Jerry Remy: Players should 'learn baseball language'

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RIFan

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I can't believe this became a big deal. I was watching when he said it and thought absolutely nothing of it. Hundreds of foreign players have come through over the years and not had the benefit of a mound translator. I didn't find anything malicious or ill intentioned by Remy at the time. If he had said something like "all the Japs get special privileges" I could see some level of outrage, but I didn't perceive it was anything more than the game has been played forever without needing translators, why do we need one here.

He has issued his apology and we should all move on.
 

drbretto

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Wow the comments on his post are a damn mess. I shouldn't be surprised and yet...

And I'm hardly calling for Remy's job but those kinds of apologies really rub me the wrong the way. How about a simple "I'm sorry for my comments last night" and leave it at that.

And roflmao at English being called "simple"
Because they're not sorry for their comments. They're sorry we live in such a knee jerk society that everyone is just so eager to point out how everyone is the worst, and they just want it to go away.

And I don't blame them. They're old people. They're not on the internet all day keeping up with the latest trends in politically correct outrage. Their comments don't mean anything. They just say stuff. Just let it go and move on. They are not going to spend any more time thinking about it. Which is fine. They're not running the country or anything.
 

Captaincoop

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I heard this during the game last night and disagreed with him but thought nothing of it.

Even in this age of sensitive little souls, it's surprising that actual people (not ESPN producers) can manage to get worked up about this.
 

joe dokes

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My wife is Japanese so I have some perspective on this. Many Japanese are able to read/write English but speaking it is a real struggle. Going to Tokyo is nothing like going to Hong Kong. Many Japanese people are not comfortable conversing in English. We've seen this with almost every player who has come over.
I have read this. It has something to do with the fact that there are characters and sounds in English that simply do not exist in Japanese. So even if translation on paper is easy for a native Japanese speaker, the physical act of speaking requires an additional level of learning and skill. Is this roughly accurate?
 

BigSoxFan

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I have read this. It has something to do with the fact that there are characters and sounds in English that simply do not exist in Japanese. So even if translation on paper is easy for a native Japanese speaker, the physical act of speaking requires an additional level of learning and skill. Is this roughly accurate?
That's part of it. The other part is that their grammar is vastly different from English. I know because I'm trying to learn Japanese and it's a beast. The transition from English to Japanese and vice versa is vastly different from, say, Spanish. Some Japanese people love to try to practice their English with you but others are quite shy and too nervous to try with a native speaker. My mother-in-law, for instance, understands a bit but is not comfortable trying to speak English in front of me outside of a few short words.
 

Curtis Pride

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I don't know if anyone else has considered this, but Japanese players probably have the hardest transition to from their homeland to the major leagues. Most international players are signed early and developed through the minor league system, which gives them ample time to learn at least a rudimentary grasp of English. And the majority of foreign-born players in MLB speak Spanish, so even El Duque or Fernando Valenzuela could bypass or speed through the minors and still can communicate through translators already on the field. But Japanese players, coming to MLB through the posting systems, are often bypassing the minor league system, and coming form the only country that speaks their language, often don't have teammates who speak Japanese. So they are usually the players that need professional translators the most.
 

AimingForYoko

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I have read this. It has something to do with the fact that there are characters and sounds in English that simply do not exist in Japanese. So even if translation on paper is easy for a native Japanese speaker, the physical act of speaking requires an additional level of learning and skill. Is this roughly accurate?
Yes. My friend lives in Japan now and he basically had to retrain how his tongue moved to make certain sounds--which sounds far more simple than it actually is. Also he's told me that grammar and things like sentence structure aren't the same---like, I think verbs come last?

edit:google says I'm right about the verb thing.
 

Savin Hillbilly

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The wrong side of the bridge....
And roflmao at English being called "simple"
Seriously. And even beyond that, it's really not remotely our business whether somebody else decides it is or isn't worth their while to learn a language. Nor is it any of our business how far a given employer decides to go in accommodating a talented employee whose linguistic limitations create workplace challenges. Tanaka has chosen not to invest the time required to become English-proficient enough to dispense with an interpreter. That's a choice he's entitled to make. The Yankees have chosen to invest some resources in providing that interpreter. That's a choice they're entitled to make. It's just a silly thing to have a pro or con opinion on, unless you're one of the parties involved.
 

