FIRST for English Language Learners
 

So, I have the distinct privilege of working with a school that has a robust international student program. Our international students come mostly from China and Korea, although we have a few from other parts of the world.

We are discovering that these international students (particularly the ones for whom this is their first year in the States) are struggling to keep up with the terminology we are using. Now, part of this is our own team's internal slang, so we are trying to be conscious of explaining when we use it. However, a lot of the confusion stems around the brand names and FRC terms that we throw around on a regular basis.

I'm wondering if anyone has put together some sort of an FRC terminology guide that could help to get these students up to speed. Alternatively, if we need to produce a document like this internally, what do you think we should include in it?

Re: FIRST for English Language Learners
 

Check with FIRST directly. I know in Quebec they are allowed to translate the documents into French, and with the growth in China, these documents may be translated into Mandarin or another Chinese dialect as well.

Re: FIRST for English Language Learners
 

There's a CD whitepaper named "Chinese to English Dictionary with pictures and descriptions" that might help.

Re: FIRST for English Language Learners
 

Off topic question:

Is this the same school as the "Japanese" school in Cincinnati? I ask because I work for a Japanese-owned company (Arvin Sango, Inc.) and a lot of our Japanese advisers send their children to such a school.

Re: FIRST for English Language Learners
 

Last season there was a manual that was translated into Chinese. Since the translation was not published by FIRST, it cannot be used as a defence in official rulings as translations can have differences. While in China, the most frequent questions I got were about basic questions (ones that are spelt out clearly in the manual, and less frequently complex questions (ones that usually warrant a Q&A) not many in the middle.

Some major things I think are important is to clearly understand the differences between "supported by" or "touching". These differences last season can mean the difference between getting a challenge. Something I did was take all the ways of scoring and showing what makes that action count as scored. Another thing I see is not knowing how fouls and cards are assessed. I see this happen a lot as typically they don't mean harm, they just don't know.

Re: FIRST for English Language Learners
 

No, we are not the same school. Actually, I didn't know that this school existed. Sounds like a school that needs an FRC program :D I'll have to look them up.

This is an awesome place to start and exactly what I was looking for! Hopefully we can take this jumping off point and add some more translations.