Language at Championships

[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

[Validius]

I believe that people are offended WAY to easily. We all hear bad language at school/work and let it bounce off us.

that said, when you are atm a competition, you represent your aschool, town, state and sometimes even country. Think about what you say before you say it and be professional.

[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.