Sharks broadcasting game in Hindi
- Thread starter LadyStanley
- Start date
I’d be offended as a Hindi if they thought this would get me to watch their game
Groo
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archangel2
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- May 19, 2019
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Yukon Joe
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Sportsnet does Hockey Night in Canada: Punjabi Edition every Saturday night, and has done so for years now. It gets broadcast on a secondary channel (OMNI) but is still widely available. One of the former announcers, Harnarayan Singh, who actually helped start the Punjabi Edition, has now switched over to calling games in English on a regular basis.
Google suggests Punjabi Edition has been done since 2009.
It's curious that Punjabi is the language they've gone with, as both Mandarin and Hindi are more widely spoken, and Punjabi is neck-and-neck with Spanish for being 5th most popular (most Hindi speakers in Canada at least probably know Punjabi however).
There have been one-off games done in all kinds of languages.
Presumably more people identify with Punjabi on a personal level whereas Hindi is more of a lingua franca much like English.
Yukon Joe
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That makes sense.
The biggest question then is why is there no HNIC: Mandarin edition? Is it as simple as saying that sports are more popular in India than they are in China?
Probably Cantonese would work better in that case too, besides CCTV5 already broadcasts games in Putonghua (Mandarin).
Yukon Joe
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While historically most Chinese-Canadians came from Hong Kong and other Cantonese-speaking areas I believe that is no longer the case and mandarin is now more widely spoken (although a lot of the information I've seen just say "Chinese").
Although based on your avatar maybe you have more knowledge than I do on the topic.
PCSPounder
Stadium Groupie
The Asian Indian population is the fastest growing immigrant population in the Bay Area. That’s also showing up in the tech sectors in the Seattle and Portland areas. I’ve also noticed an interesting increase in the population among, of all things, truckers… not to mention a small Indian-owned transportation system including a small chain of truck stops and another chain offering an offshoot that caters to said truckers.
As for broadcasting in Hindi… worth a shot.
Gaylord Q Tinkledink
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- Apr 29, 2018
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I believe at the time they started it Punjabi was 3rd in Canada and that's why they chose it.
That was a while ago, so I might be Roger Clemens it and misremembering, but that was what I remember as to why they chose it.
At the time I was wondering why they didn't try Mandarin, especially if they were to do Vancouver games with a high population and the games being on at 7 out west might get more people interested..
JianYang
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- Sep 29, 2017
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Yeah the Indians in Vancouver largely seem to have Punjabi heritage.
Yes, Putonghua literally means common speech, so the lingua franca that is nowadays taught in schools all across the PRC and increasingly promoted over other languages in most contexts. But not that many people speak it as their native tongue, and because it's the official state language in which most PRC-based media operates anyway, there's not the same kind of emotional attachment to it as many Cantonese speakers have to their language (also lingua franca by nature, but regional and without the official status). Overseas the diaspora is mostly from the southern coastal provinces of Guangdong (Canton), Fujian, as well as Zhejiang, and not from the areas where Mandarin varieties have traditionally been prevalent. Sometimes it also occurs that newcomers speaking Mandarin are not viewed entirely positively by everyone among the established overseas communities.
Don’t know where you got that Hindi is more widely spoken in Canada than Punjabi. A quick google search would tell you Mandarin and then Punjabi are the most widely spoken languages after English and French. Hindi is probably more spoken in the Bay Area as there is less Punjabi immigrants in that area compared to immigrants of other regions of India.
As for why Hockey Night in Canada didn’t opt for a Mandarin version is beyond me. I will say this from personal experience. I meet more South Asian kids that actually play or just enjoy watching hockey than East Asians. It could also be due to the increasing number of south Asian immigrants in the country. Another thing about Punjabi culture is that it’s a very prideful and loud culture, which meshes well with the Canadian hockey atmosphere. It seems that East Asian culture is more sophisticated in a sense. These are just hypotheticals though from personal experience.
JianYang
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- Sep 29, 2017
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I don't think you are too far off. Alot of Punjabi that come over to Canada have a farming background. Agriculture is a big part of the punjab.
And yes, there is alot of pride, and alot of boldness in the culture. I speak as a person who was born in that area of the world who lives in Canada in one the most heavily populated regions of punjabis.
Yukon Joe
Registered User
I mean it's only an anecdote, but I have two kids in hockey, so from their two teams this year there are 3 kids of south asian heritage, and 4 kids of east asian heritage. (to be clear I haven't asked the parents detailed questions about their background, just making some logical assumptions based on their names and appearance)
I do have to say though - my youngest didn't like hockey and is doing martial arts now. Again, just based on appearances, the background of the kids is totally different than hockey (which is still pretty darn white, although making improvements).
