A Two Way Conversation

Tomorrow we will be watching South Africa play England in the final of the Rugby World Cup.

The commentators from England will be yelling excitedly at times. The commentators from South Africa will be speaking in a number of languages.

Let us suppose that there is an argument about a try. The English speaking commentator will say most authoritatively:

A player who is on side scores a try when he carries the ball into his opponents’ ingoal or:
The ball is in his opponents’ ingoal and he first grounds it there.

In Afrikaans it is:

`n Speler wat speelkant is, teken `n drie aan waneer:

He die bal tot in sy teenstanders se doelgebied dra, of die bal in sy teenstanders de doelgebied is, en he eerste dir bal daar druk.

We really are lucky that the eleven plus examination is all in English. Imagine if we had to take into account the nationalities of all the children sitting the examination. That would give a lot of work to translators!

As it is referees referee in English.

Good luck to both teams tomorrow.