Does Hideki speak any English

PowderedToastMan · January 9, 2017

As a Canadian, I'm still learning to speak American. Could be years before I'm ready to speak publicly down there.

bscinstnct · January 9, 2017

As a Canadian, I'm still learning to speak American. Could be years before I'm ready to speak publicly down there.

Its a prō-sess ; )

jsixman · January 9, 2017

He's been playing on the tour for 3 years, and however many years before that in and out of the US. The PGA tour has an obligation to give interviews to the media, it's part of their job. Even most of the announcers are sick of it; they have discussed it. Is there anything more awkward and just pointless listening to a post round interview with an interpreter. Hideki has said himself he is working on English for this specific purpose. And he's not visiting here - his full time job is here. It's not like he's here on vacation. What languages I speak has no bearing on this topic; although I am fluent in English and Spanish. And I can assure you, if my full time job was in Japan, I would learn Japanese as quick as possible. Many of the LPGA Asian ladies are making a conscious effort at this as well; e.g. Ysang.

If he's not quite comfortable yet, fine, but he should be soon. Does Spieth go to Japan and play golf for a week and know Japanese? That' silly.

tekin112000 · January 9, 2017

He's been playing on the tour for 3 years, and however many years before that in and out of the US. The PGA tour has an obligation to give interviews to the media, it's part of their job. Even most of the announcers are sick of it; they have discussed it. Is there anything more awkward and just pointless listening to a post round interview with an interpreter. Hideki has said himself he is working on English for this specific purpose. And he's not visiting here - his full time job is here. It's not like he's here on vacation. What languages I speak has no bearing on this topic; although I am fluent in English and Spanish. And I can assure you, if my full time job was in Japan, I would learn Japanese as quick as possible. Many of the LPGA Asian ladies are making a conscious effort at this as well; e.g. Ysang.
If he's not quite comfortable yet, fine, but he should be soon. Does Spieth go to Japan and play golf for a week and know Japanese? That' silly.

Even most of the announcers are sick of it; they have discussed it.

Really, how do you know this, sources?

Soloman1 · January 9, 2017

He doesn't work in an office and interact with native English speakers constantly. He's on the golf course every day, and he does speak English to his playing partners,

I'm a native English speaker and I'm fluent in Japanese. Japanese and English are the two most difficult languages to learn from each other.

You don't know what the hell you're talking about.

You could become reasonably competent in Japanese after a year of full-time study, but nowhere near fluent.

You don't know what you're talking about.

馬鹿...

jsixman · January 9, 2017

“When I first turned pro and came to the PGA Tour, the Japanese media would ask me questions after every round, whether I played good or bad,” Matsuyama said. “At first, it was difficult for me, and I felt a lot of pressure then. But then I learned that talking with the media is just part of my job as a professional golfer, and once I realized that, it became easier.”

“I want to be able to make more friends on the PGA Tour and be able to talk to my comrades,” he said. “But right now, there’s still a wall, because I don’t speak English as well as I should.”

All I'm saying is that he DOES have an obligation to learn English to the best of his ability as quickly as possible. Golf isn't his only job while on the PGA tour. He even admits himself he doesn't speak it as well as he should. This was a month ago. I get there is a difference between fluent and competent. 3 years of PGA tour life, and probably many other years around the English language playing golf. He should certainly be able to carry on a somewhat understandable conversation with the media.

Arpeggi · January 9, 2017

Matsuyama has teamed up with English speaking players at the Presidents cup. I'm sure he knows English well enough to communicate. He just decides not to do interviews in case something he says comes out the wrong way or offends someone.

jsixman · January 9, 2017

Concerned about its appeal to sponsors, the women’s professional golf tour, which in recent years has been dominated by foreign-born players, has warned its members that they must become conversant in English by 2009 or face suspension.

“We live in a sports-entertainment environment,” said Libba Galloway, the deputy commissioner of the tour, the Ladies Professional Golf Association. “For an athlete to be successful today in the sports entertainment world we live in, they need to be great performers on and off the course, and being able to communicate effectively with sponsors and fans is a big part of this.

