New Dodgers Pitcher Yoshinobu Yamamoto Making English Lessons a Priority
Fans can never be certain what to expect when a heralded player from a foreign baseball league makes his first public comments to a North American audience.
Yoshinobu Yamamoto, wearing a dark plaid three-piece suit and brown shoes, didn’t need an interpreter when he first addressed Dodgers fans at his introductory press conference on Dec. 27:
English isn’t mandatory learning among Japanese youth, which is why so few players from Nippon Professional Baseball making the leap to the United States speak English. To a man, they are accompanied by interpreters who can translate their every phrase. Even the few Japanese players who do speak English upon arrival prefer to speak the language they know best when addressing the public.
Not Yamamoto, apparently. Although he prepared and practiced his brief introduction in English, he proceeded to answer questions in Japanese using an interpreter for the remainder of his press conference.
Afterward, Yamamoto’s agent, Joel Wolfe of Wasserman, explained that learning English was important to the Dodgers’ new $325 million pitcher.
He has actually been studying English. His sister is an English teacher [at an elementary school in Japan]. Since he’s been here, this trip, he’s been starting to speak in full English sentences, and learning more and more and more. He’s able to repeat things we say in English. I would give him a season, maybe two seasons, and I think he’ll have Englsih.
Joel Wolfe, Yoshinobu Yamamoto’s agent.
Mastering English in the span of two years would be a remarkable accomplishment for Yamamoto, 25. Having a full-time interpreter, while necessary at times, often delays foreign players’ acclimation to the language of their new country.
Most players from Latin America grow up speaking Spanish exclusively, but are often able to speak and understand rudimentary English by the time they arrive in MLB. Teams routinely teach English lessons to players at their baseball academies in the Dominican Republic now. And unlike Japanese, the written Spanish language looks and often sounds like English, making for an easier transition when navigating minor league cities in the U.S. and Canada.
Few Latin American players (if any) have full-time interpreters written into their contracts. The opposite is true for most Japanese players in MLB. The Dodgers are contractually obligated to provide Shohei Ohtani with his interpreter, for example. Wasserman’s Mako Allbee translated the rest of Yamamoto’s introductory press conference.
Toward the end of his question-and-answer session with reporters, speaking in Japanese, Yamamoto said “my high school self would probably be very surprised where I am now.”
Imagine what he’ll think in two years.
Photo Credit: Jayne Kamin-Oncea-USA TODAY Sports
Are you subscribed to our YouTube Channel? Subscribe and hit that notification bell to stay up to date on all the latest Dodgers news, rumors, interviews, live streams, and more!
Most Latin players had to play in the minors for several years before coming to the big leagues. Japanese players have no such adjustment period. They go from Japan straight to an MLB club.
Very smart. His investment of time in learning English will pay off more than his curveball. I know Ohtani must speak some English too but may not be comfortable using it publicly because it is imperfect. Not smart. Americans appreciate the spirit involved with learning languages. They are everywhere.
English is very much a mandatory subject for Japanese youth, beginning in elementary school. I know because I was a public school English teacher in Japan.
It even says in the quote in the article that Yamamoto’s sister is an elementary school English teacher.
Do better.
It’s mandatory in that you have to take one year of language which is the equivalent of us taking Spanish I and trying to speak Spanish. By the time they finish high school most of them have already forgotten everything they learned from their English 1 class, just as most Americans cannot even form full sentences in Spanish even though some of them took it for multiple years.
So are you saying that the writer of this article is wrong when he said “English isn’t mandatory learning for Japanese youth”? It wouldn’t surprise me, so much of today’s journalism is sloppy and slanted.