Well, I heard a bunch of people askin’ if Shohei Ohtani, that baseball superstar from the Los Angeles Dodgers, can actually speak English. You see him on TV and stuff all the time, right? So, I got curious too and decided to dig into it.
First, I started by lookin’ around online, just like everyone else. I mean, we all do that now, right? I hit up some sports news sites and fan forums, just browsin’ through what people were sayin’ about Ohtani.
Gettin’ Down to Business
After that, I figured I should check out some interviews with Ohtani. I watched a few videos on those video sites, you know the ones, where he’s talkin’ to reporters after games. Most of the time, he had his interpreter, Ippei Mizuhara, with him. They seemed like a real team. Ippei would translate the questions from English to Japanese, and then translate Ohtani’s answers back into English. Teamwork, right?
- Watchin’ Interviews: I spent a good chunk of time just watchin’ these interviews.
- Noticin’ the Interpreter: Ippei was always there, doin’ his thing, makin’ sure everyone understood each other.
- Pickin’ Up Clues: I was lookin’ for any signs that Ohtani could understand English, even a little.
Lookin’ for Hints
Sometimes, Ohtani would kinda smile or nod before Ippei finished translating, so I thought, “Maybe he gets some of it?” Then, I found this one interview where he answered a simple question in English. It wasn’t much, just a few words, but it was somethin’! I was like, “Aha! He’s got some English skills!”
I also read some articles where they talked about how Ohtani was takin’ English lessons. Apparently, he’s been workin’ on it since he came to the US. That made sense to me. It’s gotta be tough movin’ to a new country and not knowin’ the language that well.
My Takeaway
So, what did I figure out from all this? Well, it seems like Ohtani can understand a bit of English, and he can definitely say a few things. But, he’s probably not super fluent yet. He’s still learnin’, and it looks like he relies on his interpreter a lot, especially for those long, complicated answers. And that’s totally cool. I mean, he is playing baseball at the very top level. Cut the guy some slack. I am sure one day he is gonna speak English like a native speaker.
Anyway, that’s what I found out about Ohtani’s English skills. It was a fun little investigation. If you hear anything new on this, let me know in the comments!
