Bobby Valentine Discusses Learning Japanese

[Mulboyne]

Yomiuri: Bobby Valentine learns the joy of Japanese

"The most exciting thing that ever happened to me was not winning the Asian Championship and the Japan Championship last year. Nor was it winning the Major League. It was not even winning koryusen this year," said Chiba Lotte Marines baseball team manager Bobby Valentine. "The most exciting thing was that at the age of 50 plus, I could discover Step Up Nihongo and learn the language"...Step Up Nihongo (SUN) is a set of textbooks for non-Japanese to study the Japanese language, written by Shigekatsu Yamauchi, who also writes the monthly column "Japanese in Depth" for the Language Connection page of The Daily Yomiuri...Valentine met Yamauchi just before he left Japan after spending a year as manager of the Marines 10 years ago. Yamauchi gave him the textbook with a note that read: "While on the plane, see if you like this book. It might help"...."That was a 14-hour trip from Tokyo to New York. I learned more about speaking Japanese than I did in the whole prior year," Valentine said...more...

[TobidashiChui]

I'm not certain why, but this article reminds me of that scene from "A Christmas Story" where little Ralphie Parker decodes "The Little Orphan Annie Show's" secret message and notices it encourages the consumption of Ovaltine.

I cannot help but to think of the line that follows: "A crummy commercial!?"

I suppose I will just wash my disgust away with Dave Spector's "Magic Hemp Soap."