|
06.11.2008
Display Excellent Times of Yabu Message For All
 Before we get started, help me settle a domestic dispute: Mrs. Malo thinks Engrish is borderline racist. I disagree. Making gentle fun of other people for their lack of mastery yet unabashed enthusiasm for another language might be slightly mean-spirited, but it doesn’t insult the intelligence or moral fiber of an entire group. Does it?
I always flip it around: Is it OK to make fun of Americans for their ridiculous attempts at Spanish or French? Like the folks who put a Spanish accent only on the food items when ordering at a taqueria? Or those who say “OOH-la-la” to mean “Look at those sexy jeans!” when in France it’s pronounced “OH-la-la” and generally signifies annoyance? (French? Annoyance? Who knew?)
Today there is no room for mockery. I direct you all to the numbers of Keiichi Yabu, Giant relieving man. He’s done a fabulous job so far, and with the continuing struggles of Tyler “The Big Sweaty” Walker and the rehab setback of Merkin Valdez, Yabu could be a key to bullpen prosperity for quite some time.
After giving up six runs (four earned) in his first four games, he’s allowed merely seven (four earned) in his last 20. He’s allowed barely more than a baserunner an inning and only two home runs. He hasn’t thrown in a lot of high-stakes situations, but his WXRL — essentially a measurement of how much his work has contributed toward wins — puts him in the top-50 among NL relievers. Not bad for a guy who turns 40 this year and who started the year as mop-up man. What’s more, his major-league experience before this year totaled 58 innings with the A’s three years ago. If there is somewhere beyond nowhere, Yabu came out of it to make the Giants 25–man roster.
So what is the Yabu Message from all this? That the Giants should sign more 39–year-old relief pitchers? Speak better Japanese? No and no. It’s that you can find decent relievers anywhere if you look hard enough.
One could chalk up Yabu’s excellent times, all two months’ worth, to short-sample size and plumb luck. There are stories like his in every baseball spring camp: forgotten former phenoms, injury-scarred veterans, foreign hopefuls. Once in a while one of them breaks through, a testament to perserverance, hard work and being in the right place at the right time.
But you have to make your own luck on the buyers’ side, too. The Giants scouted Yabu, or at least paid attention to reports from the Mexican League, where he was a closer in 2006. (He didn’t pitch at all last year.) They also made room for serendipity. If the team had kept Steve Kline and his million-dollar salary or signed a high-priced reliever or two like the White Sox did for an instant fix, there would have been no spaces for the prosperous Yabu magical.
Should our Yabumania be liberally sprinkled with goofy English phraseology? Discuss.
Comments
First, to answer david_sf, yes it was a serious question.
Second, sorry, yes, I jinxed Yabu. You could see it coming.
Third, OGC brings up lots of good points, and I should add to my thoughts, too. Engrish is particularly funny and fascinating to me because it's in large part the product of messages aimed at non-English speakers. When Japanese companies use English phrases to sell their products in Japan, it's not to communicate with English speakers, it's to attract customers who find English cool. Perhaps a better American equivalent is the tough guy who tattoos Japanese characters on his skin without really knowing what they mean.
And for me, it's not just the funny mis-use of English, it's the cultural context. Japanese pop culture is very odd, both totally familiar to Americans and completely foreign. We're weird, too, but Shinjo lowered from the roof at the Japanese All-Star Game?
So Engrish pokes fun of Asian speakers, yes, but it's not just making fun of poeple with funny accents. (Or else there would Web sites and fan clubs of French attempts at "Anglaiche" or German attempts at "Inglischer" or whatever.) There's something special how aggressively English is used -- in Japan, especially. The Japanese just seem to love it so much but without a subtle grasp -- perhaps it's intentional -- on the connotations. (Why else call a sports drink "Pocari Sweat" and use the Roman alphabet?)
I realize there's a chance of offending someone (my wife has made that point), and if I have, please know I do it gently, just as I would make silly Aussie jokes in a post about, say, Damian Moss.
