Team BB: 2.67
Team Yale: 4
Team Indycar: 4
Team Well Strung: 4
Team Chomp: 6.33
Team Slam Dunk: 6.67 (saved my NEL in Tangiers)
Team Ocean Rescue: 7
The Firefighters: 8
Taking any of my personal feelings out of the equation and looking purely at the statistics, it does still look like a two horse race at this stage, with three teams possibly challenging them and the bottom four teams looking so weak they are just waiting to be eliminated. Little has changed since the last leg in that aspect. What is going to be interesting as the race progresses is if any of the teams in the middle of the pack break through and become one of the front runners? Will the four weakest teams be simply waiting to be picked off one by one in the next four episodes? It's not that simple because these are just averages: team Yale had a disastrous leg in Antwerp where they barely survived the Head to Head, but they stormed to victory in Tangiers. Team BB struggled in Tangiers and only came in 5th, their worst finish so far - yet their fine performances in the first two legs have kept their average looking very healthy indeed. But what about Team IndyCar? That average of 4th position is looking pretty strong so far and they were beaten into second place by seconds in Tangiers. The top four teams arrived at the mat within moments of each other, it does indicate that those three teams in the middle of the pack are a lot stronger than the statistics indicate. But first, let's talk about Morocco.
Let's talk about the language barrier in Morocco. I did warn you that there was a huge language barrier in Morocco; even though it is a multi-lingual country, English is not widely spoken at all. It is only spoken by those who frequently deal with tourists, your average person in the street will speak only Moroccan Arabic with some standard Arabic. Those who are well educated will speak French as well and due to Tangiers' proximity to Spain (just 36 km as the crow flies across the Strait of Gibraltar), a lot of the locals speak some Spanish too. Berber is also spoken by 25% of the local inhabitants and there is local Tangiers creole which is a mix of Berber, Spanish and Moroccan Arabic words also spoken. So, loads of languages but no English - well, apart from at the big hotels. The contestants didn't seem to think about that, they were merely stopping random strangers and hoping they spoke English rather than popping into a more touristy place like a hotel or an expensive looking restaurant to ask for help. Clearly, it was a case of more haste, less speed - if you want directions, you want to get it from someone who speaks English well, rather than someone who is struggling to even understand what the hell you are asking them. Did these racers really expect the locals all to speak English fluently?
You've gotta feel for team Extreme though - they clearly spoke some French and Spanish, yet they were stuck with a taxi driver who only spoke Arabic and just kept driving despite not having a clue where the hell his passengers wanted to go? Talk about bad taxi drivers on TAR! That left them so far behind and having to play catch up - if they had gotten into another taxi, they may have well won this leg. They actually finished third despite being last at one stage, that's one helluva comeback! Allow me to explain: yes French and Spanish is widely spoken in Morocco and I got by in Morocco mostly with French and I used a little Spanish and Arabic (I am fluent in Spanish and French, I speak a little Arabic). French is the language used in further education and business, whilst Spanish is the language used by those doing trade with nearby Spain and also for those in the tourism industry, as the Spanish tourists bring loads of hard cash to spend in Tangiers. A taxi driver however, is unlikely to be highly educated and the bulk of his customers are going to be locals - many tourists in fact will not take a taxi at all in Morocco not because it is unsafe, but simply because of the language barrier. Though having said that, I have had little trouble with taxi drivers in Morocco using just French - younger people tend to speak at least some French, whilst team Extreme got a really old taxi driver. Moral of the story? Spend a moment to find a younger taxi driver or at least check that you can at least communicate with your taxi driver before departing.
