Comments on: The Mo and Andy Show

By: Christian Toto

Christian Toto — Wed, 22 Apr 2009 15:06:40 +0000

MLB is full of athletes from other countries. It’s great … it adds excitement to the game. Frankly, I love watching the Japanese players play. They hustle … they know the fundamentals.

So here’s my question. Why can’t more of them speak English by now? If I signed a contract to live in a foreign country for millions, and knew I’d be spending anywhere from 3-10 years in that country, I’d work my tail off to learn the language. It would make my life easier … but so many athletes seem to go through their MLB careers requiring interpreters … plus, ball players have several months off – time that could be used, in part, to bone up on a new language.

Am I missing something?

By: SherryChen

SherryChen — Wed, 22 Apr 2009 09:24:12 +0000

Grace

As a Taiwanese too, you comment very well.

——————————————–
Pete

As a painfull Wang Fan/Yankees Fan in Taipei, Taiwan, I must up here, the first time, to say thank you very very much for your blogs.

By: Grace

Grace — Wed, 22 Apr 2009 07:57:01 +0000

As Taiwanese myself, maybe you should said as a nation, we are Taiwanese, but you can list people are native Taiwanese (like native Americans), Taiwanese, Haaka, and people from China after 1949…. Languages: native Taiwanese (orginally more 15 tribes, now 15 found, but not sure how many pass along until today), Taiwanese (a bit like Fujianese), haaka, and Mandarin.

KMT came to Taiwan after lost the war with communist in Mainland China, came to Taiwan, force everyone speakes Mandarin at school, work, and made it official language in Taiwan, you only can speak your own tone at home in early days…

Years goes by,now every kid in Taiwan have to learn his/her own tone plus Mandarin…

Wang is a two toner, Taiwanese and Mandarin, for official interview he used Mandarin, off the screen, Taiwanese sometimes plus Mandarin…

By: Nick in SF

Nick in SF — Wed, 22 Apr 2009 06:04:43 +0000

Ed: Wang is a native Taiwanese, but he speaks Mandarin as well. But they’re not the same. I had a co-teacher who spoke Mandarin but didn’t understand Taiwanese. She would yell “no Taiwanese!” at the kids. It was cute.

By: Ed - Swisher is awesome!!

Ed - Swisher is awesome!! — Wed, 22 Apr 2009 05:57:23 +0000

Nick, pat, mel:

Wang speaks Taiwanese, its like a 3rd dialect of the Chinese language. However I think Taiwanese is the same as Mandarian. I for one, speak Cantonese but hearing other dialects is just another language for me. If I’m surrounded with Mandarian speakers, I’m thinking what the heck did you just speak?

By: Uncle Ellsworth

Uncle Ellsworth — Wed, 22 Apr 2009 05:51:46 +0000

Qoute of the night “the frieze is shrouded in the gloaming”
M. Kay.

By: Boston Dave

Boston Dave — Wed, 22 Apr 2009 05:48:47 +0000

I love how people are “taking credit” for saying they wanted the Yankees to sign AJ.

First, there was some reasonable discussion as to whether he should get 5 years. Very few people, if any, doubted his ability. I don’t see anything wrong with that.

Second, he has thrown 3 games. It’s the typical rush to judgment that we’ve come to expect from fans. I certainly hope he dominates for 5 seasons but only a fool claims they were right about a 5yr commitment after 2 weeks.

Let’s all agree to root for AJ to be as good as he can be and stop with the “I was the only one who wanted him!” garbage.

By: Nick in SF

Nick in SF — Wed, 22 Apr 2009 05:48:45 +0000

pat: the way you describe it does sound like Mandarin, but who knows. I guess my heart it just too big to think negative thoughts about the Taiwanese.

By: Nick in SF

Nick in SF — Wed, 22 Apr 2009 05:45:21 +0000

m: it’s quite possible that you’re thinking of what you think you’re thinking of. I might be too influenced by the lilting Mandarin tones of Gong Li in “Raise the Red Lantern”…sigh. If you watch that, it sounds pretty different than your typical Cantonese Hong Kong movie. I’m not talking Wong Kar Wai films, of course.

By: pat

pat — Wed, 22 Apr 2009 05:44:23 +0000

Nick

LOL. It was a husband and wife so maybe.

I think they speak Mandarin but they speak much louder than the inside voice we use in the house and the inflections sound kind of harsh and yet sing songy to end sentences at the same time. I’m used to it but my kids hear more Italian and Spanish so it was new to them.