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Thread: "Football is to rugby what the English language is to the French language". Discuss.

  1. #11
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    Quote Originally Posted by Creoda View Post
    Australia/NZ/South Africa speak English and play/watch Rugby more than Football, and Americans/Canadians play a modified form of Rugby.

    Also Football is a more fluid game than Rugby, and French is (seemingly) more fluidic than English.

    Football and Rugby are more like English and German, both being of the same family/origins, German/Rugby more resembling those origins, and German/Rugby being less fluid, more jarring.
    I thought football already existed when William Webb picked up a ball and ran with it at Rugby School?

  2. #12
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    Quote Originally Posted by Tooting Carmen View Post
    Although in terms of the number of first-language speakers it has, there are still infinitely fewer people who learn/speak Spanish as a second language than English.
    Yes but I was referring to the fact that Spanish is taking precedence over French as a global language, not English.
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    Quote Originally Posted by Brás Garcia de Mascarenhas View Post
    Yes but I was referring to the fact that Spanish is taking precedence over French as a global language, not English.
    Oh OK. Still, I don't think Spanish genuinely competes with English nowadays in the same way French arguably did up until WWI.

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    Quote Originally Posted by Tooting Carmen View Post
    I thought football already existed when William Webb picked up a ball and ran with it at Rugby School?
    You mean Association Football? No. It was codified in 1863. Early forms of town/medieval football that the modern codes are descended from were more like Rugby, with handling.

    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Royal_Shrovetide_Football
    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Medieval_football

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    Quote Originally Posted by Tooting Carmen View Post
    Football is the truly universal sport. Wherever in the world you go, someone will either play it or follow it. In contrast, rugby is prominent in just over a dozen or so countries but not much beyond them. Hence the analogy with the English and French languages respectively.
    This is a very valid comparison. Hundred years ago, rugby was mainly popular in the 3 Home nations (England, Wales, Scotland) + Ireland and France, and the down under countries (Australia, NZ, South Africa). The scene hasn't changed significantly since then. There is still a huge gap with the second league (Romania, Japan, Georgia, Italy, Tonga, and some other minor players). Only Argentina has managed to acquire an in-between status of their own, they are able to scare major national teams at any time.

    Same for the French language. Wherever it's firmly rooted it is can't be displaced. But it's virtually unable to gain new ground.

    Another parallel: the rules of football (soccer) can be summarized on a single sheet of paper. In Rugby Union the book of rules (all of them being carefully counter-intuitive) takes a whole library. Compare with an English and a French grammar book...

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    Football is to Rugby what English language is to Russian language sounds even better

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    Quote Originally Posted by Ranger0075 View Post
    Football is to Rugby what English language is to Russian language sounds even better
    No, because Russian is only spoken in Russia itself and some directly neighbouring countries, whereas French is scattered all over the world.

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    Quote Originally Posted by Tooting Carmen View Post
    Having said that, I am sure I read that there was a time in Bulgaria and several other Balkan countries when French was as or more studied than English.
    Happened in Spain too. Until 80s it was the French the language Spaniards studied in the school. Then English replaced it.

    Quote Originally Posted by Tooting Carmen View Post
    Although in terms of the number of first-language speakers it has, there are still infinitely fewer people who learn/speak Spanish as a second language than English. One main problem is that nowhere in the Spanish-speaking world - not even Spain or Mexico themselves - comes close to being a genuine global power.
    You dont need to be a genuine global power at all, look Arabic.

    Quote Originally Posted by Tooting Carmen View Post
    Oh OK. Still, I don't think Spanish genuinely competes with English nowadays in the same way French arguably did up until WWI.
    How not, if Spanish is even more spoken (I could not care less about being the most studied wherever, wtf)?

  9. #19
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    Quote Originally Posted by Tooting Carmen View Post
    Having said that, I am sure I read that there was a time in Bulgaria and several other Balkan countries when French was as or more studied than English.
    in Romania that was the case until very late, until some 15-20 years ago schools had French as default foreign language, probably also because of the large amount of French teachers inherited from communism. I've studied French in school from 2nd to 12th grade, while English only from 6th or 7th to 12th. I remember parents incrersingly asking schools to switch to English some 20 years ago, as French was already a dead language for trade, jobs, whatever.

    Romanian rugby is strongly linked to France, 99% of the players that played abroad played in France.

    I am a big fan of rugby, my favourite sport as a kid, though I love football as well, and played it all my childhood/teen years.

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