans.
Yes, I knew you were referring to Kamilla Rytter-Juhl. I wish Camilla Martin was there (was she?) 'cause I'd have loved to at least see her in person. No wonder she lost her voice. I thought she rivaled that Chinese Mr. Blowhorn whom I saw got a personal thanks from Li Yongbo after XXF's SF win for rousing and leading the Chinese support.
A friend and myself had a similar experience approaching Gao Ling and her partner. We kindly asked if we could take a photo with them, and were rejected with a flat and angry, "no!" I'm no longer a fan.
Unanswered question? Im not sure whether the question was answered earlier or not but why exactly would Gao Ling want to through darts at a picture or Zhang Jun? Have i missed something? Thanks
ZJ still needs to spend time on his forecourt shots and maybe some intensive drops hehe just he goes wild sometimes and misses some of the easiest shots in their games. and his defence and his lifting ah well, can't complain they are still olympic champs
My encounter with Gao Ling: During the MO 2005 this year, I approached Gao Ling after the finals match, where she lost to YW/ZJW. She was talking to a guy in a shop selling badminton equipments in the stadium. So I waited for her and when she came out, I asked for an autograph. She agreed to sign for me and my friends and when we asked for photos, she smiled and did a tiny wave indicating 'no'. I was quite disappointed but at least she rejected kindly. Not such a bad person to me.
Yeah...agree. Gao Ling was really nice. Met her at the Singapore Open and she also gave us her autograph. She even joked saying,"Bu yao pai zhao mah? chu le ni zhi wai hao xiang mei ge ren dou xiang gen wo men pai ne." [Don't want to take a picture? It seems like everyone wants a picture with us except you.] And she was smiling very sweetly too.
is language even a huge factor for promoting a sport? millions of people in china don't know english/spanish/italian but the english/spanish/italian football leagues are really popular in the mainland and hk. football, or soccer to the americano, is an international sport. in brazil and argentina, the international language is not widely spoken there. but still, football is like a religion in those countries.
Probably off topic, but one interesting fact to share: I was very amused to find that there's actually a time slot in one of the CCTV stations in China that teaches non-English speakers to understand soccer commentaries on TV. Such a "sport-specific" English lesson you'd not find anywhere. But if there's English for business people, why not English for soccer fans......
I have to agree with Bobo the Badder here. It wasn't just a day or two. It was consistent throughout the week, before and after her games when she's just sitting. Trust me, this shocks me as much as any of you since I was her fan. Before the WC she was my #1 favorite Chinese player because of her friendliness and attitude. I was really dissapointed to see this. However, I won't hold much grudge against her for it could have been something else but her attitude was like this for the whole time she was at the WC. No offense but from what I've seen most of the Chinese players aren't too friendly, with the exception of Chen Hong, Xie Xangfang, and maybe Zhou Mi. All the others give you a mean face when you ask for an autograph or a picture, and this wasn't with just any particular fan. The most friendly team is the Malaysian team. Everyone is so nice, relaxed, and friendly. I heard many great stories about Wong Choong Hann. He was pretty nice when I asked him for an autograph and a picture (not sure if I took a picture with him--gotta check again). He was honest and sincere even after his loss against Bao Chunlai. I have to say that the best guy is Choong Tan Fook. After his defeat by the USA pair he was still smiling. I was kinda nervous since I am a US supporter and especially after his loss. But he was very kind. I asked to take a picture with him and his partner Chew Choon Eng and he gladly agreed. He took the iniative to ask people to take pictures of us. The nicest thing was he waited and checked to see if the angle and lighting was good. The first one had bad camera angle and lighting so he asked someone else to take the pictures of the three of us from another angle. The second one we weren't ready when the picture was taking so it was blurry. He finally asked one of his teammates (I think it was Wong Pei Ty-am I spelling this right?) to take it. It was a little better than the first two but not that much better. He asked me if it was okay or should we do another one. I was feeling unconfortable since I was taking up his time; he was chatting with his teammates and Jennifier Coleman (whom plays for the US and someone I know from UCI). I had never expected that from Choong Tan Fook since he doesn't seem to be as happy as Gao Ling on court. It gives me great satisfaction to see that they befriend with players from other team, even the not-so-strong team such as the US. It was mixed with the Indonesian