Part of a NYC day

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(09-02-2012, 05:46 PM)MakersDozn Wrote: tweeter,

A master will visit a school. He doesn't understand or speak a word of English. A teaching assistant is at his side translating. It's a riot. Give it a week or two, and aforementioned master understands and speaks at first a word here or there for an hour, or a day or so, and then full sentences, and then a lecture. It's a miracle! I've seen this more than once.

Yep, we've seen it watching baseball players over the years. A good example was Cuban defector Orlando (El Duque) Hernandez, a temperamental, quirky sort who pitched well into his forties. Despite the fact that El Duque always used a translator during interviews, then-manager Joe Torre noticed one day that El Duque was in the outfield with fellow starter Hideki Irabu, a native of Japan, who also used a translator during interviews. The two pitchers were enjoying an animated conversation with each other.

"I think they've been playing me," Torre said to one of his coaches. So it didn't surprise us when, a couple of years later, El Duque gave a press conference in English. By then he had remarrried and had a small child, so we figured that the changes in his life had made him realize that it no longer served a purpose for him to pretend.

We hope that something positive comes when you contact your teacher.

MDs

Hi, I had no idea that this peculiar behavior extended to sports as well. Makes me laugh.

Thanks,
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