shaggydog2000

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I have read this. It has something to do with the fact that there are characters and sounds in English that simply do not exist in Japanese. So even if translation on paper is easy for a native Japanese speaker, the physical act of speaking requires an additional level of learning and skill. Is this roughly accurate?
But Remy didn't say people need to learn to speak English or F' em. He said they need to know the language of baseball. Since the beginning of baseball they didn't have a special translator on the mound for those who did not speak fluent English. This wasn't a thing until recently. People just learned enough very basic English, or Spanish/whatever for the very basic communication you need on a mound. It can't be that hard to learn the translations of 4-5 pitches, up/down, and in/out. If there is something more complex you need to relay, that should have been done in pre-game/series meetings where you go over batter tendencies, where a translator being present would be essential. The mound visit is mostly to give a pitcher a chance to catch his breath and refocus, they're not suddenly conveying brand new analysis to a pitcher in the middle of a game. The pitcher doesn't even need to know why they're calling for a certain pitch in a certain location, he just needs to execute the pitch.

Now that pitchers are getting $150 million dollar contracts, I can see why spending some cash on special translators for a non-native English speaker is really a tiny cost on the off chance it could help performance at all. And if I was already spending the cash, why not send him out to the mound. Use them as much as you can. It makes perfect sense to the team, and what team owners like, leagues usually accommodate. But I can see why a non-pitcher/catcher who may not have had a huge amount of respect for the art of the mound visit thinks adding someone else to the event is just silly.
 

Blacken

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I have read this. It has something to do with the fact that there are characters and sounds in English that simply do not exist in Japanese. So even if translation on paper is easy for a native Japanese speaker, the physical act of speaking requires an additional level of learning and skill. Is this roughly accurate?
I can get by when reading Japanese, but I have no ear for parsing it as it's spoken. I'm not sure so much it's the phoneme differences, but rather that the grammar and the cadence of English and Japanese are so profoundly different from one another. It slides straight past me unless someone speaks really, really slowly and pronounces words in a consciously Romanized way (to a degree that it probably sounds comical to the speaker). I don't see why going the other way around would be any different for a Japanese speaker.

On the other hand, I can understand (though not speak particularly well, through lack of practice) Spanish with three semesters a decade ago, a year of Latin, and a little Duolingo over the last couple years. English structurally doesn't map closely to Romance languages, but there's enough vocabulary shared that I can fill in the blanks despite the grammar mismatch.

Its pretty sad when you cant expect someone who has been in the country for several years (and makes tens of millions of dollars) to learn the language of the country he works in.
There is no national language in the United States and neither should there be.

But Remy didn't say people need to learn to speak English or F' em. He said they need to know the language of baseball.
I can absolutely guarantee you that Tanaka knows "the language of baseball". But he speaks it in Japanese.

This is a code phrase for "speak English" and it doesn't scan past that.
 

E5 Yaz

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But Remy didn't say people need to learn to speak English or F' em. He said they need to know the language of baseball.
That's semantics. He very clearly was talking about learning English. There's no "language of baseball" that is understood through a universal translator. Remy meant that foreign pitchers should learn enough English to talk with a pitching coach.
 

drbretto

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That's semantics. He very clearly was talking about learning English. There's no "language of baseball" that is understood through a universal translator. Remy meant that foreign pitchers should learn enough English to talk with a pitching coach.
Did he? Or did people just kind of add that angle? How do you know he didn't mean that pitching coaches should learn to speak to their players?

It means *nothing*. At all. There's no indication that he's out there pounding on people's door trying to campaign to get people to speak English. All that is fill-in-the-blanks from people who just love outrage. If he's out there doubling down or adding details that show an actual issue here, sure. But it's a real-time off-the-cuff question, and his answer means literally nothing.
 

BigSoxFan

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That's semantics. He very clearly was talking about learning English. There's no "language of baseball" that is understood through a universal translator. Remy meant that foreign pitchers should learn enough English to talk with a pitching coach.
Yup. And it clearly glosses over the fact that there is nothing preventing the pitching coaches from learning a few words or phrases in the pitcher's native language.
 

E5 Yaz

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Did he? Or did people just kind of add that angle? How do you know he didn't mean that pitching coaches should learn to speak to their players?
Because he was talking about pitchers when he said it. I don't love outrage, and I'm not even outraged by it. I just thought it was a dumb thought to express out loud ... particularly since he'd never expressed it before when the Red Sox have employed translators
 

Blacken

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Did he? Or did people just kind of add that angle? How do you know he didn't mean that pitching coaches should learn to speak to their players?
Because that's not what he said.

Curious, I realize, but reality often is.
 