Jumping around, but yeah, Jon Miller does pull it off great, whereas when our old announcer, pre-Fleming (what was his name, but he fawned over Miller all the time), when he started doing the correct Spanish pronunciation, like Felipe Alou, it sounded totally wrong, it sounded forced and fake, even though I felt that he was being sincere in his usage.
Eh, Yabu was due to have a rough game, coinky-dink, my friend. Unless you are saying that you have powers that we don't know of. In which case, I could use $1M. :^)
I don't think it's just the Japanese, I think each nation's interpretation of each other results in each finding the other odd. There's Shinjo being lowered from the roof, but then there's streakers in the US, that guy who tried to parachute into a stadium (forgot which event, Super Bowl? ASG?), "Pro" Wrestling, and other things I'm sure they think is odd to them (and I'm guessing on these but I think you get the point).
I won't claim to know why they are OK specifically with "Sweat", but I think generally each culture is OK with certain situations that others abhor. For example, Europe is much more liberal with sex and gender situations. I can still recall about 30 years ago, reading about an ad in (I think) Germany where the woman was seated on the toilet for some ad. I did not see the ad, but the article talked about how such stuff like that is no big deal in Europe while the US is much more puritanical. And 30 years later, still so.
Also, most non-native speakers of another language, unless you live in that foreign land and integrated well with it, there are just things that are unfathomable. For example, for years (and I think they finally changed their name) one of the major Chinese-American associations, which worked and lobbied on C-A type of issues in America had an organizational name that acronymed to this: CACA. I still get a big giggle from this one. :^D
Also, I have wondered if it was ego and one-manship that lead to situations like that, or as ELM noted, that it was intentional. Perhaps the person who named the drink "Sweat" knew the connotation would be funny to Americans but would be above the head of most English-speaking Japanese. It could also be the equivalent of ELM's example of the Asian tattoo that the wearer don't know what it means (there was a great scene of that on a short series called "Committed" a few years back). After all, the point of these sports-drinks is to replace the nutrients you lose when you sweat.
There are a lot of good examples from American business practices that are relatively famous in business circles. One was the infamous GM trying to market the Nova in Spanish speaking countries. One that my dark humor enjoyed was this one: you all know how Gerber have that baby on the label, right?, well in Africa, I guess because so many people are illiterate, they assume that the picture on the can or bottle is what is in the container, so when Gerber tried to market their food in Africa...
I also know from my limited experience (but more extensive than most people) with Chinese translations of English, is that it's like English in that way, you don't really know how a transation is going to go. Sometimes there is a literal translation into the new language. Like the integration of certain foreign phrases that take on American pronunciation, like Coup de Grace. Then there is the phonetic translation, resulting in a lot of Chinese last names looking like English, like Locke or Lee.
Sometimes there is a totally different "translation", appropriate to the new language's culture. Like Coke, instead of going for a phonetic translation, which is the way a lot of Chinese is done, they took the marketing route and, I forget the exact translation, but it was something like "happy face, happy stomach" or something really market-y like that.
It just depends on how a particular word gets integrated into the new language.
Lastly, I was not offended, I know you wouldn't do that, at least not on purpose. Like the above Giants announcer who offended unintentionally with his sudden conversion to correct Spanish pronunciation, because Felipe Alou preferred the US version to the Spanish version. All you can do is do things with a good heart and apologize and make things right when someone is truly offended.
>If I do that, am I trying to pronounce the language correctly, which in my mind is a sign of respect, or engaging in subtle racist behavior?
I would argue neither. It's a bit silly--after all, the people assembling your burrito probably know what you're asking for without the Spanish accent. But you're not being racist unless you truly think that, because of their race, they won't understand you without the accent.
Just a side note: For an interesting approach to the Spanish-accent question, pay attention to the way Jon Miller pronounces players' last names. He somehow uses the correct pronunciation and accent without sounding pretentious or politically correct. He's also very gifted with language (have you ever heard him rattle off Japanese phrases?), so he can make anything sound suave.
On the radio side Jon Miller had it nailed. He described the "out" call, then almost immediately said No, the umpire is motioning safe because Molina doesn't have the ball in his glove. Great work behind the mic, as usual.
|
|
|
None doubt.