Language at Championships

[MattK]

Just remember,

The Press/Media has almost unlimited accesses to anywhere at a FIRST Event (minus the gray carpet)... how bad would it be if 20/20 was doing a expose on FIRST, and they happened to catch an act like that on camera... some kid looses a match, and looses their cool... it would be a very bad representation of both FIRST and your Team. Just remember we all represent FIRST and our team while we are at an event that is open to the public!

[Mike Betts]

Originally Posted by Eugenia Gabrielov

I am going to go off topic very quickly to negate this. Many teams left early because the event was running behind and they had to make their flights, their buses...my team had to leave very quickly right after the awards, some teams may have had even less flexibility...

To add to Eugenia's comments, the 12 teams playing on Einstein had a pit to pack up and a robot to crate...

[LPaton716]

I'm so glad this has been brought up...I've been thinking of doing it for a while.

I strongly agree with many of the previous responses. I think that swearing is distasteful (whether done seriously or jokingly, though when hitting your thumb with a hammer it is more understandable.) When I hear people speaking like that I'm less likely to try to meet them. Also, if the language makes you uncomfortable then it will be harder to work together.

I've politely confroted and asked some people about it/to try to not swear as much. Their responses have varied. I think the greatest lesson I've learned is that confronting people privately is much easier and more effective solution than brining up a specific situation in front of a group (although this sometimes works well).

One response that I received, after bringing the topic up, was, "Oh please, it just another word in the English language."...I didn't say anything more because arguing then wouldn't have helped.
But, to that I say, yes it is just another word. But our words have meaning. (Really can you imagine trying to communicate if your words had no meaning And what we say to each other reflects the way we treat each other. And swearing, though disrespect may not be intended, is NOT respectful. And we're trying to foster respect...yes?

Lastly, swearing has no place in the workplace. And while we're competing and building robots together, we are working. Fortunately, most people I meet have been wonderful to meet and I have learned so much from being a part of FIRST. And thank you for starting this thread.

[Bill_Hancoc]

I didnt hear any instances where people were yelling vulgar words but it is inappropriate and very un "FIRST" like. I dont agree though with it intirely, if you are displaying your displeasure with the outcome of a match due to machine or human error or something similer to a teammate or friend who is not offended by that type of language i see no problem with it. i have been known to curse under my breath about losing a match and dropping in ranking but yelling so everybody can hear is uncalled for.

[arabsponsor]

I spent most my time in the pits with my drivers and mechanical students and really didn't hear that much foul language. What did surprise me when I went to the stands was seeing some girls dressed in pants and string bikini tops. They had painted their bodies and one of them had many piercings in very odd places. I understand that these are high school kids but a lot of families were there with young children and were offended. I was even more amazed when one of these students was chosen by her team to accept their award during the closing ceremonies. FIRST is not "Girls Gone Wild" If my feelings offend anyone I am sorry, but I truly believe that this was out of place.

[Tetraman]

Originally Posted by arabsponsor

I spent most my time in the pits with my drivers and mechanical students and really didn't hear that much foul language. What did surprise me when I went to the stands was seeing some girls dressed in pants and string bikini tops. They had painted their bodies and one of them had many piercings in very odd places. I understand that these are high school kids but a lot of families were there with young children and were offended. I was even more amazed when one of these students was chosen by her team to accept their award during the closing ceremonies. FIRST is not "Girls Gone Wild" If my feelings offend anyone I am sorry, but I truly believe that this was out of place.

Here is what I think about this. There is always that group of friends at any high school that paints letters on their chests and go nuts at Football, Hockey or other sport events. You will always find a group of people that will do odd things to get their team noticed. First off, that team you spoke of, It's usually expected they'd do that. You can't avoid them. It's how they choose to show their spirit.

Yes it's a little weird, and yes you feel odd, but you can't stop a team member's expression of spirit. If there was a shirts-must-be-on rule, you will get lots of grumbles.

Not only that, but you get the same thing at a community pool.

[deficite]

Ah, the pink team. I thought they were pretty nifty with all the pink everywhere. Genius too, because I don't think I'll EVER forget them

The person who mentioned the safety glasses, did you see it during finals at Galileo? I'm not going to mention anybody in particular.

well i can deal with profanity (to a level), but something I saw on thursday in galileo just crossed the line. Two members of the same team on our alliance got into a fist-fight during the match over who would throw the ball. I wont mention who, and I never saw that team act anything like this again, but that just went way too far.

[ahecht]

Although I've never been on a team that went as far as to use vulgar language, I have seen first hand how in the heat of competition good judgement can go out the window. One of my most embarassing moments in FIRST was when I was coaching my high school team, and the camera guy decided to zoom right in on me while I was screaming at our robot for chucking a chain. For the rest of the competition, people kept making anger management jokes about me. Of course, the fact that we had a parent yell at a ref at the Chatsworth scrimmage earlier that season didn't help.