 |
| When I was in Morocco - signs in Arabic & French. |
But yes, we did see some racers speak another language - Cody and Evan both spoke Arabic: Cody picked it up when he was in Iraq and Evan had lived in Marrakech in Morocco as a student. That undoubtedly gave team Yale a huge advantage in Tangiers. I'm pretty impressed that Evan spoke Arabic so well, I have tried to study it and never got past the basics - it is a very difficult language to learn! Team Extreme speak French and Spanish, whilst Brittany couldn't stop speaking Spanish even to herself on this leg. But good grief, it was clear that many of the teams were monolingual and couldn't speak another language: okay, at least most of them made the effort to say 'shoukran' (thank you) to most people. Look, I am British, I live in an equally, painfully monolingual country where the vast majority of stupid, dumb Brits can't speak another language - heck, we're truly a nation of idiots who voted for Brexit, but I digress. But it is clear that some contestants like Evan have had the kind of very international upbringing and quality education which does involve learning a foreign language or two, whilst some of the others are totally missed out on that. I'm not judging them per se - like team Well Strung, utterly hopeless at languages, but respect to them for being fine musicians. Likewise, Team Slam Dunk were such superstars when it comes to basketball, but like team Well Strung, they too are hopelessly monolingual. Being painfully monolingual is going to be a huge disadvantage on TAR when other teams are multilingual.
Is it Tangier or Tangiers? Is there an 'S' at the end?
Let's deal with this issue. In English, somehow we have added an S at the end of Tangiers, whilst in French it is Tangier, in Spanish Tánger , in both Arabic and Berber Tanja - however, the old Latin name for the city is Tingis, that's the only version of the name that has an S at the end of it. Many people have recognized that there is really no reason to put an S at the end of the name, to make it sound more like the French version (after all, French is widely spoken there). However, that's the French spelling which it closer to the original Arabic pronunciation but still different. So why not go all the way and just spell it as Tanja instead of Tangiers or Tangier? I suppose old habits die hard - how did we English speakers turn Deutschland into Germany, Hrvatska into Croatia, Suomi into Finland, Hellas into Greece, Sverige into Sweden, Norge into Norway, Cymru into Wales, Zhōngguó into China, Nippon into Japan and España into Spain? English speakers have had a long history of renaming places they can't pronounce and coming up names that sound absolutely nothing like how the locals pronounce it. Hence some of us just accept that English-speaking people will call that city Tangiers, with an S at the end and that's the spelling I'm using - otherwise, I'll have to start referring to Morocco as "al-Mamlakah al-Maghribiyah" as it is officially known in Arabic, Al-Magrib as it is known more colloquially or Maroc, the French name. It's a can of worms I'd rather not open, so let's stick to the English version of Tangiers for now, since I am writing in English.
Let's deal with the most controversial part of this episode which had fans arguing if Jessica should have been punished with a penalty in this episode: Jessica offered to hold Brittany's gnome whilst Brittany was on the phone as it was hard to make a phone call whilst holding that big gnome. Jessica put the gnome down and Brittany took off without her gnome because she managed to find two Spanish-speaking locals who were willing to take her to her next location; Jessica noticed Brittany's mistake but chose not to tell Brittany as she feared elimination at that stage, given how far behind she was. Brittany then realized her mistake, abandons her two new found friends and runs back to the tele-boutique screaming for Jessica the whole way. Luckily, she finds her gnome there, where Jessica had put it down. So, did Jessica do anything wrong? I would say no, she offered to help Brittany whilst she was struggling on the phone, but she didn't accept responsibility for the gnome. It would be interesting to see if Brittany actually blames Jessica for what happened - but I suspect a lot of this was based on the impression we got from the edit: we were made to think that Jessica almost deliberately sabotaged Brittany but that was clearly not the case. Jessica could have helped Brittany and that would have gained her some brownie points, like, "I helped you, you owe me for this, next time I need help, I'm going to call in this favour." But no, Jessica chose not to go down that route and if Brittany bears a grudge, Jessica may just shrug it off and say, "bring it on, it's a race." I would have done what Jessica did too - she chose not to help Brittany, so what? The question I'd like to ask is whether Brittany had done enough to win over Jessica's goodwill at that point for Jessica to have reacted any differently - clearly not. Will Brittany confront Jessica over what happened? That would make good TV.
