Why do MMA reporters use uncommon words when asking questions to foreign fighters?

Um, I actually know what skirmish means, and unless Rustam punched Ali then ran away, I seriously doubt the fight was a skirmish.
 
As a speaker of a foreign language and learner of a few others, I can attest from experience that adjusting vocabulary to suit the language level of the hearer is apparently an innate talent. I am pretty good at adjusting my level of English to the hearer's comprehension level, and I know speakers of the foreign language I use who can readily adjust their vocabulary to my level of understanding. But the vast majority of people seem unable to do this: either they do not pick up on cues the hearer conveys that he is not comprehending something, or they are just unable to make on-the-fly adjustments to their vocabulary.

Journalists are no exception. I have yet to see a post-fight interview, for example, where the interviewer is speaking to a non-native speaker and he refrains from using unusual expressions or colloquialisms--thereby confusing the interviewee. I've seen Rogan do it as well as Anik. As great an interviewer as Larry Merchant was, I've seen him do it, too.
 
He said the same to JDS. He asked him if the recent comments made by overeem ruffled his feathers.
 
Tito should do all of the interviews. He doesnt even have to ask questions. He will just go ahead and tell them how they feel.
 
Fiestar said:
Ariel does that all the time. Now i was just watching an interview with Rustam Khabilov and a reporter asked him 'is it true that you had a violent skirmish with Bagautinov?' Rustam didn't understand that word and had to ask his translator, had the reporter used the word 'fight' instead of skirmish, Rustam would've understood. Are MMA reporters just not that bright? Isn't it common sense to use simple words when speaking to non-english speakers?
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Most monolingual people don't get the concept of what would or would not be easy to translate because they've never studied a second language. Is normal.
 
ive noticed that too

or when interviewing someone with a translator, they give them the longest most convoluted questions

"You had a rough time coming into this fight and lots of people saw you as the underdog. You've been training very very hard for this and you came out here to prove people wrong. I know there was a lot of trash talk going into this fight, but when you hit him with this left hook, did you think he was hurt or what was going through your mind?"

so the translator and fighter have to have like a full meeting to get an answer out
 
anomynous said:
As a speaker of a foreign language and learner of a few others, I can attest from experience that adjusting vocabulary to suit the language level of the hearer is apparently an innate talent. I am pretty good at adjusting my level of English to the hearer's comprehension level, and I know speakers of the foreign language I use who can readily adjust their vocabulary to my level of understanding. But the vast majority of people seem unable to do this: either they do not pick up on cues the hearer conveys that he is not comprehending something, or they are just unable to make on-the-fly adjustments to their vocabulary.

Journalists are no exception. I have yet to see a post-fight interview, for example, where the interviewer is speaking to a non-native speaker and he refrains from using unusual expressions or colloquialisms--thereby confusing the interviewee. I've seen Rogan do it as well as Anik. As great an interviewer as Larry Merchant was, I've seen him do it, too.
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i never noticed myself doing this until someone called me on it. i spoke english and broken spanish when i moved to mexico for a few months, and i learned how to simplify thoughts when communication was a barrier. now whenever someone speaks to me in broken english, i end up speaking broken english back to them, trying to mirror the phrasing and exact verbage they use so they can understand me better

it sounds crazy but i find the quality of communication often ends up better since you have to think and get to the core of what youre saying, rather than losing meaning in connotations
 
It's not as easy as you think. I teach English in Korea, and I'm used to 'dumbing down' my language to the level of the people I speak to by now. But friends that don't teach foreigners, or speak a second language, frequently talk to people with low English levels the same way they would to their friends, leading to a lot of blank looks and double translations (I would have to translate what they said into simpler terms).

It'd be nice if he could work that out as a journalist, but I think unless you've been put into a situation where people are actually incapable of understanding you (i.e no translator) you're not going to develop the awareness and cues of how to speak on someone's level. It's an acquired ability.
 
lowsingle said:
i never noticed myself doing this until someone called me on it. i spoke english and broken spanish when i moved to mexico for a few months, and i learned how to simplify thoughts when communication was a barrier. now whenever someone speaks to me in broken english, i end up speaking broken english back to them, trying to mirror the phrasing and exact verbage they use so they can understand me better

it sounds crazy but i find the quality of communication often ends up better since you have to think and get to the core of what youre saying, rather than losing meaning in connotations
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Exactly this, and it's really important to communicate- but using broken English in a professional interview... really isn't a good idea.
 
Space said:
Because MMA reporters are morons.

Look, I went to school for journalism. Sports journalists are always the biggest bozos in the major. And MMA journalists are an even lower form of bozo.

It doesn't have to be that way, but that's the situation we're in right now.
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This explains A LOT!
 
Space said:
Because MMA reporters are morons.

Look, I went to school for journalism. Sports journalists are always the biggest bozos in the major. And MMA journalists are an even lower form of bozo.

It doesn't have to be that way, but that's the situation we're in right now.
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I am sure you are the exception, but journalists are an unimpressive lot in general.
 
Space said:
Because MMA reporters are morons.

Look, I went to school for journalism. Sports journalists are always the biggest bozos in the major. And MMA journalists are an even lower form of bozo.

It doesn't have to be that way, but that's the situation we're in right now.
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/thread. It's hack central, and a great time to get into it if you have any talent.
 
Personally, I think it's a good thing because we live in a society with too many dumb folks. Expanding knowledge (your word bank) is a great thing.
 
I love Ariel, but he's horrible about this.

Ariel: "So, do you find it's uncommon to have strikers shift gears & put all their eggs into one basket, so to speak?"

Random Russian fighter: "..."
 
Ariel always uses obscure words. I think it's stupid, not just with foreigners, but with native speakers as well. If there's a more common word why not use it so that everyone understands?
 
I don't mind big words being used correctly in context. I do finds it agonizing when posers like Gareth A. Davies and Helwani prefer to use 50 pointless words to ask a simple 10-word question.
 
lilianjie said:
He said the same to JDS. He asked him if the recent comments made by overeem ruffled his feathers.
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I remember that. The weird thing is that Ariel grew up in a french-speaking city/province and his french is terrible, you'd think he'd be familiar with the concept of language barrier and know how to deal with it.
 
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