SUMMARY
- Shohei Ohtani picked up English during his schooling in Japan, reaching a basic standard without aiming for full fluency.
- Apart from English, he incorporates Spanish into his conversations, particularly to communicate effectively with Latin players on the team.
Shohei Ohtani, the Unicorn himself, is said to be born with a glove in his hand. His love for baseball stemmed from his early years in the Iwate prefecture of Japan. The kid with big dreams in his eyes and a determined heart raging with a firestorm, Sho-time had set his sights on the faraway lands of the Major Leagues. And he made it. Drafted after his time in the Nippon Professional Baseball, Shohei made his debut in MLB in 2018.
But while Sho-time wanted to play on the grandest stage of the world, for all his love for baseball, he does not want to forget his roots. The Japanese sensation had his first press conference as a Dodger last month. The team welcomed Ohtani and he spoke about a variety of things. Including his surgery and his dog’s elusive name. However, as a coin has two sides,
Sho-time and his trusty translator Ippei Mizuhara go hand in hand. Mizuhara is the one who translates every interview Ohtani is in. So a question lingers, does Shohei Ohtani speak English?
Shohei Ohtani prefers using an interpreter during interviews
Shohei Ohtani is the very first player in MLB to have a name on the leaderboards for both hitting and pitching simultaneously. And last year in the World Baseball Classic, he represented Japan and won in a phenomenal fight against Team USA. So as one of the greatest players of his time can Sho-time speak English. Well of course he can. How else would he communicate with his fellow teammates on the diamond? He can’t have Mizuhara tagging alongside him on that battlefield.
Ohtani admitted that he picked up English during his schooling in Japan, but clarified that he only learned enough to meet a basic standard, without aiming for full fluency. While interacting with teammates and coaches, Shohei manages well, even if his English expressions aren’t always completely smooth.
To better communicate with the Latin players on the team, Ohtani incorporates Spanish into his conversations as well. Although he is proficient enough in English to engage with teammates and those in the dugout, he prefers using an interpreter during interviews. Shohei explained in an interview with GQ as to why this is, “But I came here to play baseball and at the end of the day, my game on the field could be my way of communicating with people, with fans. That’s all I really took from it in the end.”
Language is a spectrum and there is a range between not knowing a single word and being a hundred percent fluent. Additionally, when he responds in Japanese, it not only caters to his comfort but also makes his messages readily accessible to fans from his home country. By speaking in Japanese, there’s no need for fans to retranslate his responses into their native language; he communicates directly in a way that resonates with them.