Originally Posted by arabsponsor

I was even more amazed when one of these students was chosen by her team to accept their award during the closing ceremonies.

It was funny to see how fast Dean and company tried to get them off the stage after getting their award.

[Priyadarshy]

during the finals matches and the awards ceremony i was stunned by the ungraciousness of the team behind me... they made paper airplanes and had the nerve to throw them at me and my team...when i asked the to stop they acted like they cared but two minutes later i had another airplane in my hair

[StephLee]

Originally Posted by Storcky

I also agree. the behavior of some teams and members wasn't that great either. I would like to post an apology to team 772 for the behavior of our chaperone when you were saving seats for Einstein. it was not gracious or professional. Sorry

I'd like to second this apology. I'm pretty sure Storcky has the team number right; if not, whatever team it was will know we mean them. Myself and another student apologized in person when we were there, but it can't possibly hurt to reiterate. (We eventually gave our seats and the three we were saving to allow a little more room, and we went to sit with our friends from Buzz (thanks for temporarily adopting us guys, we appreciated it ))

I know saving seats isn't legal by the rulebook, but that is no call for anyone to be ungracious or unprofessional towards a team that saved seats, since there is never an excuse for it. I won't post the exact details of our chaparone's squabble with 772, mostly because I'm thoroughly embarrassed. It was very un-FIRST-like, and I hope I never see it again, especially from my own team. When my teammate and I apologized, the mentors from 772 assured us they didn't hold us accountable and were all-around very tolerant and mature about it. I was impressed and even more embarrassed by comparison. I hope they won't hold our team in a bad light because of that.

[Denz]

Don't worry about it guys, it wasn't a problem at all. I was actually embarrassed about how the chaperon on our side handled it, as well as her son. Without going into too much detail, I think that it's great that the teams themselves feel this sort of gracious professionalism toward each other, and it's a shame that the chaperones don't quite understand the mutual respect we share (on our side, it was a parent who just tagged along with the team).

[Ethulin]

Well, I knew I was going to be a dissenting view as soon as I opened the thread, oh well.

The fact is that as a frequent user of language (I use it almost every day in fact) there is a simple rule I go by: know your audience. If you know that your audience is comfortable with a certain level of what some people consider "vulgarity" then it is my stern belief that there is no issue with it. The fact is language is used as a communication tool, if expletives are part of that communication then I really feel that people should lay off the "language police".

As for GP: Degrading another team is in NO WAY IN THE SPIRIT OF FIRST. Whether it is using expletives, swear words, or fine Shakespearean sonnets the fact is that being an jerk is being a jerk, no matter how you look at it.

Now for the media: It is another strong belief of mine that you should always put your best foot forward. Meaning that if I was doing a sponsorship presentation I would speak differently then if I was hanging out with my friends. The same goes for the media. Portray FIRST in the best light possible, if this would require you to tone down your language then you need to due so in the interest of the FIRST community at large.

The most common mistake new stand up comics make is that they don't know their audience. They do not know the comfort level of who they are speaking to, and therefore put off their audience. The same goes for any communication, vocal or otherwise.

Hopefully we all speak here to be understood, not just to run our mouths .

If you wish to respond to the content of this post I greatly appreciate it, I love other views; but remember, use your words for communication, not degradation.

[StephLee]

Originally Posted by Denz

Don't worry about it guys, it wasn't a problem at all. I was actually embarrassed about how the chaperon on our side handled it, as well as her son. Without going into too much detail, I think that it's great that the teams themselves feel this sort of gracious professionalism toward each other, and it's a shame that the chaperones don't quite understand the mutual respect we share (on our side, it was a parent who just tagged along with the team).

That's the exact situation on our team as well (even the fact that her son was contributing to the problem). I'm just glad there are no hard feelings, and I feel a good bit better now.

[379Robocat]

In our pit area where I spent most of my time I hadn't thought that this was a big issue. I don't recall ever hearing any swearing or for a fact no one being mad and yelling. But one thing from being an ex-team member and as a driver are the coaches. I have on many instances been driving and have overheard team mentors on the field swearing and yelling at the drivers and/or refs. I think that's where we need to start is on the adults. If we get the adults to crack down on the swearing and anger management then they can work on their students. I know the drivers would be in more control and more cool and calm if the mentors weren't screaming in their ear. The kids lose site of what FIRST is about when they are competing because the mentors are about winning and robot driving. I have seen in once case where a mentor was screaming soooo much at a kid the the kid started to cry. That's one reason why I would like to see all student/college mentors on the field rather then adults. They can relate to them better as they know them better. Another thing I noticed are the National Chairmans award winners. Myself and another adult had walked through the hall of fame and no one that was at their display was friendly.No one said hi or do you have any questions, they just looked at you like they were better then you. If you listen to some of the members in their pit area you could be amazed at what you hear. These are supposed to be National Chairmans award winners. They are supposed to be setting an example for other teams in FIRST. These are just some of my thought from the past.