“Being a U.S.-based tour, and with the majority of our fan base, pro-am contestants, sponsors and participants being English speaking, we think it is important for our players to effectively communicate in English.

The LPGA suspended players for Pete's sake. I agree I think he can probably can speak enough to do some interviews but perhaps it's heavily looked down upon in Japanese culture if something comes out wrong.

Also, he has the Bob Turner translator guy at his back all the time.

Soloman1 · January 9, 2017

American Todd Hamilton played on the Japan PGA tour for a decade and didn't speak a word of Japanese.

egr2teup · January 9, 2017

Now that the question of Hideki speaking English has been covered, can someone provide info on purchasing the shirts he wears?

Presumably, they are made by Descente. Finding them on the interweb last night proved to be quite problematic.

Thanks in advance.

justwellsy · January 9, 2017

On the broadcast they noted that Hideki is now on the world stage more than ever with his recent success and he is learning English as quickly as he can. I believe they stated he is hoping to have the English language down pat by the end of the season so he can start speaking to the press. Those of us who live here or in the UK are spoiled with English being our native language. They teach English in schools in most other non-English speaking countries because English is the power language on the planet. Here we give kids a choice of what they would like to learn because there is no "2nd Place" language and it really depends on where you live. Living in Southern California, I chose to take Spanish is high school and I'm glad I did. Now I need to learn Korean!

Shilgy · January 9, 2017

He's been playing on the tour for 3 years, and however many years before that in and out of the US. The PGA tour has an obligation to give interviews to the media, it's part of their job. Even most of the announcers are sick of it; they have discussed it. Is there anything more awkward and just pointless listening to a post round interview with an interpreter. Hideki has said himself he is working on English for this specific purpose. And he's not visiting here - his full time job is here. It's not like he's here on vacation. What languages I speak has no bearing on this topic; although I am fluent in English and Spanish. And I can assure you, if my full time job was in Japan, I would learn Japanese as quick as possible. Many of the LPGA Asian ladies are making a conscious effort at this as well; e.g. Ysang.
If he's not quite comfortable yet, fine, but he should be soon. Does Spieth go to Japan and play golf for a week and know Japanese? That' silly.

who is Ysang?

Concerned about its appeal to sponsors, the women’s professional golf tour, which in recent years has been dominated by foreign-born players, has warned its members that they must become conversant in English by 2009 or face suspension.
“We live in a sports-entertainment environment,” said Libba Galloway, the deputy commissioner of the tour, the Ladies Professional Golf Association. “For an athlete to be successful today in the sports entertainment world we live in, they need to be great performers on and off the course, and being able to communicate effectively with sponsors and fans is a big part of this.
“Being a U.S.-based tour, and with the majority of our fan base, pro-am contestants, sponsors and participants being English speaking, we think it is important for our players to effectively communicate in English.

The LPGA suspended players for Pete's sake. I agree I think he can probably can speak enough to do some interviews but perhaps it's heavily looked down upon in Japanese culture if something comes out wrong.
Also, he has the Bob Turner translator guy at his back all the time.

Geez, please do not bring Carolyn Bevens the old LPGA commish into this. She was a complete failure.

Bottom Line he is learning English it seems. But at the moment does interviews in Japanese so people do not hammer him for something he says incorrectly in English.

tekin112000 · January 9, 2017

Now that the question of Hideki speaking English has been covered, can someone provide info on purchasing the shirts he wears?

Presumably, they are made by Descente. Finding them on the interweb last night proved to be quite problematic.

Thanks in advance.

English speaking or not he does have nice shirts

playa · January 9, 2017

I speak fluent English and Chinese. I was fortunate enough to grow up learning both languages.

With that said, Chinese and English are COMPLETELY different. Chinese is a tonal language (each word has 4 tones meaning 4 different things) whereas English is non-tonal. I can't speak to the sentence structure of Japanese, but I imagine it is quite different from English as well.

I forget which podcast I was listening to, but they mentioned that Hideki had planned to use English in his press conferences for 2017.