MuzzyField

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Regardless of the words used, there are two kinds of apologies, sincere or not. There is not a Zapruder level word-for-word apology analysis required.

The fact that, moments after Jerry spoke, this type of escalation wasn't just predictable but expected. Every word being uttered on every media platform is being analyzed and at the slightest percieved misstep... weaponized. This is just another example of the hunt is on, who's in? Fun times!

Lose is dead on... if the NESN brass is looking to sack Remy and usher us into the Steve Lyons era sooner rather than later, it will be done. I hope that's not the case.
 

Savin Hillbilly

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Seems like the good ol' non-apology apology: "I'm sorry if anyone was offended ..."
To be fair, he didn't say "if". The wording of the apology acknowledges that people were offended, and doesn't question the validity of their response. It would have been a shade more accountable to say "I apologize to those I offended last night with my comments", or better yet, simply "I apologize for my comments", but "non-apology apology" seems a bit harsh.
 

drbretto

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Because that's not what he said.

Curious, I realize, but reality often is.
He also didn't say the opposite of that, which is what I was replying to. Curious, I realize, but context often is.

The point here is that some are arguing the finer points of something we don't have the finer points on.
 

Blacken

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The fact that, moments after Jerry spoke, this type of escalation wasn't just predictable but expected. Every word being uttered on every media platform is being analyzed and at the slightest percieved misstep... weaponized. This is just another example of the hunt is on, who's in? Fun times!
Nothing's being "weaponized". Remy said shitty stuff. He's being held to account for it. He apologized, hopefully all concerned are a little wiser next time.

But go ahead and say "witch hunt" next time. You know you really wanted to.

To be fair, he didn't say "if". The wording of the apology acknowledges that people were offended, and doesn't question the validity of their response. It would have been a shade more accountable to say "I apologize to those I offended last night with my comments", or better yet, simply "I apologize for my comments", but "non-apology apology" seems a bit harsh.
This is a good and cool post. He shouldn't be in the booth for reasons unrelated to this, and there's a little weaseling in his post, but he took responsibility for screwing up and ultimately this is pretty small. What's more troubling is the excuse-making trying to make this Not A Thing At All, Shut Up, which sends a much worse message to people downrange of these sorts of comments.
 

RIFan

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Yup. And it clearly glosses over the fact that there is nothing preventing the pitching coaches from learning a few words or phrases in the pitcher's native language.
FWIW, O'Brien brought up the point that Farrell had learned some Japanese as a pitching coach to communicate with his pitchers. IIRC, Remy agreed with that.
 

TheCone

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I can get by when reading Japanese, but I have no ear for parsing it as it's spoken. I'm not sure so much it's the phoneme differences, but rather that the grammar and the cadence of English and Japanese are so profoundly different from one another. It slides straight past me unless someone speaks really, really slowly and pronounces words in a consciously Romanized way (to a degree that it probably sounds comical to the speaker). I don't see why going the other way around would be any different for a Japanese speaker.

On the other hand, I can understand (though not speak particularly well, through lack of practice) Spanish with three semesters a decade ago, a year of Latin, and a little Duolingo over the last couple years. English structurally doesn't map closely to Romance languages, but there's enough vocabulary shared that I can fill in the blanks despite the grammar mismatch.


There is no national language in the United States and neither should there be.


I can absolutely guarantee you that Tanaka knows "the language of baseball". But he speaks it in Japanese.

This is a code phrase for "speak English" and it doesn't scan past that.
 

TheCone

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"There is no national language in the United States and neither should there be." Can you explain why there shouldnt be? Did you happen to read exactly what happened to me & my son because someone didnt understand English? Or are you blinded by your agenda?
 

Cesar Crespo

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"There is no national language in the United States and neither should there be." Can you explain why there shouldnt be? Did you happen to read exactly what happened to me & my son because someone didnt understand English? Or are you blinded by your agenda?
Except nothing happened to you and your son because your school followed protocol and eventually were able to overcome the language barrier.
 

Blacken

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"There is no national language in the United States and neither should there be." Can you explain why there shouldnt be? Did you happen to read exactly what happened to me & my son because someone didnt understand English? Or are you blinded by your agenda?
Oh, I wouldn't call it "blinded." It's just that the amount I care about parental-anxiety anecdotes that demonstrate that language barriers are not a big problem because processes exist to handle them is a quantity too small for modern science to measure.

