Rob Hatch

[Okeydokey]

I am a fairly new follower of cycling on Eurosport. Why is it that Rob Hatch has to pronounce names of riders and places in accents that are not understandable to English speaking viewers? Watching the last stage of the Tour de Romandie, I gave up trying to understand the town of the finish. In the end I had to go to Google to find out where it was and it was nothing like the way he pronounced it! I have seen him defending these garbled pronunciations as 'respect', how about some respect for paying viewers! When he is pronouncing names and teams in a peleton you might as well not bother listening it is just garbled gobbledegook! The viewers in UK want to know what is going on and are poorly served by this commentator who seems more interested in pushing his linguistic qualifications than informing viewers what is going on, THAT is his job. BTW Ron Bahrain has never been pronounced Baaahhhrain!

 

[RedheadDane]

To be fair, these days he aren't just commentating for people in the UK, what with races being available through GCN+ and the Eurosport Player.
Did you look up the pronunciation of Fribourg on YouTube?

 

[Okeydokey]

To English people it is free. Borg or Fry. Borg. He pronounced it with what sounded like a T. While it might be watched by other than English, that is not the language he is commentating in and therefore he should be able to make the names understandable to his main audience. As I said in my post, when he gives names of riders and teams in a peleton he is just speaking gobbledegook to English speakers. As someone who speakstwo dialects of Chinese, I would never dream of pronouncing names in their correct way to an English speaking friend, that is considered downright rude, as they wouldn't know who or where I was talking about!!

 

[red_flanders]

I appreciate his efforts to pronounce names correctly. Maybe take the opportunity to learn something instead of demanding the world be sanitized to your POV.

 

[AlfaLum]

If he pronounces the names correctly you should be happy he does it like this. It increases the chance that you pronounce the names correctly should you ever visit the country. And because of that you might come across less ignorant to local people.

 

[Okeydokey]

I appreciate his efforts to pronounce names correctly. Maybe take the opportunity to learn something instead of demanding the world be sanitized to your POV.

How can you learn anything if it is all gobbledegook? I learn more from the subtitles. As ai said the name of the town the race finished in was not understandable, I had to look up on Google the name of the rown it ended in. So I learnt nothing from him, only from Google!

 

[Okeydokey]

How is it, the whole of the winter sports on Eurosport, the commentators managed to pronounce all of the European names without having to resort to OTT pronunciations?? Only in cycling do we have to put up with indecipherable Italian, French and Spanish names of riders and teams! His description of the city of Milan on the Giro was so 'passionate' I thought he was going to have an orgasm on air. Calm down Rob it is only a city!

 

[tobydawq]

I have rarely been less in agreement with an opinion than here.

And if you have managed to learn Chinese, how on Earth can your lingual capabilities be so bad that you cannot discern any name that he pronounces? He even speaks very clearly and to me this post is just the archetypal native English speaker who thinks all the world should revolve around their country.

 

[Kaptain Kool]

Things I find annoying about Rob Hatch... "Dear oh Dear oh Dear!" on every little minor mishap. "Form of his life" and "ride of the century" for every moderately good performance.

Things I don't find annoying. His pronunciation of formal names. I'm a native English speaker and can't think of a single time I couldn't understand what he said. OTOH there have been times I haven't immediately understood other commentators who develop their own pronunciations. For example, if somebody pronounced a French Martin like an English Martin, it would definitely take me a few seconds to figure out who they are talking about.

 

[BlueRoads]

I don't know how he pronounces names.
In general I think people should try to pronounce names like they sound in the original language. Often it won't sound perfect, but it's still the name. If you pronounce it like it's a word from your language it's just not the name anymore.
If of course, you usually, in an attempt to pronounce the names correctly, you mess them up completely and they aren't really recognizable to anyone at all anymore, you should better leave it be. I wouldn't dare to try and pronounce Chinese names Chinese for instance without asking for help from a native speaker before that...

If someone is called "Andrew" for instance I will call him Andrew, yes, I think it would be impolite to call him "Undrreff" which would be the German way to call him. I wouldn't call Macron "Mucronn" or Trump "Trroump" or Biden "Beeden" or Birmingham "Beerminghum" like I would do it in German. Sturgeon would be "Stourghéonn", which looks more Gaelic, okay...
Actually I think in most countries you try to pronounce names close to the original. It's mostly the Anglo-Saxon countries where this is not as common.

 

[tobydawq]

I don't know how he pronounces names.
In general I think people should try to pronounce names like they sound in the original language. Often it won't sound perfect, but it's still the name. If you pronounce it like it's a word from your language it's just not the name anymore.
If of course, you usually, in an attempt to pronounce the names correctly, you mess them up completely and they aren't really recognizable to anyone at all anymore, you should better leave it be. I wouldn't dare to try and pronounce Chinese names Chinese for instance without asking for help from a native speaker before that...

If someone is called "Andrew" for instance I will call him Andrew, yes, I think it would be impolite to call him "Undrreff" which would be the German way to call him. I wouldn't call Macron "Mucronn" or Trump "Trroump" or Biden "Beeden" or Birmingham "Beerminghum" like I would do it in German. Sturgeon would be "Stourghéonn", which looks more Gaelic, okay...
Actually I think in most countries you try to pronounce names close to the original. It's mostly the Anglo-Saxon countries where this is not as common.

He pronounces every foreign name in the original language and he manages to do them all correctly. Apart from Sagan, that is.

I don't think they pronounce names correctly in French either. There, they force the names to fit into the rhythm of the French language.

 

[happytramp]

I've never had a problem understanding him I have to say.... Honestly Never even noticed it.

 

[Netserk]

I have rarely been less in agreement with an opinion than here.