"I'm old! I'm old! I'm almost 50 years old!" No Cedric, you're not.
Some of you have been talking about this on social media - Cedric clearly isn't as fit today as he was in his prime, during his competitive NBA days. But he is 49 for crying out aloud, at that age people still run marathons and do sports. Heck, I'm in my 40s too and I'm still training as a gymnast and regularly post videos of my gymnastics training on Instagram. We've had far older racers on TAR who just got on with the task at hand without complaining. With older guys like us in our 40s, the fitness is no longer there because we no longer train our fitness, even though we have our skills. So whilst no doubt Cedric still has his amazing basketball skills, he would not have stamina to last a full game. Stamina comes from training, it is the reward of blood, sweat and tears and clearly, Cedric hasn't kept up that part of his fitness - that's fine, he doesn't need to if he's no longer trying to last a full game of basketball, that's his choice of course: but don't blame it on your age. He was running out of breath because he is unfit (for want of a better word) rather than because he was old - many racers do prepare themselves physically for TAR by working on their endurance and stamina the moment they know that got on the show. In fact, Amy deJong, one of the sweet scientists who won TAR S25 pushed herself so hard during her pre-race training that she injured herself, thus she ran most of the race with an awkward limp. That's what TAR winners do - they are well prepared. So for all the big talk about being competitive, Cedric has shown that he wasn't well-prepared. There's a huge difference between all that bravado and actually being well-prepared. And why was he chasing the gnome with his huge backpack whilst everyone else had left it behind? What on earth was he thinking?
Some of you on social media have pointed out that the teams only found out who got eliminated when the last team (the Firefighters) showed up at the airport for the flight to Morocco and it was only then that they realized team Goat Yoga were eliminated in the last leg. In earlier seasons, there was a mandatory 12 hour ESM (eat, sleep, mingle) period where teams got some much needed rest but also an opportunity to mingle and build relationships and alliances as well. Well, ESM no longer exists (not since S13) and TAR has changed radically since the earlier seasons, for the worse in my opinion. In the past, the teams set off 12 hours after they checked in, ripped open their next clue then made a mad scramble to figure out how to get to the next destination. Those were the good old days of TAR that were a lot more fun, with teams desperately trying to book tickets at travel agents and airport counters - well, from now on, all teams are placed on the same flight to the next destination so really the next leg only really begins when they leave the airport at the next destination. Furthermore, teams are kept separate during the rest period - so there's no possibility to mingle, make friends or pick fights in that period. It is no longer exactly 12 hours since they are all on the same flight, but it would be cruel to send the first team to the airport, just to have them wait for 5 hours in the departure lounge for the last team to finally show up to be on that very same flight. It's a shame really, I miss the good old days of TAR - who can forget the epic fight at Tunis airport way back in TAR S1 when team Guido tried to block the other teams trying to get on their flight? That was classic TAR - back then, making it from one city to another was a big part of the race and that was so fun.
How many of you were frustrated at team Well Strung being silly and wasting time with the belly dancers? First they were ignorant in Antwerp, now they have demonstrated that they are far more interested in treating this like a trashy reality TV show where they get to act 'cute' in front of the camera whilst forgetting the task at hand. Some of the other teams were clueless too as to what they were looking for at that detour - but only team Well Strung were having fun and wasting time there. It's not a travel programme for crying out aloud, you're not there to dance, you would not be penalized if you didn't spend so much time dancing. This totally reminds me of TAR S28, the Youtube/internet stars who drove me nuts - so many of them were treating this as an chance to get even more followers on social media, so they were wasting so much precious time acting 'cute' for the camera, doing really stupid shit whilst other teams passed them. Like, this is not the filming of one of your Youtube videos, you're on the race for crying out aloud, you have to get to the pit stop where Phil is waiting for you. Team Well Strung are musicians, thus they do share that aspect in common with the Youtubers, where's their sense of urgency on the race? I didn't think it was cute - I just thought they were being quite stupid in wasting their own time like that, they could have performed even better in this leg if not for their antics at the belly dancing detour.