There shouldn't be a "national language" because there are a whole lot of people here and not all of them are like you or me. Plenty of countries are not monolingual and are not monocultural and they do just fine, regressive angst to the contrary. I spent this week in Texas and heard about as much combined Hindi and Spanish as I did English--I have no idea how my delicate, pasty white self survived. :(

I don't particularly care about Masahiro Tanaka. Dude's gonna be alright. And Jerry Remy copped to what he did wrong, so I don't particularly care about him. But mendacious nonsense like what you're peddling leads to shit rolling downhill on people whose presence in this country, judging from your sterling body of work, I prefer to your own.
 

RIrooter09

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Although I dont care for Remy with all the stuff that came out about how he enabled his murderous son, Icant believe that so many are calling his remark/opinion hateful, racist, zenophobic. Its pretty sad when you cant expect someone who has been in the country for several years (and makes tens of millions of dollars) to learn the language of the country he works in. Learn English if you live & work here...you wanna know why? Here's something that happened to me just this week. I have a special needs son, his school called me & said someone was there from the agency to pick him up...I had no idea why, but when they question the driver further it turns out he wasnt there for my son but for someone else. I was told "the driver had a language barrier"....Imagine if he took my son to someone elses dr's appt/etc? Learn English people. Its pretty simple.
Based on the multiple capitalization, spelling, and punctuation errors in this post, perhaps you should study up on English as well.
 

KillerBs

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With the Latino MLB population over 25% and growing, you would think we are at least near to the point where being able to speak some Spanish is a legit pre-requisite for managers and coaches (setting aside school bus administration types, for now). Or to flip Schmidt's comments, how can you be a real "team leader" if you can't communicate easily with a significant percentage of your teammates?

IOW the obvious retort to why can't "these people" just learn English, is why can't you learn to speak Spanish? It's pretty simple, no?
 

Al Zarilla

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My wife is Japanese so I have some perspective on this. Many Japanese are able to read/write English but speaking it is a real struggle. Going to Tokyo is nothing like going to Hong Kong. Many Japanese people are not comfortable conversing in English. We've seen this with almost every player who has come over.
Not my experience. In the industry in which I spent my career, which was computers, many of the Japanese people with an associate company we worked with in Japan learned English very well and kept up with no problem in meetings. And this applied to meetings in Japan, where the language used was English, not Japanese. Granted, if people had to communicate with English speaking folks, their management would delegate the ones that could converse in English. Also, I only knew one of our guys who tried to learn Japanese, whereas dozens of the Japanese guys we worked with got fluent in English.

It's hard to generalize. Take Dominicans, Manny was still using translators for interviews after many years here, but Pedro and Papi became fine with English.
I have read this. It has something to do with the fact that there are characters and sounds in English that simply do not exist in Japanese. So even if translation on paper is easy for a native Japanese speaker, the physical act of speaking requires an additional level of learning and skill. Is this roughly accurate?
That sounds more like Vietnamese.
 

Leather

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Question: is there any indication that it's even the pitcher(s) that demand that a translator go to the mound? Other possibilities:

1) the manager asks the translator to come because he wants to explain something that he might feel goes beyond *ahem* "the language of baseball"; or
2) the team requires it because, you know, baseball is an expensive business and why not take every precaution against a miscommunication?
 

Cesar Crespo

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With the Latino MLB population over 25% and growing, you would think we are at least near to the point where being able to speak some Spanish is a legit pre-requisite for managers and coaches (setting aside school bus administration types, for now). Or to flip Schmidt's comments, how can you be a real "team leader" if you can't communicate easily with a significant percentage of your teammates?

IOW the obvious retort to why can't "these people" just learn English, is why can't you learn to speak Spanish? It's pretty simple, no?
I'd argue that would actually put some of the Spanish speaking players at an advantage to be "team leader" if they do happen to speak both languages. I could be wrong but I'm guessing it's more likely that a Dominican baseball player is bi lingual than an American one because English is more of a need in this country.
 

Moviegoer

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I always assumed that most managers and coaches had learned at least a working level of Spanish by now, along with a few key phrases in Japanese etc. to meet any communication issues they could have with their players halfway. It would be what a coach serious about his job would do.
 

Otis Foster

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Unfortunately, this thoughtless remark plays into the notion that Boston is still a racist city, witness the harassment of Andrew Jones and Schilling's idiotic and unsolicited comments.
 

BigSoxFan

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Not my experience. In the industry in which I spent my career, which was computers, many of the Japanese people with an associate company we worked with in Japan learned English very well and kept up with no problem in meetings. And this applied to meetings in Japan, where the language used was English, not Japanese. Granted, if people had to communicate with English speaking folks, their management would delegate the ones that could converse in English. Also, I only knew one of our guys who tried to learn Japanese, whereas dozens of the Japanese guys we worked with got fluent in English.

