Language skills of rikishi

[Kaikitsune Makoto 209]

There has been a lot of ponderings whether rikishi talk English or other languages which would enable them to read about sumo in English (if they so wished..) and more importantly fan letters from Europeans for example.

Behemoths and Sentoryu were the fluent English speakers of sumo for long and evidently also Matenro speaks English to some degree. Then the rest is quite grey area. Takanoyama is said to speak a little English and Asashoryu too but for Mongolians Russian seems to be stronger still (even though our Mongolian forum members said that nowadays English is the main foreign language in Mongolia and Russian isn't the main one anymore). Kokkai, Russians speak their own languages but if I recall correctly don't really speak English much at all? Minaminoshima may speak some ENglish? Not sure if people learn English in Tonga automatically to some degree at least. Naturally for foreigners they have a lot to do to learn Japanese in addition to their native language.

What about Japanese rikishi? It is easy to understand that guys who enter sumo at 15 or 16 don't have much experience in school English at least and in general English skills in Japan appear to be quite modest throughout. It is improving I have heard and more motivation towards learning English (or any other foreign language) is growing. Also it isn't as frowned upon skill in Japan anymore as it was a bit before (what does he/she think he/she..being arrogantly involved in foreign language?-attitude) but still not exactly a very high priority in Japan to learn a foreign language. So maybe it is very difficult to find a Japanese rikishi who could communicate in English more than at elementary level and who would be able to read simple English text reasonably ok. There must be English capable rikishi amongst the college graduates? Or maybe not?

Katrina Watts once wrote that it is rare to meet a rikishi who can communicate in English. I wonder if this is changing at all?

Again, people who live in Japan know better how these foreign language skills evolve there but at least Amanogawa's comments sound encouraging when it comes to change of attitude and will to learn something else than nihongo. Maybe same goes for rikishi too.

I used English as an example but of course there are other big languages to study as the main foreign one so no need to educate me on that (Applauding...)

[aderechelsea 125]

so i guess they don't speak Greek either.............eh?

damn ....

[Asashosakari 19,609]

I suspect the two Estonians might speak some English, unless I'm way off in my assumption about the teaching of English in the Baltic countries...they'd be the right age to have had the choice of which language to study after the Iron Curtain fell, anyway.

[Takanobaka 0]

I would imagine so....English is the official language in Tonga! There's about a 100% literacy rate in English and Tongan there, with English ebing the language of business and Tongan being the language of vernacular. Still, my best guess is that, much like most of the Polynesian Islands, people there primarily speak in pidgen English, even if they can speak proper English (of course, if proper English is the measure, then what does that make Americans proficient in (Applauding...) )

I have way too much time on my hands (Holiday feeling...)

[Meikenonami 0]

Minaminoshima does speak English. So does Hisanoumi. (Also from Tonga)

Dewahikari (Dewanoumi Beya) also speaks English.

My experience is: If you write to a rikishi in KISS (keep it short and simple) they will understand or will find someone who can translate the red line.

But this doesn't work if you talk to them. They are not used to speak a different language.

The two Estonians speak English and also German. I tried it myself, but again keep it simple and short.

The college boys? Some try some don't. Well everyone understand good luck and so on and they answer 'thank you' or 'thank you everytime' but that's it most of the time.

Futeno (Exclamation...) studied a bit of German at university but no way to talk to him in that language. He understands Guten Tag, Danke sch

[Azumashida 1]

I suspect the two Estonians might speak some English

... and I suspect they'd understand some Finnish, too (many young Estonians do understand at least a bit of Finnish because of their "exposure" to Finnish TV and the "closeness" between the two languages; OTOH, strangely enough, I don't know any Finn who claims to understand Estonian...), maybe they could even converse with Kaikitsune or some other Finnish-speaker on this forum.

... and they're probably old enough to understand Russian as well...

... and they may even speak German... (yes, Estonians are often really multilingual)

[Meikenonami 0]

With the Yokozuna I speak four different languages: Japanese, English, German and Body-language. >:-(

He is really good in finding out what you want to say!

Edited July 2, 2004 by Meikenonami

[aderechelsea 125]

With the Yokozuna I speak four different languages: Japanese, English, German and Body-language. >:-(

He is really good in finding out what you want to say!

may i ask how do you get to speak to the Yokozuna or other rikishi ?

by the way ..... good to have you on board.

(Whistling...)

[Meikenonami 0]

With the Yokozuna I speak four different languages: Japanese, English, German and Body-language.  :-)

He is really good in finding out what you want to say!

may i ask how do you get to speak to the Yokozuna or other rikishi ?

by the way ..... good to have you on board.

(Dribbling...)

I try to talk to them after asageiko.

Thanks to Kintamayama, I know the Yokozuna right from the beginning. We always stayed in a kind of contact.

The boys really appreciate if you follow and root for them right from the beginning.

I know it's hard to pick the right one, but hey, it's fun to have a lot of guy's in the lower ranks to root for. These guy's are very proud if someone yells there name in the quite Kogugikan. And you never know how far they will go. (Applauding...)

It is the same thing with Futeno and Onishi. I follow them till their college days.

[Elenrian 0]

I saw on Sumo Movies a little video from the China Koen called "Asashoryu adresses the crowd in Chinese", so he may speak Chinese too, but his text may be in "phonetics"... Big mystery!

By the way:

  With the Yokozuna I speak four different languages: Japanese, English, German and Body-language. 

And Mongolian! So that's make 5! or 6! (Showing respect...)

[asa_love 0]

so.. does asashoryu speak russian??

[Manekineko 200]

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