From the Daily Sports Online column / デイリースポーツオンラインの連載コラムから
The Hanshin Tigers have begun their first season as defending champions in 38 years. That said, to date (April 4), they have not looked much like victors. That said, we’ve only just begun. I have promised myself to not get too high or too low after any given game.
The truth of the matter is, I am not nearly as pumped about the year as I was last year. Is it because I’m a year older? Or is it because some of the drama is lost, now that the team has ended its drought. Either way, I think it is high time I “graduate” from being the guy who knows nothing but the Hanshin Tigers. Since last winter, my interests have expanded some, and I have gotten a lot more interested in the people who help make baseball function. I’m an English teacher by trade, so perhaps it is natural that I find myself fascinated by the wonders of cross-cultural communication within baseball. In short, I believe the team interpreters hold the key to the import players’ success. So I wonder. What exactly makes a good interpreter?
Obviously, language skills are a must. You have to be a good Japanese communicator, and more often than not, good English skills are a must. But according to the interpreter for Alex Ramirez (former Yokohama DeNA Baystars manager and current tarento), Tsuyoshi Maruyama, Spanish is also becoming more and more essential. A lot of young players are being scouted in the Caribbean, and are coming to Japan without any MLB (i.e., American life) experience. For many, this means English is not a viable means of communication. Maruyama said at an online conference which I attended in February that if you wish to become a sports interpreter, get working on your español!
In fact, our Hanshin Tigers acquired two such players just last month. Jose Betances and Anthony Martinez are both 24-year-old pitchers who hail from the Dominican Republic. They are development players, live in the team dorm with other young players, and will be given time to adjust to Japanese baseball. During this time, they will likely be leaning heavily on the services of new team interpreter Vitor Ito, a native of Brazil who played baseball with Nihon Seimei (an industrial league team).
Speaking of which, interpreters must know about baseball itself. Ideally, they should have playing experience, to some degree. That way, they will be able to impart precisely what coaches are trying to tell the players. You know, the average person, even the average interpreter, will not be able to talk about specific body movements, muscles and body parts, and set baseball plays, if they do not even know the lingo in their native language. All that to say, not just any bilingual person can step up and effectively assist import players. Good baseball interpreters are a rare breed.
On top of that, interpreters need to be excellent communicators. They also need to have open minds, culturally speaking. There needs to be an understanding of the base culture and mindset of the players coming in, while also knowing how it differs from the new culture they will join. How do the two mesh, and how are they incompatible? What will the player have problems accepting? What will they miss about their home country? They need to have a firm grasp of “common sense” and how it differs in both countries. But also, they need to know that just because a player is from a particular country, it does not mean that he is a stereotypical citizen. He might have quirks and preferences that fit better in the new country, or in neither. The interpreter has to know who he’s working with and how to make sure he is the best possible fit in his new environment.
You can see examples of this when looking back at NPB players who went to MLB but did not fit the stereotype that many Americans had of Japanese people. Tsuyoshi Shinjo has famously gone on record saying that he felt it would be easier for him to teach his teammates how to speak Japanese, rather than he himself learning to speak English. On the flipside was Shigetoshi Hasegawa and Munenori Kawasaki, who passed on the offer of an interpreter because they wanted to jump into the deep end on their own. They did as much as they could with the limited English they had, instead of leaning hard on an interpreter. Again, on the flip side of that equation is Ichiro, who did all of his media sessions in Japanese right through the end of his career, despite having lived in America for over 15 years and actually having proficiency in English.
I am not saying either of these is the right way. Just that there are different personality types and the interpreter needs to be ready to accept them all. The bottom line is, the interpreter has to do what it takes to give the player the highest probability of success in his new environment. Living in a different country is an immense challenge. Reducing the number of hurdles that need to be cleared is one of the most important jobs of the interpreter. In some cases, that interpreter is also making cultural and linguistic adjustments, facing shocks of his own. I have nothing but respect for the ones who are giving their all to help the players shine. Go INTERPRETERS!!!
