Igor: so he still needs an interpreter after 3 years here?

[Bostonzamboni]

Hmm...on ESPN's game 7 NYR-Carolina game, I learned that Igor has been here about 3 years, yet still needs an interpreter. I don't closely follow the Rangers, so wasn't aware.

Is this disappointing, or only somewhat disappointing (if at all) to the Rangers, their fans and the NHL that any player, esp. a star, hasn't learned enough English after 3 years to engage in a quick intermission interview?

I realize some or many Russian NHL players (and maybe others?) have thick accents even after many years in North America, but after 3 years, don't most or all seem to be able to function in simple interviews without an interpreter?

Is this common in MLB or the NBA? I do recall interpreters, maybe even currently, in other sports, but isn't it usually for the player's first year or so, not three years later?

I am American, and sadly only know English despite foreign language courses in high school and even a few advanced French courses in college, decades ago. I do realize how hard it is as an adult to learn a new language if not immersed in it, which I never was. But hockey players are indeed immersed in English in the NHL, so isn't three years too long to still need an interpreter?

Any current pro stars in other North American sports require an interpreter?

...

Oh, and Canes fans never serenaded Igor tonight (or all series?) unlike Pens fans. They should have started at puck drop! No excuse.

 

[Skiiiiiiinerrr]

No. Some people pick up language easily, some do not. It's completely fine that he has an interpreter.

 

[Bostonzamboni]

No. Some people pick up language easily, some do not. It's completely fine that he has an interpreter.

Fair enough, I guess.

But imagine if that were the case for all or most international players. Not good for any sport trying to attract fans.

 

[User9992]

I know russians. They aren't very good at learning foreign languages. But there are some exceptions of course.

 

[Ratatoskr]

No. Some people pick up language easily, some do not. It's completely fine that he has an interpreter.

This is one side of it. Another is that not all people are equally comfortable speaking in public, let alone in a foreign language. I'd guess he's picked up enough English to get by, but maybe he's just more comfortable with an interpreter when doing press conferences and the like.

 

[Holocene]

hell panarin goes back and forth between english and using the translator

 

[Zach716]

If he continues to do his job on the ice that’s what NYR cares about most but he should probably learn the language for his teammates benefit.

There’s not really a great reason to not know enough 3 years in when you still need a translator. Also I don’t know Russian education but I know a lot of countries teach English growing up, similar to us where we have to pick Spanish or French.

 

[BLNY]

Hmm...on ESPN's game 7 NYR-Carolina game, I learned that Igor has been here about 3 years, yet still needs an interpreter. I don't closely follow the Rangers, so wasn't aware.

Is this disappointing, or only somewhat disappointing (if at all) to the Rangers, their fans and the NHL that any player, esp. a star, hasn't learned enough English after 3 years to engage in a quick intermission interview?

I realize some or many Russian NHL players (and maybe others?) have thick accents even after many years in North America, but after 3 years, don't most or all seem to be able to function in simple interviews without an interpreter?

Is this common in MLB or the NBA? I do recall interpreters, maybe even currently, in other sports, but isn't it usually for the player's first year or so, not three years later?

I am American, and sadly only know English despite foreign language courses in high school and even a few advanced French courses in college, decades ago. I do realize how hard it is as an adult to learn a new language if not immersed in it, which I never was. But hockey players are indeed immersed in English in the NHL, so isn't three years too long to still need an interpreter?

Any current pro stars in other North American sports require an interpreter?

...

Oh, and Canes fans never serenaded Igor tonight (or all series?) unlike Pens fans. They should have started at puck drop! No excuse.

He may be comfortable speaking to teammates in the locker room, but not in front of a camera.

 

[HungryFrank]

if you look at it from the other side: in Europe, there are many North American players living a long time and for example in Austria.

A Canadian player after 10 years of consecutive play in Austria (and 15 years living/playing in german-speaking leagues) is trying to get Austrian citizenship to avoid being a foreigner under federation rules. The level B1 is required and that's probably on that game interview level... if you are confident enough. He failed the test and is requiring additional lessons.

A Canadian coach is living in Austria since 1978 (that's 44 years!) and he can speak German (pretty Austrian in his case), but still uses a lot of English hockey phrases.

Bigger the country the more unlikely they are to learn the foreign language. In Europe, a small piece of land with a lot of languages, people are more likely to learn a foreign language.

 

[McNurse]

English is a very hard language to learn

 

[Zenos]

if you look at it from the other side: in Europe, there are many North American players living a long time and for example in Austria.

