How Have Sporting Ideologies Been Translated Across Cultures? ¿Cómo Se Han Traducio Las Ideologías Deportivas En Las Distintas Culturas?

REVISTA MUNDO INVESTIGACIÓN (2016), Núm.1, Vol 1. ISSN: 2530-0466

www.mundoinvestigacion.es

How have sporting ideologies been translated across cultures? ¿Cómo se han traducio las ideologías deportivas en las distintas culturas?

Helena Martín Gourguechon, [email protected]

ABSTRACT

This paper analyses the way sport ideologies spread all over the world through translation. The study will mainly focus on Spanish football and the so-called “tiki taka” tactic.

Key Words : sport, sport ideologies, translation, tiki taka

RESUMEN

Este artículo analiza cómo las ideologías deportivas recorren el mundo de la mano de la traducción. El estudio se centra principalmente en el fútbol español y en la táctica denominada “tiki taka”.

Palabras clave: deporte, ideologías deportivas, traducción, tiki taka

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Introduction Methods

The connection between sport The idea for writing this paper came up ideologies and translation doesn’t come with a personal working experience in up very easily. In fact, a lot of sport fans the UK during an international wouldn’t think that there is a link basketball summer camp in 2012. Two between languages and sports. years later, I decided to present it to the Alongside this paper, I will explain how Sports and Translation Conference in languages can affect sport ideologies Bristol. and the way these ideologies spread all over the world through translation. However, in order to write the current paper, I have had to search for Firstly, a definition on sport ideologies information on specialised sociology is needed. According to the Cambridge websites and on specialised sport dictionary, an ideology is “a set of newspapers. beliefs or principles, especially one on which a political system, party, or Thanks to the above mentioned organization is based” (2016). conference, I could add some of the Therefore, a sport ideology refers to the comments the rest of participants made way sports affect the beliefs of a group on my presentation and update all the of people, who can be part of an information and ideas. organization, a club, a social group or even a society. Results In the field of sports, there are a lot of different ideologies that continuously In 2008, when the economic problems interact with other dimensions. There and crisis started, some features of sport are ideologies based on values, like started to be more relevant for fans than solidarity; ideologies based on social others. When there are difficult times, issues, like racism or sexism; and sports are a very useful (and more or ideologies based on the competition less free) distraction for people. Sport itself, like individualism or elitism. fans invest their free time in watching games and practising sport. During that All these ideologies are generated time, they can socialise with other outside the field of sport but interact people: at the bar, in the park, in the and affect it as sport is part of the field, pitch or court, etc. cultural life of a society. Nevertheless, there are other ideologies which are That’s how common interests become born within the field of sports and are common objectives. These objectives spread through society. might be supporting a team, winning a competition, not losing against the In this paper, I will focus on those eternal rival, etc. The explanation is ideologies and how their success in the easily given by Santiago Flores field of sports has an impact on society. Álvarez-Ossorio (2005). It’s all about I will also focus on how those identities: ideologies become a powerful reference of a country all over the world through a) local identity: a team which translation. represents a city.