team. Even though Eng Hian signed my shirt, he wasn't too enthusiastic and it was worse with Flandi. However, Sony, Candra, and Taufik was nice. Taufik was the best as he spent a long time after his matches outside the arena taking pictures and signing autographs. All the coaches was laughing seeing how popular Taufik was with his fans. His girlfriend is pretty nice too. The Korean team was pretty nice too. Lee Hyo Jung and her partner were smiling as they were signing my autograph. Kim Dong Moon looked to have a stern face but I don't think he was concern with autograph signing but rather the games. I like him since he always sign autographs and take pictures with everyone who had approached him. The Denmark team wasn't bad either. I did not see anyone had a grin when fans asked them for an autograph or a picture. I finally got a chance to meet Jonas Rasmussen, who occasional comes to this forum. He was very friendly and kind. He asked for my friend's name and mine when we asked him for an autograph. He wrote it along the side with his signature. As for Peter Gade, he was also great. He smiled and cheerfully signed autographs for his fans. He did not mind taking pictures with his fans. Another friendly and sincere guy is our own Tony Gunawan. He is always cheerful thanking people for their support. He is very humble as well after every game. He is the best in terms of skills and tactics, in my opinion. After meeting him, I believe he is one of the most sincere and humble player I've met. Tony Gunawan and Kim Dong Moon are not only good on the court but also nice, friendly, and humble in person. Imagine if there were to pair up with each other. Not only do you have the strongest pair but probably the best pair when it comes to personality.
I definitely agree with your comments here. Actually, my mission at this WC2005 was to get as many pictures & autographs of players as I could (aside from watching the tournament hehe). I pretty much ran into all members of the Chinese team with the exception of the WD ladies as they didn't stick around that long before/after their matches. I have signatures/pictures with all of the mens and for the ladies, am missing only ZhaoTingTing/Wei Yili & Zhang Dan. My experience would pretty much rival the others experience. The men in general seemed a bit annoyed when you asked for autographs/pictures with the exception of Chen Hong, BCL, Chen Qiqui and Xie Zhongbo. These 4 were always smiling and willing to take extra time to talk with you or even pose for pictures. As for the ladies only Zhang Yawen & XXF was approachable to me after their matches. It was actually during the QF of the MX draw (New Zealand upset Korea) that Zhang&Xie was in the stands in the players area sitting close to me. When New Zealand won, they jumped and hugged each other knowing that it was an easier match for them in the Semi's rather than playing against Korea. Although I did manage to get Zhou Mi to take a picture with me, the rest were mainly taken when they signed my shirt on the 2nd/3rd days of the tournament (I had a seat ringside just before the exit for the players after their matches). For the Malaysians, I definitely had very good experience with them all...of course them understanding Cantonese/English also helps in that department too. All were very pleasant and approachable...I also had the same good experience with ChoongTanFook as virusvoodoo had too. I had some good experience with the Indonesians...I either caught them training at OCBC or after their matches when they were watching other matches. I got all of their pics/autographs with the except of Natsir Liliyana whom I didn't see around the arena that often and when I saw her, I was without my camera or T-shirt. It was too bad that the older Korean players (like KDM, HTK, LDS, RKM, etc) retired and no longer played as I wasn't able to recognize many of the Korean players unless they had their jerserys on. I was only able to get the Korea LD team and of course KDM when he wasn't coaching. As for the Danish squad, I was able to meet with JR, JE, ML, and KJ. They were all cool with the fans and willing to chat and sign autographs. When I went up to JR and introduced myself as a BCFer, he shook my hand and put his arm around me when we took a picture. Definitely friendly and very approachable. BTW, anyone recommend a program to use (hopefully a freeware/shareware) to downsize and crop the pictures? I have alot of pics taken with the players and wouldn't mind sharing them but the files are either too big or not the right dimensions.
The Indonesians, Malaysians and Danish are, in my experience, much nicer than most other players. I'd also have to say that Flandi didn't seem to enthusiastic about the whole fan thing. Sigit, Taufik & Candra were awesome... They would sign/take photos for up to 1/2 an hour when they were waiting outside for their shuttle. I heard from somebody that Candra even told his coaches he would take the next shuttle because there were more people that didn't get his signature.
