Ichiro still speaks through a translator

when in america, speak english wrote:

You'd think by now that Ichiro Suzuki would be able to speak English. For being such an accomplished all star and having now been here a number of years, he should be able to have conversational english. Not fluent, just able to answer a few questions in English. Look at certain people that are FOB Dominicans, and they at least make an effort, even though nobody has any idea what they are saying.

Some people come over here and are forced to learnt the language and within a few months have working knowledge. He could at least do that, yes?

"I thought it was going to go over the fence," Suzuki said through a translator. "When it didn't, I was really bummed."

http://sports.espn.go.com/mlb/recap?gameId=270710132

shouldn't you be patrolling the border somewhere?

actually, I'm from New England

When I heard it was an inside the park homer, I expected something more exciting than what I saw on the replay...the ball hitting a banner and dropping down and Griffey sort of misplaying it and not exactly going after it aggressively. Still, Suzuki's a terrific hitter with speed. If he played in NYC or Boston or Chicago or LA, he'd be a huge star.

The same could be said of Vladamir Guerrero. He's been in the majors longer than Ichiro.

Why do you focus on Ichiro only?

Ichiro Susuki is a dumb jock and Japanese is enough of a challenge for him.

Vlad can speak english. I will say though, of all the Japanese men I've seen, ichiro is by far the most attractive (in a completely heterosexual kind of way)

No its not border watching.

I lived in Japan for 2 years and I can manage to hold a conversation (plus i'm really dumb).

To reside in a country, at least part of the year for many years, and not able to speak the language is a disgrace.

Try playing france and not speaking french.

when in america, speak english wrote:

Vlad can speak english. I will say though, of all the Japanese men I've seen, ichiro is by far the most attractive (in a completely heterosexual kind of way)

Nope. Vlad had to use a translator at the Home Run Derby.

This is a silly complaint in this particular matter.

1. The guy is paid millions to play baseball. His employer doesn't care if he can speak English.

2. I don't know but he probably lives in Japan during the off season. If so, he likely considers Japan to be his home, not America, and he wants to be Japanese so he feels little reason to learn English.

3. He probably can speak a bit of English and can probably understand the reporters questions. Most Japanese learn a decent amount of English in jr. high and high school, even if they attended one of the schools that focus on baseball, which I think Ichiro did. However, Japanese culture is such that people are reluctant to put themselves in a position where they might make mistakes. This is certainly true when speaking English. Maybe he doesn't want to speak it in public if he's not sure that he won't make any glaring mistakes.

4. I don't know what American companies hire him for promotion here but I'm sure that he's a hero in Japan and makes a ton of money representing Japanese companies. Perhaps he's been advised that he will remain more marketable if he doesn't do interviews in English.

Nobby? Any thoughts?

Anyway, I think it's best for most people who live here to learn the language but this is probably a reasonable exception.

And how about that hit! This was the first inside the park that I've seen. Too bad it was a stand up and not a close, exciting play at the plate.

The stereotype that all Japanese are smart is what people think. The fact is most of Japanese athletes outside of Japan can speak any foreign language. Plus, English is very difficult to learn since it has so many origins. Also, most Japanese athletes spend any off-time back in Japan, they can't wait to get back home after working months in the uncivilized Barbarian wilderness.

I've read several stories which have said that Ichiro can speak English, just not well enough to be comfortable speaking it in front of large groups (Vlad's the same way). And considering there were 200 members of the Japanese media there, maybe they thought it would be easier for him to speak Japanese and translate it than the other way around.

Of course Ichiro can speak conversational English. But when you are having a conversation you can make a mistake and it doesn't matter all that much

But Ichiro wasn't just sitting there having a conversation with some average guy. He was talking to a reporter. He speaks through an interpreter when speaking to the press because he is afraid he will misuse a word and be misinterpreted. A word used poorly when speaking to the press can cause huge headlines.

Many of the Latin American players do the same thing.

Did this never even OCCUR to you?

Dumb jock wrote:

The stereotype that all Japanese are smart is what people think. The fact is most of Japanese athletes outside of Japan can speak any foreign language. Plus, English is very difficult to learn since it has so many origins. Also, most Japanese athletes spend any off-time back in Japan, they can't wait to get back home after working months in the uncivilized Barbarian wilderness.

First of all, you need to polish up those writing skills:

"The fact is most of Japanese athletes outside of Japan can speak any foreign language." ???

English is one of the easiest languages to learn, at least to be conversant in. That's one of the reasons it's so popular. I was in France this summer and spoke with a number Asians who have studied both French and English, and they almost universally thought it was easier to learn English.

when in america, speak english wrote:

actually, I'm from New England

the canadian border is pretty porous, maybe you can resurrect the boston minutemen?

I always thought english was one of the hardest language to learn because there are so many exceptions to rules, that rules almost don't matter.

i.e. romance languages are on the whole phonetic.

but then you go to english, and i say the word "strat"

who woulda thought it is spelled "straight"

Vlad can't speak a word of English. That affected his marketability when he was a free agent a couple of years ago.

English is not an easy language at all to learn, it's a cluster kcuf of hundreds of tribed in Europe that successfully raped England. Plus if you are a dumb jock it's even harder to learn English. If the money for endorsements is all back home, as is the case for Ichiro, why even try to learn English. Ichiro spends all of his time between games doing business in Japanese.

the facts wrote:

Vlad can't speak a word of English. That affected his marketability when he was a free agent a couple of years ago.

Wouldn't that suck to sit in the dugout for 120 games per year and have no idea what everyone is talking about. You would think someone would learn in those conditions.

when in america, speak english wrote:

actually, I'm from New England

Then keep an eye out for Canadians. Some of them are part French and that is worse than a Mexican anyday.