Japanese isn't actually that difficult for English speakers as most words can be broken down into a collection of sounds. Most westerners butcher the tones and annunciations, but if you listen and learn it can be done. English, on the other hand, is incredibly difficult for those from non speaking background. Even within English speaking countries there are wild variations in accents and colloquialisms from different regions or even cities. It would be absurd to expect a guy with only 3 years experience to be able to handle a press conference in English.

deasy55 · January 9, 2017

English is technically my 2nd language. Hideki can speak whatever language he damn well feels like.

duffer987 · January 9, 2017

As a Canadian, I'm still learning to speak American. Could be years before I'm ready to speak publicly down there.

Its a prō-sess ; )

Alex just throw in "bro" and "like" everything third word and never end a sentence in "eh". You'll be fine.

Jasonic · January 9, 2017

Concerned about its appeal to sponsors, the women’s professional golf tour, which in recent years has been dominated by foreign-born players, has warned its members that they must become conversant in English by 2009 or face suspension.
“We live in a sports-entertainment environment,” said Libba Galloway, the deputy commissioner of the tour, the Ladies Professional Golf Association. “For an athlete to be successful today in the sports entertainment world we live in, they need to be great performers on and off the course, and being able to communicate effectively with sponsors and fans is a big part of this.
“Being a U.S.-based tour, and with the majority of our fan base, pro-am contestants, sponsors and participants being English speaking, we think it is important for our players to effectively communicate in English.

The LPGA suspended players for Pete's sake. I agree I think he can probably can speak enough to do some interviews but perhaps it's heavily looked down upon in Japanese culture if something comes out wrong.
Also, he has the Bob Turner translator guy at his back all the time.

And what happened to her? She was fired almost immediately. Your xenophobia is embarrassing, no one owes you the luxury of speaking your own native language if they're not comfortable with it.

duffer987 · January 9, 2017

“When I first turned pro and came to the PGA Tour, the Japanese media would ask me questions after every round, whether I played good or bad,” Matsuyama said. “At first, it was difficult for me, and I felt a lot of pressure then. But then I learned that talking with the media is just part of my job as a professional golfer, and once I realized that, it became easier.”

“I want to be able to make more friends on the PGA Tour and be able to talk to my comrades,” he said. “But right now, there’s still a wall, because I don’t speak English as well as I should.”

All I'm saying is that he DOES have an obligation to learn English to the best of his ability as quickly as possible. Golf isn't his only job while on the PGA tour. He even admits himself he doesn't speak it as well as he should. This was a month ago. I get there is a difference between fluent and competent. 3 years of PGA tour life, and probably many other years around the English language playing golf. He should certainly be able to carry on a somewhat understandable conversation with the media.

Where again is it written that "he DOES have an obligation to learn English to the best of his ability as quickly as possible"?

The first quote he is talking about the Japanese media, they presumably speak JAPANESE with him. He makes no reference to it being part of his job, that it is conducted in English If you want to construe that into an OBLIGATION to learn English, that's all YOU.

The second quote has NOTHING to do with an obligation, but is about wanting to have banter with his work mates.

I'm just learning how this ALL CAPS thing works, so bear with me.

UCBananaboy · January 9, 2017

The other problem is that our modern-day media is so quick to pounce on a misstep, regardless how innocent it may be. If Hideki accidentally used the wrong phrase or the incorrect wording, he could quickly be mocked or ridiculed.

Soloman1 · January 9, 2017

The funniest interview was at the end of last year with Peter Kostis. Kostis asked Matsuyama a question and Matsuyama answered in Japanese. As his translator started to talk, Kostis, asked his next question.

Kostis asked question after question in English, Matsuyama answered question after question in Japanese and his translator just smiled.

Japan has the second lowest English literacy rate in the world because it simply isn't studied seriously in school. The problem is two fold:

1. Idioms are too hard to understand and almost 40% of English are idioms. Here's an example:

Announcer: Well, Hideki, you really pulled a rabbit out of your hat on 15.

Hideki: Uh... a rabbit ???

Announcer: You kind of threw up all over yourself on that one hole.

