5
by Robb_K
Harri McBain said it all. The two probably would have spoken to each other in English, because it is the International language of Ice Hockey, and most of the specialised hockey terms come from English. A Finn and a Latvian ref could, possibly speak Russian to each other as well. But, as they would need to use their English skills in most other tournament games, they might as well use English in ALL games, as a rule, just to keep from slipping into Russian by accident, in the wrong game. Keep in mind that they don't need to be perfectly fluent in English in colloquial language. They only need to have a limited basic vocabulary and knowledge of grammar from a few-year school course, in addition to knowing all the hockey terms.
In The Netherlands, English has been the second language for many years. But everyone also learns German and French in school. Most Dutch people I know speak English and German absolutely fluently, and can get along pretty well in French. In Scandinavia (Norway, Sweden, Denmark & Iceland) and Finland, everyone except hermits and people over 100 years old is absolutely fluent in English (which has been the 2nd language since WWII. Norwegians, Danes and Swedes would speak their own language to people from the other 2 countries and everyone understood the other (as they are basically just dialect differences). But it is interesting, that now, because English is the Lingua Franca of computers, and dominates the Internet, TV shows, films, gaming, and all media, many Scandinavians I know (especially the young ones) just speak English to each other, because the subjects they talk about are chocked full of English terms. Norwegians and especially Swedes want Danes to speak English to them because Danish has gotten weirder and weirder (and so, more difficult to understand) over the past 100 years or so, because of slurring, glottal stops, dropping of sounds, gagging and chocking sounds, etc. It seems really bizarre to me to see a swede and Dane speak English to eachother, because for my first 60 years, or so, I could never imagine that happening. In Germany, English has been the second language since computers started becoming a part of everyday life in the late 1980s or early 1990s. When I was young, and visited Germany, virtually nobody spoke English, except people who dealt with the US military bases, and a handful of people in the tourist industry. Now, all highly educated people there are fluent in English, and most people under 30 years old can get along in t pretty well because of computers, gaming, etc. that don't get translated before they start being brought into Germany and start getting popular. Normally, all films are dubbed into German, which , along with English not having been a required subject in school (until recently) were the reasons Scandinavia's, Finland's and The Netherlands' basic populations were much, much better at understanding and speaking English, until that gap has been starting to narrow, very recently.