Ryo Ishikawa’s American debut
Teenage pro golfer Ryo Ishikawa is off to unimpressive start in his first U.S. tour appearance, but he remains as popular as ever with older Japanese women and the Japanese press:
As you can see from the NTV news clip, Ishikawa doesn’t quite have the English ability to say much more than a self-introduction, but he is very happy to be competing in the United States. Sadly, Ryo’s attempt to teach reporters the pronunciation of his name was not a success:
Japanese prodigy Ryo (pronounced “Yo”) Ishikawa is a 17-year-old who is making his PGA Tour debut this week, after already receiving a rare and coveted invitation from Augusta National GC to play in The Masters this year.
ESPN goes a little further in their pronunciation:
Ryo Ishikawa (pronounced “Yo-Yo”) is 17, still in high school, and already a top five earner on Japan’s pro golf tour.
Even the New York Times couldn’t hear the “りょ” in his name:
“Yo,” he said. “Repeat after me. ‘Yo. Yo.’ ”
Maybe he should have just told them to pronounce it as “Ri-yo.”
A sushi restaurant in the States has created a “Ryokin’ Roll” to honor the young golfer. Ishikawa is 17-years-old, so it gives the restaurant an excuse to charge $17 for the dish.
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Sounds like Homer Simpson. Repeat after me: “Doh!”.
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i think he is simply charming. kids these days would be better off if they were like him. i hope he is wildly successful.
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I was at the course today. Ryo looked stiff most of the round. He still played decent overall. He held his game. Not too many others shot too well either. It was a tough day with harder pin placements, there was a constant breeze coming off the ocean, and the sky was not as clear and it was slightly cooler when he got out on the course in the afternoon. It was the 1st round that did him in. If he had shot Par-Par, he would’ve made the cut. For a 17-year old kid, he did great.
If the Yanks would speak ENGLISH properly without the superfluous hyperbolic pronunciation of the language, they would be able to say RYO without too much hassle. But since they over-pronounce the “R” too much, they are unable to get their tongue around it to get to the Y, so they end up skipping the R because the force of the Yankee pronounced R just won’t let them combine the compound sound.
Same goes for when they tried to pronouce HYUNDAI, they could not get their mouth around to pronouncing it, so they call it HUN-DAY. Ridiculous. Which is actually a play on HONDA, anyways.
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Wide credentials upon the unknown potential holder who seeks it among the rest.
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の使用オンライン訳者
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それは丁度私がしたことである
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ROFL@ESPN
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HAHAHAHA Tiger returns next week!!! 15min of fame over.
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