Why did the opening ceremony of the Youth Olympic Games broadcast the country names in French, English and Chinese?

In the 2008 Beijing Olympic Games and this year's Nanjing Youth Olympic Games, from the opening ceremony to the competition venues, the audience all over the world heard French first, then English, and then the host's Chinese.

Why this order?

There are three reasons:

1. In memory of Coubertin, the father of modern Olympics, a Frenchman;

2. French and English are the official languages of the IOC;

3. Sino-French relations are closer than Sino-British and Sino-American relations (Jacques Berg, then president of the Olympic Committee at the Beijing Olympic Games, was the "French population"; Since the early days of the founding of New China, French technology exports to China have been relatively loose compared with countries such as Britain and the United States. Britain colonized China and Hongkong; The United States has always regarded China as a potential enemy.

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According to statistics, there are 200 million French speakers in the world, which is not high compared with English and Chinese. However, whether a language is internationalized depends not only on how many people speak it, but also on how many countries and regions speak it.

More than 70 countries in the world use English as their official language, and 100 countries use English as their main foreign language. The OIF has more than 60 members and observers, with a total population of over 800 million, of whom 200 million speak French. In other words, if you learn English, French and Spanish, you can travel around the world without fear, while if you learn Chinese, you can only travel in Greater China or deal with China people who have gone abroad.

Of the 200 million French speakers, only 60 million are French, and the rest are distributed on five continents. There are more than 20 countries and regions in the world that are official languages in law or in fact. In 2002, the number of people studying French in the world reached 90.7 million, an increase of 1994 by15.4 million. Because the French-speaking population is mainly concentrated in developing countries in Africa and America, and the population of these countries is growing rapidly, the French-speaking population will continue to increase.

Compared with the population who speaks Chinese, the global population who speaks Chinese (including Putonghua and major dialects) is as high as 654.38+04 billion, but 99% of them are concentrated in China (including Taiwan Province Province, Hongkong and Macau). Besides, only Singapore speaks Chinese.

According to the most optimistic estimate, there are only about 40 million overseas Chinese learners, most of whom are descendants of immigrants from China. In addition to immigrants of China origin, foreigners learning Chinese in the world mainly come from South Korea and Japan, which are deeply influenced by China culture in history. The number of Chinese learners in Europe, America and Africa is still very small, far lower than that of French learners.

Take France as an example. In the late 1990s, there were only 2,500 China students in French middle schools, and now there are more than 20,000 students. Chinese has become the fifth largest foreign language, surpassing Arabic. But the "Chinese fever" in France is also relative, and its rapid growth is from a very low starting point.

At present, Chinese can not only challenge the monopoly of English, but also cannot be compared with European languages. For example, there are 800,000 middle school students studying German, 40 times more than those studying Chinese.

Therefore, it is necessary to speak French in the Olympic Games, which is not only convenient for athletes, coaches and journalists who speak French in the competition venues, but also has a large number of intimate friends in the world through live broadcast. From a legal point of view, Article 24 of the Olympic Charter stipulates that the official languages of the International Olympic Committee are French and English. In case of any inconsistency, French shall prevail. Therefore, the International Olympic Committee has long been committed to the protection and development of French. The International Olympic Committee (IOC), founded at the initiative of Frenchman Coubertin, used French at the beginning of its establishment. Jacques, the current president of the Olympic Committee? Jacques rogge is a Belgian, belonging to the "French population".

The day after the opening ceremony of the Olympic Games, Diouf, Secretary-General of la Francophonie and former President of Senegal, organized a "French family gathering" in Beijing. Presidents of Gabon, Burundi and Madagascar attended the meeting, as did IOC President jacques rogge and former French Prime Minister raffarin. At this event, Rogge said with a sigh of relief, "I especially noticed that at the opening ceremony of the Olympic Games a day ago, French was first played, followed by English and Chinese. Although China is not a French-speaking country, the opening ceremony of the Beijing Olympic Games on the evening of the 8 th made French occupy a prominent position, both orally and in writing. "

Since 1984 Los Angeles Olympic Games, the status of French in the Olympic Games has declined. In order to maintain the status of French, in 2007, raffarin, the supervisor of the French International Olympic Promotion Organization and former French Prime Minister, signed the Agreement on Promoting the Use of French in the Olympic Games with BOCOG President Liu Qi, in order to implement the provisions of Article 24 of the Olympic Charter. After attending the opening ceremony of the Olympic Games, raffarin also felt very gratified, saying that "Beijing has fulfilled its commitment to French"-China has made many commitments to the world for hosting the Olympic Games, and using French is one of them.

Finally, I would like to add that China can realize its century-old dream of hosting a world sports event in Beijing, which is related to French.

A little boy was born in Wuxi, Jiangsu Province. 1938 He moved to the French Concession with his family, attended a Sino-French school, mastered French, and became a rare French talent in new China after liberation.

1956 In September, during the Eighth National Congress of China * * * Production Party, Chairman Mao had a cordial conversation with the young French translator beside him. Chairman Mao said, "Comrade, what's your name?" The translator replied, "Chairman of the report, my name is He Liang Zhen." Chairman Mao asked him how to write his name, and Liang Zhen replied, "Cheer up, a pillar of strength." Chairman Mao said happily, "Oh, cheer up, good!" "

It was this Mr. He who became a member of the Executive Committee representing China after he resumed his seat in China, and later served as the vice chairman of the International Olympic Committee. He won many friends in the Olympic Committee with his skillful French, and made great contributions to China's bid for the 2008 Olympic Games.