And if you have managed to learn Chinese, how on Earth can your lingual capabilities be so bad that you cannot discern any name that he pronounces? He even speaks very clearly and to me this post is just the archetypal native English speaker who thinks all the world should revolve around their country.

Empire relations is a one-way street.

 

[RedheadDane]

Only in cycling do we have to put up with indecipherable Italian, French and Spanish names of riders and teams!

It's not indecipherable if it's pronounced in the language of the actual riders and teams.

And I'd say he pronounced 'Fribourg' pretty much like I'd have expected:

For example, if somebody pronounced a French Martin like an English Martin, it would definitely take me a few seconds to figure out who they are talking about.

THIS! With the over-abundance of Martins in the peloton, I think it's rather nice that one of them at least is being pronounced slightly differently.

 

[BlueRoads]

How is it, the whole of the winter sports on Eurosport, the commentators managed to pronounce all of the European names without having to resort to OTT pronunciations??

Lol, I overlooked this sentence.

 

[BlueRoads]

And I'd say he pronounced 'Fribourg' pretty much like I'd have expected:

I'd say it's not perfect, but very good and recognizable.

 

[Ivan_Basso_77]

‘The biggest problem in our business is ego’: Rob Hatch Q&A

Cyclist: You seem to be recovering well after coming off your bike a few weeks ago in what your co-commentator

www.cyclist.co.uk

Here is a pretty nice interview with Rob. I gotta tell you that other commentators like Liggett and Sherwen were quite poor with Italian names like Nibali, Piepoli, etc. They have called Rebellin - David, Sella - Emanuel, Piepoli - Pipoli, Pozzovivo - Posovivo, Savoldelli - Salvodelli, Bruseghin - Brusejin for godness sake. Gotta love the guy's effort to pronounce the names correctly. Sure, Auro Bulbarelli and Carlos de Andres had problems with foreign names, too, but Liggett and Sherwen were quite annoying with their pronounciations.

 

[Libertine Seguros]

Lol, I overlooked this sentence.

Yea, that sentence is downright hilarious, after all the years of "Dorothy Wierer" (replete with dental fricative), "Jarkko Meaty-Eye" (Määttä), "Michael Hey Beck" (Michael Hayböck), "Ida Ings mah daughter" (Ida Ingemarsdotter) and literally Goldstrom going with "Eva, and apologies to Eva but I'm not going to try her last name" for Eva Puskarčíková.

 

[BlueRoads]

Slightly off-topic I've made a short list of weird pronounciations on German Eurosport:
Richard Carapatch (Voigt) (The only one which really bugs me because it makes Richie sound like a clown, but Voigt doesn't mean bad, he's just bad at this. Loved how he was so enthusiastic about Brändle's and Eisel's English yesterday "speaking without accent", when Brändle has such a heavy accent...)
Hugh Carty (One of the guys can't pronounce a th properly, but he does it so naturally, you hardly realize...)
Sepp Küss (why??? you could pronounce it German or English, but why French??)
Julian Alaphilippe (usually totally messed up, Julian either German or English and the emphasis on the first a, but at least it's always recognizable)

I don't think any of them has yet figured out how to pronounce Fuglsang. Or Vingegaard. Or any Danish name. Neither have I.
There seem to be more questions about the pronounciation of Jai than about Tao.

It's totally okay, though, it's just funny sometimes.
By the way I sometimes have serious problems to roll the r in Spanish, I decided not to bother too much.

 

[RedheadDane]

Yea, that sentence is downright hilarious, after all the years of "Dorothy Wierer" (replete with dental fricative), "Jarkko Meaty-Eye" (Määttä), "Michael Hey Beck" (Michael Hayböck), "Ida Ings mah daughter" (Ida Ingemarsdotter) and literally Goldstrom going with "Eva, and apologies to Eva but I'm not going to try her last name" for Eva Puskarčíková.

I'm sure OP would think those names are being pronounced correctly, because they're being pronounced in an English-sounding way...

I don't think any of them has yet figured out how to pronounce Fuglsang. Or Vingegaard. Or any Danish name. Neither have I.

Not even 'Cort'?

 

[BlueRoads]

Not even 'Cort'?

I suppose I can manage Cort.

 

[Netserk]

Does anyone have a clip of Hatch pronouncing Fuglsang and Vingegaard?

 

[Samu Cuenca]

I certainly expect a commentator to make an effort to pronounce names and places correctly, but I'm also prepared to overlook mistakes when it comes to the names of lesser known riders. But in those cases I think they should try to learn it for the next race he or she competes in.

Some cities and place names might actually have an offical English name, but I don't think Fribourg has that, so I certainly wouldn't pronounce it in any other language than French, although it would be alright to do it in German and in a regional dialect as well.

I understand why some people might think that Hatch overpronounce names and find him a bit pretentious, but considering that he is a polyglot it would definitely be ignorant of him not to do it the right way. He obviously also makes mistakes sometimes, but when it comes to Sagan, tobydawq's reaction alone makes it a perfectly fine choice in my book

I recognise that the letters æøåäö and others are not as easy to pronounce for a native English speaker as they are for a Scandinavian/Nordic citizen like myself, but I expect a commenatator of winter sports to take his/her time to the get familiar with the letters and names. I have never understood why the Bø brothers for instance have to be pronounced closer to bow and that their names can't even be spelled the correct way on the screen (Boe is just stupid).

 

[Ranagazoo]

On the opposite end of the scale you have Sean Kelly talking about the Tour du Romondia and Primoz Rojlick

 

[tobydawq]

Does anyone have a clip of Hatch pronouncing Fuglsang and Vingegaard?

He says Fuglsang correctly (but emphasises the K in Jakob a bit too much) but I haven't heard him say Vingegaard, I don't think.