Let's move onto my favourite team so far: team Yale who won this leg! Many people (including myself, admittedly) were talking about how weak they were and how they struggled in the previous leg with the Head to Head challenge. But in this leg, Henry managed to keep up with everyone else whilst running through the confusing streets of Tangiers chasing the gnome on the zipline and they didn't seem any physically weaker than the other teams - there was simply an element of bad luck and fatigue setting in back in Antwerp when they had to race seven times, getting more and more tired with each race. Whatever gains they had made in terms of understanding the course and learning how to steer the dolly was offset by the sheer fatigue that was setting in quickly - I am glad they survived that leg in Antwerp because they are very likable characters. With future legs in places like France, Bahrain and Hong Kong - they have a huge advantage when it comes to speaking the local language. I am assuming that if Evan has lived in Marrakech, she should at least be able to speak some French and her Arabic will be useful in Bahrain again. Henry has a Chinese surname, Zhang: hence I'm assuming that his ability to speak some Mandarin and read some Chinese will be helpful in Hong Kong (if they make it that far). I would totally love to see them win this season but I do know the outcome has nothing to do with whom I like.
NEL (non-elimination leg) saved team Slam Dunk, but for how long?
What on earth happened to team Slam Dunk in Tangiers? At one stage during the roadblock, Cedric was actually in the lead, having successfully navigated the confusing streets quite successfully. Then he fell further and further behind due to two factors: he was the only racer trying to do the roadblock whilst carrying his heavy backpack (that must have made it much more tiring) and he had navigation problems. They then chose the wrong detour which clearly took much longer than the other one and required far more physical effort. Why did they choose the more physically demanding task when Cedric was already clearly very tired at that point? Navigation was never their strong point to begin with, add to that the language barrier and Cedric's exhaustion at that point, it was a very bad decision that sunk them to last place. It's not just a question of Cedric's fitness, they keep making costly strategic mistakes, one after another. Looking at their track record: they had a terrible first leg, an impressive second leg and a terrible third leg. Their average ranking of 6.67 places them 7th out of 9 teams at the moment, but they are at best inconsistent - they struggle with navigation, they are clearly monolingual and originally I thought, oh basketball players, surely they must be super strong, right? Wrong, as we've seen in this leg. They were super strong back in the 1990s, but not today. Look if you wanted to cast some NBA superstars, maybe get someone younger next time? I am predicting that they would be the next team to be eliminated; either them or the Firefighters, who are still statistically the weakest team after three legs. Well, the statistics rarely lie.
Oh I am so excited about them going to France again - I have studied and worked in France, French is my second language and I totally love France. Looking at the trailer for the two hour double episode coming up next week, I see a sailing task and a game of boules: that's good news because it is at least those are sports that requires skill rather that brute strength. I see baking and some shoes involved as well. The top two teams: Extreme and BB are the ones to watch out for as always, but I'd love to see team Yale win again. But what about team IndyCar who were beaten into second place by mere seconds in Tangiers? I wouldn't write them off either - but given it is France, I'd say it will probably be team Extreme winning these legs, with team Yale having an outside chance. Given that we're now three legs into this season, we've gotten to the point where these averages actually mean something, though it is still early days. It is unlikely for a team who is statistically very to suddenly win a few legs in the later part of the season, but never say never, that was exactly what happened in TAR Asia S5 when JK and Mike stormed to two wins in a row in legs 6 and 7 after having barely escaping elimination in the first five legs in the race. Luck can play a factor, so let's not write off any of the teams.
So that's it from me on this episode. Please feel free to leave a comment and share your thoughts. Thanks for reading.
No comments:
Post a Comment