This piece about the Japanese media contingent following Kosuke Fukudome’s every little move with the Cubs in his rookie year has probably been done in every city where Asian star ballplayers have played in, but can be a fun human interest type story anyways.
T is the Helen Thomas of the press corps. She asks the first question and can follow up as often as she likes. Her Fuji TV feeds five outlets in Japan, so the other reporters abide by a pecking order.
“It’s nice—and hard,” she said of her role. “Sometimes I don’t have anything to ask.”
At the end of Fukudome’s news conferences, the Japanese reporters huddle in the interview room and review Fukudome’s quotes so they will be identical.
That’s a foreign concept to American reporters, and that’s why quotes sometimes appear slightly different, even in the same newspaper.
In a funny case of mistranslation, it seems like someone had been handing out bilingual “IT’S GONNA HAPPEN” hand held signs to Cubs fans as part of opening day promotions (this is the 100th season since their last World Series win for the Lovable Losers, and they have a pretty good team). But the actual Japanese printed on the signs “偶然だぞ” actually means “You Were Lucky”.
So, it’s almost ironic that Fukudome had a great night while the home fans were unintentionally telling their newest import that he was just lucky. Hahaha, machine translations. That’s why us translators will still have work for the foreseeable future.
Google Tranlsate gives “偶然だぞ” for “It’s gonna happen” and I guess that’s what the person used without checking it first with any number of Japanese speakers in Chicago. It’s on par with various Engrish found around Asia and misused Chinese characters in the West. It’s at least kinda funny though.