Can Shohei Ohtani Speak English Fluently?

Shohei Ohtani is undoubtedly one of the best baseball players in MLB in modern times. Born on July 5, 1994 in Oshu, Japan, he is fondly referred to by his teammates as ‘Shotime’ and ‘The Unicorn.’ Drafted into the Nippon Professional Baseball, Shohei moved on to play in the Major Leagues Baseball in 2018 for the Los Angeles Angeles. After spending six years with the team, he joined the Los Angeles Dodgers for the 2024 season.

He is a five-time NPB All-Star, two-time Pacific League Pitcher Best Nine, and Japanese Series Champion in 2016. In MLB, he was the AL MVP in 2021 and is a four-time All-Star as of 2024. Shohei Ohtani also became the first player in the modern era to qualify for both the hitting and pitching leaderboards in one season, reaching the thresholds of 3.1 plate appearances and one inning pitched per game with 586 at-bats and 166 innings pitched in 2022. He has won numerous awards in the league within seven years of his MLB career. Notably, Ohtani represented Japan in the 2023 World Baseball Classic, winning the tournament over Team USA in the final and bagging the tournament MVP Award.

Does Shohei Ohtani speak English?

Shohei Ohtani, one of the most popular baseball players in MLB can speak English as is evidenced by him talking about his New Balance shoes before the MLB Seoul Series 2024. However, he also sometimes speaks in the language to his teammates but these are rare instances. However, he prefers to use an interpreter to translate his comments from Japanese to English and vice versa. Notably, Will Ireton, a long-time employee of the Los Angeles Dodgers has become Ohtani's new interpreter, following the accusations of illegal betting and theft against his former interpreter Ippei Mizuhara.

Shohei Ohtani had previously explained in an interview with GQ why he prefers to speak in Japanese during his interviews: "If I could speak English, I would speak English," he says in Japanese. "Of course, I would want to do that. Obviously, there would be no negatives that would come from that."

"But I came here to play baseball and at the end of the day, my game on the field could be my way of communicating with people, with fans. That's all I really took from it in the end."

​When did Shohei Ohtani move to the United States of America?

Shohei Ohtani agreed to a deal with the Los Angeles Angels in December 2017 and moved to the United States of America a few days later. Despite being in the MLB and the country for roughly five years now, Shohei hasn't yet managed to converse well in English despite his growing popularity. He only speaks English in his interviews through a translator. This has famously garnered criticism from ESPN analyst Stephen A. Smith, who said that a player who requires an interpreter is not the best representation of baseball in the United States.

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Read More About:- Shohei Ohtani All Star Appearances

Has Shohei Ohtani studied English?

Shohei Ohtani conceded that he learned English in Japan as a part of the mandatory curriculum but pointed out that he learned just about enough to meet a certain standard and not to become a fluent speaker.

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Can Teammates Communicate with Shohei Ohtani?

Shohei can interact well with his teammates and coaches, even though his phrases are not always fluent. Shohei uses words in Spanish to communicate better with the Latin players on the roster. However, his teammates and Los Angeles Dodgers' manager Dave Roberts have seen that his communication abilities are improving. He is also trying to communicate more and more without a translator as per espn.com.

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Shohei’s Top Uses of English (so far)

Shohei's top uses of English include:

• "Happy Easter" - Angels superstar Mike Trout taught Shohei to wish his teammates this on his MLB debut on April 1, 2018, garnering plenty of laughs.

• "Jose" - is the nickname his first catcher on the Angels gave him, trying to establish a solid rapport with the pitcher.

• "Keep fight!" - This phrase was first used by Ohtani in his rookie season in MLB, when a teammate fought off pitches and extended an at-bat, with him yelling from the dugout, “Keep fight!” to encourage the hitter. His teammates got a laugh out of it and even kept using the phrase to nurture rallies later in the season.

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