Hideki: Uh.. ????

Announcer: You must be on cloud nine after the last 6 tournaments

Hideki: Cloud nine ??? (thinking to himself, "hmm... spider is kumo and cloud is kumo in Japanese, so maybe he means spider instead of cloud??") Uhhh... sorry...

Announcer: Anyway, you really knocked it out of the park today!

Hideki: Huh???

2. Western people will be merciless in mocking him if he makes a mistake and he doesn't want to be an embarrassment to all of the people in Japan who surrport and follow him on tour.

jsixman · January 9, 2017

Someone would have to bring in some stupid ridiculous political slur, calling me a xenophobic, on the WRX page. All because I think a guy should speak some English. What the hell is wrong here.

duffer987 · January 9, 2017

The other problem is that our modern-day media is so quick to pounce on a misstep, regardless how innocent it may be. If Hideki accidentally used the wrong phrase or the incorrect wording, he could quickly be mocked or ridiculed.

Exactly! That's why he'd be best served sticking to Japanese forever.

You see it with footballers in England and with baseball players in the US. Interviewers have zero sympathy for their language skills and just go full tilt into questions and then the ESLers respond with rehearsed answers, and that process rinse/repeats, rinse/repeats, and no one is any the wiser.

I cannot see how anyone with any sympathy towards the difficulty of learning languages and crossing cultures, can be so incredibly incensed by this.

Soloman1 · January 9, 2017

You are what is wrong here.

jsixman · January 9, 2017

Wait, I suppose I'm a racist, bigot, republican as well ay?

Soloman1 · January 9, 2017

Never mind. Best of luck to you.

tap in birdie · January 9, 2017

Concerned about its appeal to sponsors, the women’s professional golf tour, which in recent years has been dominated by foreign-born players, has warned its members that they must become conversant in English by 2009 or face suspension.
“We live in a sports-entertainment environment,” said Libba Galloway, the deputy commissioner of the tour, the Ladies Professional Golf Association. “For an athlete to be successful today in the sports entertainment world we live in, they need to be great performers on and off the course, and being able to communicate effectively with sponsors and fans is a big part of this.
“Being a U.S.-based tour, and with the majority of our fan base, pro-am contestants, sponsors and participants being English speaking, we think it is important for our players to effectively communicate in English.

The LPGA suspended players for Pete's sake. I agree I think he can probably can speak enough to do some interviews but perhaps it's heavily looked down upon in Japanese culture if something comes out wrong.
Also, he has the Bob Turner translator guy at his back all the time.

The LPGA tour is prominent in foreign countries. If golf is a dying sport, and the unanimous goal is to grow the game, then wouldn't you want people that appeal to an international market? Do you know how many Japanese speaking people live in the United States that don't speak broken english and hold down a job? Do you know how many MLB players speak Spanish and don't know a lick of English? He's not a an attorney or physicist, he's a golfer. The game he plays requires no communication with anyone. The U.S. media also loves Hideki and talks about his immense potential frequently. And what amazing insights to you expect him to give you? I bet you his translation breaks down to what every other golfer says after a good round "I hit the ball well, stayed out of trouble and rolled putts. My game feels pretty good right now." And in the off chance he is the most interesting golfer in the world, I wouldn't mind listening to him through a translator (if I cared as much about what he has to say as you do).

tap in birdie · January 9, 2017

Wait, I suppose I'm a racist, bigot, republican as well ay?

God-forbid 20 people (including myself) think you made an ignorant comment. You're in a forum and people don't agree with you..deal with it a little better. Anyone is capable of being wrong, or sounding shallow, including good people. Don't take it so hard.

bscinstnct · January 9, 2017

But I keep cruising

Can't stop, won't stop moving

It's like I got this music in my mind

Saying it's gonna be alright

Jasonic · January 9, 2017

Someone would have to bring in some stupid ridiculous political slur, calling me a xenophobic, on the WRX page. All because I think a guy should speak some English. What the hell is wrong here.

xenophobic has nothing to do with politics it's a word that describes your attitude