It's hard to generalize. Take Dominicans, Manny was still using translators for interviews after many years here, but Pedro and Papi became fine with English.

That sounds more like Vietnamese.
I'm sure experiences will vary but I've been to Japan about 15-20 times and done business with a few Japanese companies. In the meetings that I've been in, the Japanese participants have been mostly silent with a few exceptions. Part of that may be cultural, as the Japanese tend to be more reserved in business settings, at least based on my experience. I've also had meetings here in NYC and have seen varying competency at English from very remedial to perfectly fluent.

I don't think it's a generalization to say that the Japanese struggle with spoken English. This is a common refrain and my wife even attests to it (she's actually quite fluent because she went to HS/college here). There are some sounds from the English tongue that are foreign to them - like the L.

One thing I will say is that they study it like crazy in school and many kids love to come up to westerners to practice. I think some of the reticence to speak English may be with older generations.
 

HriniakPosterChild

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I always assumed that most managers and coaches had learned at least a working level of Spanish by now, along with a few key phrases in Japanese etc. to meet any communication issues they could have with their players halfway. It would be what a coach serious about his job would do.
Lou Piniella grew up in Tampa in a Spanish speaking family. When managing the M's he said that he spoke Spanish to his Latino players to, say, ask about the wife and kids. Baseball conversations he held in English with everyone.
 

InsideTheParker

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Although I commented on Remy's remark's wrongness immediately in the game thread, I think the topic should be dropped now. As someone who is older than Remy, I do resent linking troglodyte attitudes to age. Look at the alt-right. They're mostly young. Remy was being "old school," and now he's been schooled. He's apologized, albeit awkwardly. Let it go.
 

kneemoe

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I'd argue that would actually put some of the Spanish speaking players at an advantage to be "team leader" if they do happen to speak both languages. I could be wrong but I'm guessing it's more likely that a Dominican baseball player is bi lingual than an American one because English is more of a need in this country.
So speaking more than one language is advantageous in the workplace? And that's bad for the downtrodden American ball player?

Edit: hopefully I'm just misreading your tone...
 
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TheCone

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Oh, I wouldn't call it "blinded." It's just that the amount I care about parental-anxiety anecdotes that demonstrate that language barriers are not a big problem because processes exist to handle them is a quantity too small for modern science to measure.

There shouldn't be a "national language" because there are a whole lot of people here and not all of them are like you or me. Plenty of countries are not monolingual and are not monocultural and they do just fine, regressive angst to the contrary. I spent this week in Texas and heard about as much combined Hindi and Spanish as I did English--I have no idea how my delicate, pasty white self survived. :(

I don't particularly care about Masahiro Tanaka. Dude's gonna be alright. And Jerry Remy copped to what he did wrong, so I don't particularly care about him. But mendacious nonsense like what you're peddling leads to shit rolling downhill on people whose presence in this country, judging from your sterling body of work, I prefer to your own.
....Just FYI...Im the grandson of immigrants who came here legally & learned English. I also own my own business, while you most likely dont...so, yeah.. tell that guy to learn English.....As far as who you prefer, Im soooo f-ing glad I dont live in Mass so i dont need to interact with people like you. Jesus Christ..is EVERYONE a victim nowadays? Learn English people!
 

Smiling Joe Hesketh

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....Just FYI...Im the grandson of immigrants who came here legally & learned English. I also own my own business, while you most likely dont...so, yeah.. tell that guy to learn English.....As far as who you prefer, Im soooo f-ing glad I dont live in Mass so i dont need to interact with people like you. Jesus Christ..is EVERYONE a victim nowadays? Learn English people!
I'm the grandson of immigrants who also came here legally and learned English. Well, they sort of did; my paternal grandparents spoke English and Arabic and my maternal grandparents spoke almost entirely French. My mother was born here but didn't learn English until she was 5 years old.

But when they came over it was a different time and they wanted to assimilate to American culture as thoroughly as possible. Well, again, sort of: my Syrian grandparents did and gave their kids English names, but my French-Canadian grandparents did not and gave their kids French names. So, plus ca change.

More recent arrivals to this country have seemed tended to hold onto traditions and languages longer instead of so completely quashing their past, and you know what? That's OK too.

Just getting back to the topic at hand, Tanaka is not an immigrant, he's likely here on a work visa or something, so screaming at him to LEARN ENGLISH makes even less sense than saying the same to immigrants.
 
