You Know?

I'm watching the Yankees postgame wrapup show on YES, and I am -- again -- curious about why Hideki Matsui still needs a translator. He's been here an awful long time to still need it. The translator is even translating the questions, not just Matsui's answers.

But that's one thing.

The other is the fact that Matsui's translator suffers from You Know Disease. Here's are translations of two of H.M.'s answers tonight:

"Yeah, you know, I mean, as a Yankee, you know, player... of the Yankees, I think it's, you know, I mean, it's like, the greatest moment, you know, to be able to do a curtain call."

"You know, I mean, regardless of what's going on, you know, with the game... you know, there's kind of like a sense that, you know, regardless of what happens... that, uh... you know, somehow, you know, we're gonna come out, you know, on the winning side."

Wow. Now, assuming that Matsui is not actually saying all those you knows (because why would the translator repeat them?), I can't understand this at all. Phrases like "you know," and "I mean," and the word "like," are like aural commas in a conversation. They act as cues that the speaker has more words to come... as soon as he thinks of them. It's like me telling you, you know, I have more to say, so don't stop listening yet. I am, you know, trying to choose the right, you know, words.

But why does a translator need to do this? That's a really bad habit, if you turn "I just want to go out and play my game. I'm not looking at the stats or the numbers. All I care about is that we win ballgames" into:

"I just want to, you know... go and and play my game. I mean, you know, I'm not looking at the, you know... stats...."

Is this guy even translating? Or is he making it up as he goes along?

[posted with ecto]

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