{"id":12323,"date":"2014-06-16T12:39:04","date_gmt":"2014-06-16T22:39:04","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.debito.org\/?p=12323"},"modified":"2014-06-20T11:23:57","modified_gmt":"2014-06-20T21:23:57","slug":"j-baseball-player-kawasaki-munenori-doing-his-best-to-speak-english-to-north-american-media-debito-org-approves","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.debito.org\/?p=12323","title":{"rendered":"MLB J-baseball player Kawasaki Munenori doing his best to speak English to North American media. Debito.org approves."},"content":{"rendered":"

eBooks, Books, and more from ARUDOU Debito (click on icon):
\n\"Guidebookcover.jpg\"<\/a>\"japaneseonlyebookcovertext\"<\/a>\"Handbook<\/a>\"\"<\/a>\"\u300c\u30b8\u30e3\u30d1\u30cb\u30fc\u30ba\u30fb\u30aa\u30f3\u30ea\u30fc\u3000\u5c0f\u6a3d\u5165\u6d74\u62d2\u5426\u554f\u984c\u3068\u4eba\u7a2e\u5dee\u5225\u300d\uff08\u660e\u77f3\u66f8\u5e97\uff09\"<\/a>\"sourstrawberriesavatar\"<\/a>\"debitopodcastthumb\"<\/a>\"\"<\/a>
\nUPDATES ON TWITTER: arudoudebito
\nDEBITO.ORG PODCASTS on iTunes, subscribe free
\n“LIKE” US on Facebook at http:\/\/www.facebook.com\/debitoorg<\/a>
\nhttp:\/\/www.facebook.com\/handbookimmigrants<\/a>
\nhttps:\/\/www.facebook.com\/JapaneseOnlyTheBook<\/a>
\nhttps:\/\/www.facebook.com\/BookInAppropriate<\/a>
\nIf you like what you read and discuss on Debito.org, please consider helping us stop hackers and defray maintenance costs with a little donation via my webhoster:
\n\"Donate<\/a>
\nThis money will only be used for hosting and maintenance costs. Thanks for your support!<\/i><\/p>\n

Hi Blog. \u00a0While we’re on the subject of sports, here’s something that I found very positive: \u00a0A Japanese baseball player for the Toronto Blue Jays named Kawasaki Munenori<\/a>\u00a0doing his darnedest to meet the domestic press:<\/p>\n

<\/object>
\nCourtesy http:\/\/www.viralviralvideos.com\/2014\/04\/18\/japanese-baseball-player-gives-epic-interview\/<\/a><\/p>\n

I have written in the past about how certain other Japanese athletes overseas do it differently. \u00a0In fact, my very first newspaper column (in the Asahi Evening News — remember when it was titled that?) way back in 1997 was a grumble (what else? I’m Debito) on how J-baseball pioneer Nomo Hideo<\/a> (remember him?) was skiving in terms of trying to connect with his adoptive\u00a0community:
\n\"nomoAEN\"<\/a><\/p>\n

I will admit right now that I’m no\u00a0expert on sports, but from what I’ve seen (and I’m welcome to\u00a0correction\/updates), many of Japan’s athletes overseas don’t bother to publicly learn\u00a0the language, or connect all that much with their local\u00a0community. Baseball superstar Ichiro <\/a>is the immediate example that comes to mind, as AFAIK he assiduously avoids American media; some might justify it by saying he’s all business (i.e., focused on the game) or trying to avoid gaffes. \u00a0But I still think it comes off as pretty snobby, since these sportsmen’s lives are being supported by fans, and they should give something back.<\/p>\n

If I had a hotline into their brain, I would tell them to go further —\u00a0exhort them to\u00a0 countermand the dominant discourse that English is too hard for Japanese to learn well. \u00a0And then I would exhort even further: \u00a0J sportsmen in the big leagues\u00a0get treated pretty well (especially salarywise — that’s why they’re no longer playing in Japan!), yet you never hear them speaking up about the shoe on the other foot, on behalf of the often lousy and discriminatory treatment many NJ sportsmen get treated in Japan<\/a> (imagine if the United States put such stringent foreigner limits on their baseball team rosters<\/a>, for example; contrast it with how many foreign players (more than a quarter of the total in 2012) MLB actually absorbs<\/a>!)<\/p>\n

Again, sports\u00a0isn’t quite my field, and if you think I’m being inaccurate or unduly harsh, speak up! \u00a0People have in the past: \u00a0Here’s an archived discussion we had nearly twenty years ago about Nomo in specific<\/a>; I daresay that despite all the trailblazing Nomo\u00a0did, and the wave of Japanese baseball players going overseas to seek fame and fortune, little has changed in terms of giving back.<\/p>\n

That’s why Kawasaki\u00a0is such a lovely exception, doing his level best to connect. \u00a0His earnestness is very endearing. Debito.org gives two thumbs up! \u00a0May more follow his example. \u00a0Dr. ARUDOU, Debito<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

While we’re on the subject of sports, here’s something that I found very positive: A Japanese baseball player for the Toronto Blue Jays named Kawasaki Munenori doing his darnedest to meet the domestic press (video here): I have written in the past about how certain other Japanese athletes overseas do it differently. In fact, my very first newspaper column (in the Asahi Evening News — remember when it was titled that?) way back in 1997 was a grumble (what else? I’m Debito) on how J-baseball pioneer Nomo Hideo (remember him?) was skiving in terms of trying to connect with his adoptive community (article here).<\/p>\n

I will admit right now that I’m no expert on sports, but from what I’ve seen (and I’m welcome to correction\/updates), many of Japan’s athletes overseas don’t bother to publicly learn the language, or connect all that much with their local community. Baseball superstar Ichiro is the immediate example that comes to mind, as AFAIK he assiduously avoids American media; some might justify it by saying he’s all business (i.e., focused on the game) or trying to avoid gaffes. But I still think it comes off as pretty snobby, since these sportsmen’s lives are being supported by fans, and they should give something back. <\/p>\n

If I had a hotline into their brain, I would tell them to go further — exhort them to countermand the dominant discourse that English is too hard for Japanese to learn well. And then I would exhort even further: J sportsmen in the big leagues get treated pretty well (especially salarywise — that’s why they’re no longer playing in Japan!), yet you never hear them speaking up about the shoe on the other foot, on behalf of the often lousy and discriminatory treatment many NJ sportsmen get treated in Japan (imagine if the United States put such stringent foreigner limits on their baseball team rosters, for example; contrast it with how many foreign players (more than a quarter of the total in 2012) MLB actually absorbs!)<\/p>\n

Again, sports isn’t quite my field, and if you think I’m being inaccurate or unduly harsh, speak up! People have in the past: Here’s an archived discussion we had nearly twenty years ago about Nomo in specific; I daresay that despite all the trailblazing Nomo did, and the wave of Japanese baseball players going overseas to seek fame and fortune, little has changed in terms of giving back.<\/p>\n

That’s why Kawasaki is such a lovely exception, doing his level best to connect. His earnestness is very endearing. Debito.org gives two thumbs up! May more follow his example. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[22,44,35,12,13,48,17],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-12323","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-cultural-issue","category-discussions","category-good-news","category-immigration-assimilation","category-media","category-shoe-on-the-other-foot-dept","category-sport"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.debito.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12323","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.debito.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.debito.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.debito.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.debito.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=12323"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.debito.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12323\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.debito.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=12323"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.debito.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=12323"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.debito.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=12323"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}