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Plympton91

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People who know more than one language will always have a huge benefit in employment and even self employment going forward. It's market economics at work. I remember an article from way back when Duquette had traded for Pedro and it was still uncertain that he'd sign here long term. The article detailed how Duquette had set up a gourmet Dominican meal, rather than a gourmet American meal for Pedro when they met, and Pedro said it made him feel more comfortable about coming to Boston. It's all about being nice and polite. I don't understand why this has to be so hard.

I'm surprised Remy feels the way he does about it and even more surprised that he said it out loud if he does. There's just no upside to the discussion at all. He also probably could have said something like, "We didn't get a translator for El Tiante, I'm old school" and dropped it.

Then the discussion would just be like the one above about how much harder Japanese is than Spanish.
 

Smiling Joe Hesketh

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Good points, P91. It's about being polite in many cases.

I would guess another difference between Tiant and Tanaka is that Tiant at least could reliably count on a few Spanish-speaking players to be in the clubhouse besides himself. Tanaka and other Japanese players probably can't; it was something of a rarity that the Sox had Koji and Taz on the team at the same time (and neither one really spoke English to reporters or staff as far as I know).
 
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Rasputin

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....Just FYI...Im the grandson of immigrants who came here legally & learned English. I also own my own business, while you most likely dont...so, yeah.. tell that guy to learn English.....As far as who you prefer, Im soooo f-ing glad I dont live in Mass so i dont need to interact with people like you. Jesus Christ..is EVERYONE a victim nowadays? Learn English people!
Asking you to be a decent person isn't claiming victimhood on anyone's part. Nor is the assertion that some people have a harder road than others.
 

joe dokes

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More recent arrivals to this country have seemed tended to hold onto traditions and languages longer instead of so completely quashing their past, and you know what? That's OK too.
Actually, the studies I've read show that very little has changed..2nd generation immigrants learn the language very well; 1st generation not as much. Similar to our grandparents and parents. (Yiddish in my grandparents' case.)
 

Smiling Joe Hesketh

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Actually, the studies I've read show that very little has changed..2nd generation immigrants learn the language very well; 1st generation not as much. Similar to our grandparents and parents. (Yiddish in my grandparents' case.)
Yes, I edited my post because I realized that in my my grandparents did not entirely rush to get themselves assimilated.
 

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Just getting back to the topic at hand, Tanaka is not an immigrant, he's likely here on a work visa or something, so screaming at him to LEARN ENGLISH makes even less sense than saying the same to immigrants.
When Tanaka came in 2014, he did so on a P-1 visa (athletes get P-1A). Those are usually for 5 years (renewable once) so he's probably still here on the same one.
 

Al Zarilla

Member
SoSH Member
Dec 8, 2005
58,872
San Andreas Fault
I'm the grandson of immigrants who also came here legally and learned English. Well, they sort of did; my paternal grandparents spoke English and Arabic and my maternal grandparents spoke almost entirely French. My mother was born here but didn't learn English until she was 5 years old.

But when they came over it was a different time and they wanted to assimilate to American culture as thoroughly as possible. Well, again, sort of: my Syrian grandparents did and gave their kids English names, but my French-Canadian grandparents did not and gave their kids French names. So, plus ca change.

More recent arrivals to this country have seemed tended to hold onto traditions and languages longer instead of so completely quashing their past, and you know what? That's OK too.

Just getting back to the topic at hand, Tanaka is not an immigrant, he's likely here on a work visa or something, so screaming at him to LEARN ENGLISH makes even less sense than saying the same to immigrants.
First generation Italian-American here. Unfortunately, I never learned any Italian, nor did my brother or sister. To your assimilate point, part of it for us was to speak only "American" growing up because the war was still on people's minds, and Italy was on the wrong side for most of it. Other thing was, when my parents didn't want us to understand something, they'd speak in Italian. That kind of pissed us off. Traveling in Italy later, I'd wished I'd learned some Italian as a kid.
 

joyofsox

empty, bleak
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SoSH Member
Jul 14, 2005
7,552
Vancouver Island
NESN has also issued a statement:

"Relative to last night's NESN telecast from New York, NESN does not agree with any such views expressed by Jerry Remy, and we know from talking to Jerry that he regrets making them. The network sincerely apologizes to anyone who was offended by Jerry's comments."

NESN knows that Remy regrets making the comments? I wish he had admitted that in his tweeted apology. (I guess that admission was for NESN's ears only.)
 
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