The song

Driving forces behind Fourtraffic are Hugo Fredrix and Rob Severijns.

They often work in international teams, to create music, to create software, to have fun.

They made two important observations, which form the basis for this song:

  1. Non-native English speakers communicate in a simplified English, that we have dubbed “Bad English”.
  2. Native English speakers do not realize the advantages they have in an international team as they can speak and debate in their mother tongue.

Fourtraffic

Ronald Koeman, the Dutch coach of a British soccer team gave an interview in 2014 after a match where his team had played really well, “voortreffelijk” in Dutch. This term translates into “excellent”. He spoke the famous words: “they played fourtraffic!”. Which we thought to be a great name for our own team.

Dedication

This song is dedicated to all these wonderful nurses, airline pilots, soccer players, programmers, tour guides, help desk employees, musicians, and everybody else who is using Bad English as a vehicle for cross-cultural communication.

And it is dedicated to all native English speakers that realize that they cannot expect their team members to be as eloquent (…) in English as they are.