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b) regional identity: a team of the Spanish national flag celebrating which represents a region, the victory. They felt identified with the because it’s the only one from effort the national team had made. that region, for example. That phenomenon spread across the c) national identity: a team country: even people who were not very which represents a state or a fond of football were celebrating. And country. It can represent a the ambition didn’t stop there: two years recognised state but it can also later, the national football team was be a way of demanding the going to play the World Cup. People recognition of a state by didn’t miss any games and gathered nationalisms. together to watch them. The final against the Netherlands was watched by d) international identity: when around 14 million people in Spain fans from all over the world (Marca.com, 2010). When the game support a team. finished, Spain was for the first time the World Cup Champion. Again, e) continental identity: a team everybody was celebrating and went out represents a whole continent and the next day to receive the national fans identify themselves with football team as heroes. In the midst of that team. the crisis, people in Spain had one reason to smile and forget about their That’s what has happened in Spain with problems. different sports, although I will focus in football, the most popular and practised Apart from the point of view of team sport in Spain, according to the sociology, the analysis of the victory by statistics from the Spanish Culture and the sport field has to be considered. The Sport Ministry (Estadística 2015, 2015). basic strategy used by the Spanish national team was the so-called “tiki For more than 50 years, the national taka”. Spanish flag was not normally used as a symbol of pride and identity. According Tiki taka (in Spanish, tiquitaca) is a to an analysis made by Giles Tremlett football style based on short and (2010), “indeed, Spain's red and gold continuous passes that allows teams to flag still reminds some people of the keep possession of the ball and create civil war of the 1930s, more spaces and goal opportunities. This particularly, of the 36-year dictatorship strategy has been very effective for of Francisco Franco”. Spanish football in the last decade with a wide range of different titles. It was However, when the Spanish national originated at FC Barcelona and then football team won the UEFA Euro in adapted and used by the Spanish 2008, more and more people started to national team, among other teams. feel proud of their country and their national team, as Iker Casilllas, captain The term is not Spanish or English, but of the national football team, stated in an onomatopoeia. The book an interview to El Mundo newspaper “Linguistics of Football” explains that (Suárez, 2009). Suddenly, everybody “[tiki taka] was created by the was out in the street wearing the colours commentator of the channel La Sexta,

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Andrés Montes, during the World Cup Conclusion 2006” (Lavric, E., 2008). The main question is: why do media There are some theories about why he keep the original term to talk about used that word. On one hand, it’s a sport strategies from other countries? It word that expresses very well the speed is definitely a way of keeping in touch of this particular way of playing. On the with the original sporting culture where other hand, it could be related to the the term originated. For instance, the word “tictac”, the sound made by clocks term "tiki taka" could have been in Spanish, which would be very replaced by an explanation or, for accurate, as players pass very quickly example, in English, it could have been and accurately in several directions. It “tick tock”. Another option could have could be also related to the word chosen the name of the coach who “tocar", which generally means “to introduced the style in Spanish football, touch” but in the football field it also like "Cruyff's style", for instance. But, if means “to pass the ball”. we hear tiki taka, we are going to think of Spanish football, the same that when Nevertheless, Tiki taka emerged as a we hear catenaccio or jogo bonito, we way of playing football, but it soon think of Italian or Brazilian football. became an ideology. It established a benchmark for Spanish football after FC Therefore, those terms don’t just refer Barcelona’s supremacy in the to a tactic. They are ideologies, a way of Champions League and in the Spanish playing football, a way of living it. national league, and after Spain’s Currently, in Spain, that is the way victory in the Euros. Roberto Martínez people want Spainsh teams to be. There (2010) even stated that “the patient, are more tactics, of course, but every attractive approach [tiki taka] has time people see players giving passes become a hallmark of Spanish sides at quickly and accurately, people think of club and international level this decade it as “tiki taka” and enjoy it. and will last, I believe, for far longer.” "Tiki taka" has been expanded As this ideology made Spanish football internationally as an ideology of successful, the international media accuracy and enjoyment. It is used in started to analyse the tactic and to other sports, like hockey research about its origins. That’s how (Hockeyglobal.net, 2016), basketball they came across the term “tiki taka” (Cortázar, 2013), rugby (Mundo and adopted it into their different Deportivo, 2014) or futsal (As.com, languages. It can be found in media 2016), but more importantly, it is used from France (Bregevin, 2014), the UK in other contexts, like in television (Brooks, 2016), Italy (Vitalli, 2015), (Sánchez, 2014). among others. To sum up, sports are very important Concerning the translation field, the nowadays. Their impact is reflected not term has not been translated but used as only in the sporting context, but also in a borrowing. This translation strategy is the economic, political and cultural commonly used by sport media, not ones. That's why the international only with tactics but also with the team society wants to know more about a names, like “La Roja” (Bregevin, 2014). victorious team. But, if the rest of the

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