Does Godzilla Speak English?

Apparently not, but then my sources for this are so embarrassingly feeble that I'll not even bother to name them.

Having said that, Shinjo didn't speak English when he headed over to the States; Nomo, too, and I'm sure the same applies to some of the other Japanese players (Ichiro apparently didn't, but his wife, Whatsherface Kisa, the TV announcer, speaks rather well). That hasn't stopped them doing well, though, and I'm sure they pick up a lot of English very quickly while they're there.

> Having said that, Shinjo didn't speak English when he
> headed over to the States; Nomo, too, and I'm sure
> the same applies to some of the other Japanese
> players (Ichiro apparently didn't, but his wife,
> Whatsherface Kisa, the TV announcer, speaks rather
> well). That hasn't stopped them doing well, though,
> and I'm sure they pick up a lot of English very
> quickly while they're there.

You're thinking of Ishii, not Ichiro, and Ishii's wife is Ayako Kisa. Ichiro actually speaks fairly good English...

Right. Ishii. Sorry, had Ichiro on the brain at the time (reading one of the other threads).

There have been unsubstantiated rumors that Godzilla Matsui had been taking English lessons on the side, but it would really stretch the bounds of credibility to believe that if it were really occurring the press and/or the ballclub wouldn't have found out about it. So I would have to write it off as unlikely.

I read somewhere as well that Godzilla was secretly taking English lessons on the side. Sorry, I can't remember where I read it either. I definitely know Nomo doesn't speak English, at least he's never spoken a word of it when he was with Boston, and he's been here the longest, too.

Does Ichiro speeak English? I'm in the east coast and don't really catch any Mariners interviews. I did read that Mariner pitcher, Shigetoshi Hasegawa, released some sort of 'How I Learn English' book though.

You are correct Red Sox fan. Hasegawa, who has a droll sense of humor, does have a book out about how he learned English. Ichiro's English has improved (he even did a local TV commercial for the Mariners here, and his pronounciation is excellent). His wife, Yumiko, is reportedly fluent in English.

Nomo can understand quite a bit of English and is a real bright guy, but I think he is so suspicious of the press that he would just as soon use an interpreter. But his teammates will tell you that he has no problems communicating with them.

By the same token, though, few of the MLB players who go to Japan learn that language. Roy White apparently studied it, and Tuffy Rhodes speaks Kansai dialect passably. Trey Hillman says he wants to pick up as much of the language as he can, but that takes some time. The Lee brothers, Leon, who just became the gaijin batting instructor for Orix, and Leron speak it. But they are a rarity. So I don't think it's essential that Japanese players learn English. As long as the pitchers get people out and the hitters hammer the ball all over the lot, that's all that counts.

> Nomo's teammates will tell you that he
> has no problems communicating with them.

In fact they did say so a while ago. Back when... ummm, I think it was when he was with the Brewers, one of the coaching staff (can't remember who) said on a Japanese TV interview that it's easy to be fooled by Nomo's manner: he understands a lot more than he lets on, so you can't go bad-mouthing him when he's in earshot.

Just read in a local paper ... for what it's worth that Shinjo speaks better Spanish than English. In the San Francisco Giants clubhouse he hangs around the Latino players and is learning Spanish.

For many or most native Japanese speakers, Spanish is easier language to speak or pronounce than English. This is because the common Japanese language variation is made by the vowels (A,E,I,O,U) or (A,I,U,E,O in Japanese). This indicates that when Japanese pronounce "Giants" or "homerun," it sounds as if it were "Jaiantsu" or "houmuran."