In my opinion, players, like us normal people, have different moods everyday. Their moods may not have changed for the whole week. Although I can't say that I know them personally, I think all of them are actually very nice with their fans though not all the time. I've only been to two badminton championships so far, the Indo Open 2004 and Aviva Open 2005. I've met basically the same players twice and they seemed to have two different personalities. In Indo Open, Gao Ling refused to sign me an autograph after her semi match. She was not friendly, but I guess it was because she was so tired after playing a match. But when I met her again in Aviva Open, she was super nice!! She smiled in our pic although I should say she's not one who likes to talk to her fans. Zhang Jun was nice and not arrogant at all, both in Aviva Open and Indo Open. He signed for me and my siblings and took a picture with us. I don't see why people here hate him so much. I also managed to get Cai Yun's autograph in Indo Open. He seemed quite friendly and he even smiled when I said to him, "jia you!!" BUT, in Aviva Open, he was definitely not the nicest of players. He refused to sign for anyone and take a pic with anyone. I was quite sad, though, but well, I believed that he was maybe having some problems that we don't know about. Chen Hong was also not very friendly in Indo Open. But in Aviva Open 2005, oh my god, he was one of the friendliest pros. He even asked us (me and my siblings) to move closer while taking a pic with us and afterwards, whenever we met, we smiled with each other. Even Li Yong Bo was super nice with the fans. He talked to me for a while and took a pic with us. He even deliberately went down from where he was sitting at the audience seats to help me take a pic with Zhang Ning. If that was not pure nice, I don't know what is. The most noticable difference was Fu Haifeng. In Indo Open, he broke my heart because he just ignored me when I wanted to have his autograph and his picture. I was quite hurt because he was actually the sole purpose I was coming to Indo Open. But in Aviva Open, he was like totally different person. He was friendly and he was not rushing like the other players after his match. When I took a pic with him after the match, the first one was screwed up so I shyly asked for another one, and he didn't refuse. I told him "bu hao yi shi..", but he said with a smile "no problem" even though his coach was already calling him at that time. Afterwards, when we met, we even talked for a while, and that was definitely one of the best moments of my life. There are actually lots of other players that I met and interacted at Aviva Open, and all of them are friendly. For example, XXF, ZM (she was sweet!!!!), ZN, LD, BCL, Candra Wijaya, Chen Qiqiu and ZTT (she was cute), Zhang Dan and Zhang Yawen (cute gal), Yang Wei and Zhang Jiewen. The only player that I didn't manage to approach at all was Huang Sui. She just seemed to disappear everytime. Therefore, all in all, I'm not saying that I know them in person after only two meetings, but I should say that people's moods do not necessarily change only within a day. It may take days or even weeks. The only thing that I know for sure is, the thing that I'll always remember about them is their nice sides and no other ^^
hi wukenne, you can try irfanview. you can download it at www.irfanview.com. it's easy to use and it's free!
i was with a few friends at the aviva open ans suddenly my friend realised that ms pi hongyan was sitting 2 seats away from us watching the matches. then my friend hesitaited but decided to go forward and ask for her pictures to be taken. she was all smiles and smile to the camera waiting for my friend to adjust the camera exposure and stuff. after shot taken she still very friendly and smile to us when my friend said thank you. one think we need to know is that these are professional sportsman, not actors. i can tell that after we took her picture, she seems a little uncomfortable with us looking at her. but she is no angry or grumpy towards us. badmninton players needs to win games to make themselve money and fame....not like actors or singers...even if you cant sing or cant act, as long as your fans love you... can make money already
a lot seems to hate players who are cocky or looks arrogant when playin games. but these are the pshychology battle on court.....to look agressive or even cocky, to piss you opponent off or intimidate them. very few will go on court all smiles cos this will encourage opponent to give their best or feels really friendly towards you and able to perform tiptop. they are there to win games.
We are not talking about players about to play a game or during a game. We all commenting on when they are just sitting around or walking, they refuse to give their signature or take pictures with their fans. One of reasons people go watch is to see their favorite players and ask for autographs.
It is nothing strange in China. Bao CL is left-handed when he playing badminton, but writes with his right hand. In China, little kids are trained or forced to use right hand when they start to practice writing and drawing with a pen.
actually if you anyone goes watch any tornament live, you can scan the entire spectator area. when i was at the aviva open, noticed a lot of players actually sits quietly at some corner watching their competitors
