Bad Translation Leads to Premature Masahiro Tanaka Excitement

The language barrier can sometimes be an issue for foreign players seeking to make the jump to American baseball. It can also sometimes be an issue for bloggers seeking to break news before everyone else.

Tuesday morning, language related misunderstanding led one incredibly dedicated would-be journalist to prematurely report that Masahiro Tanaka had come to a decision on his future team.

Justin Bopp of SB Nation “broke the news” of Tanaka’s decision, citing a Tanaka tweet in Japanese that Bopp had translated to mean “It is decided.” Unfortunately, Bopp himself doesn’t speak Japanese.

The blogger arrived at his “translation” by dropping the Japanese words into Google translate. Google translate spat out “Do is Decide.” Which Bopp in his eagerness for a scoop re-translated into “It is decided.”

The dreaded double-translation.

Actual Japanese speakers quickly discovered Bopp’s mistake. Tanaka’s tweet doesn’t translate into “It is decided.” The correct translation is “Cannot decide.”

You need not be a linguist to realize there is a huge difference between “it is decided” and “can’t decide.”

Bopp wasted no time admitting his error. No shame, young man. Premature jubilation happens to all of us from time to time. Just take it slower in the future. And think about baseball.

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