Speaking better English through Trying
累計読者数： 4,615 “I want to speak better English.” – Yu Darvish, in Mesa, Arizona, USA (February 2019) his was one of the main points a Japanese baseball player told American news reporters last month in Arizona (southwestern part of America). For the first time in seven years, Yu Darvish came up to baseball reporters—alone—without any help from a Japanese interpreter and took questions all in English. (Pretty scary when you see all of the cameras filming you, I’m sure!) Happy March, everyone! Yes, baseball season is still a few weeks away. But since this news story popped up last week, I’d like to share it with you. For my non-baseball fan readers, Yu Darvish is a Japanese baseball player who pitched for the Nippon Ham Fighters from 2004 until 2011. The next year, he came to play in America, signing a contract with (my home team) the Texas Rangers. It was very exciting for us fans in Texas to get such a talented and famous player from Japan. I was so excited, in fact, that I went to his American debut game that same year. (See the picture I took from above home plate. His third batter was Ichiro Suzuki.) I have often wondered how a Japanese player does well in American baseball. Does he speak English? If he doesn’t, how does he survive working with people who don’t speak Japanese? How does he succeed with uncomfortable language struggles while also focusing on his work? I remember from the very beginning […]