A Canadian player after 10 years of consecutive play in Austria (and 15 years living/playing in german-speaking leagues) is trying to get Austrian citizenship to avoid being a foreigner under federation rules. The level B1 is required and that's probably on that game interview level... if you are confident enough. He failed the test and is requiring additional lessons.

A Canadian coach is living in Austria since 1978 (that's 44 years!) and he can speak German (pretty Austrian in his case), but still uses a lot of English hockey phrases.

Bigger the country the more unlikely they are to learn the foreign language. In Europe, a small piece of land with a lot of languages, people are more likely to learn a foreign language.

I don’t want to completely excuse someone for living so long in a country and not even having a basic grasp of the language, but just to explain a bit - many European teams operate in English as their day-to-day language. Just out of necessity as many players and staff don’t speak the local language very well.

 

[jetsforever]

Hmm...on ESPN's game 7 NYR-Carolina game, I learned that Igor has been here about 3 years, yet still needs an interpreter. I don't closely follow the Rangers, so wasn't aware.

Is this disappointing, or only somewhat disappointing (if at all) to the Rangers, their fans and the NHL that any player, esp. a star, hasn't learned enough English after 3 years to engage in a quick intermission interview?

I realize some or many Russian NHL players (and maybe others?) have thick accents even after many years in North America, but after 3 years, don't most or all seem to be able to function in simple interviews without an interpreter?

Is this common in MLB or the NBA? I do recall interpreters, maybe even currently, in other sports, but isn't it usually for the player's first year or so, not three years later?

I am American, and sadly only know English despite foreign language courses in high school and even a few advanced French courses in college, decades ago. I do realize how hard it is as an adult to learn a new language if not immersed in it, which I never was. But hockey players are indeed immersed in English in the NHL, so isn't three years too long to still need an interpreter?

Any current pro stars in other North American sports require an interpreter?

...

Oh, and Canes fans never serenaded Igor tonight (or all series?) unlike Pens fans. They should have started at puck drop! No excuse.

Pretty common in MLB I believe, among Dominican and Japanese players for example
In fact, 2 top MVP finalists from last year and superstars (Guerrero and Ohtani) both regularly use interpreters

 

[Three On Zero]

Hmm...on ESPN's game 7 NYR-Carolina game, I learned that Igor has been here about 3 years, yet still needs an interpreter. I don't closely follow the Rangers, so wasn't aware.

Is this disappointing, or only somewhat disappointing (if at all) to the Rangers, their fans and the NHL that any player, esp. a star, hasn't learned enough English after 3 years to engage in a quick intermission interview?

I realize some or many Russian NHL players (and maybe others?) have thick accents even after many years in North America, but after 3 years, don't most or all seem to be able to function in simple interviews without an interpreter?

Is this common in MLB or the NBA? I do recall interpreters, maybe even currently, in other sports, but isn't it usually for the player's first year or so, not three years later?

I am American, and sadly only know English despite foreign language courses in high school and even a few advanced French courses in college, decades ago. I do realize how hard it is as an adult to learn a new language if not immersed in it, which I never was. But hockey players are indeed immersed in English in the NHL, so isn't three years too long to still need an interpreter?

Any current pro stars in other North American sports require an interpreter?

...

Oh, and Canes fans never serenaded Igor tonight (or all series?) unlike Pens fans. They should have started at puck drop! No excuse.

He's paid to stop pucks not speak english. I don't think many will care if he uses an interpreter if he is doing his job

 

[Speedtrials]

Doesn't bother me at all.

 

[Elvs]

Fair enough, I guess.

But imagine if that were the case for all or most international players. Not good for any sport trying to attract fans.

Imagine pigs could fly. Nearly all international hockey players grow up learning English in school, and it's not about to change, unless China takes over all of Europe, or something.

 

[PeteWorrell]

I have spent a lot of time with people from Slavic countries and it is not only Russians that have trouble and it is not only with the English language. Russian, Bulgarian, Ukrainian etc are very different to languages like English, French, German... That is why many of them struggle and have thick accents for most of their lives. It is very frustrating for them as they feel limited and cannot express themselves as well as they would like to.

 

[Zenos]

I have spent a lot of time with people from Slavic countries and it is not only Russians that have trouble and it is not only with the English language. Russian, Bulgarian, Ukrainian etc are very different to languages like English, French, German... That is why many of them struggle and have thick accents for most of their lives. It is very frustrating for them as they feel limited and cannot express themselves as well as they would like to.

I think it has much, much more to do with the education system in those countries than any kind of inherent difficulties because of speaking a Slavic language as a mother tongue. Just look at a place like Finland; the language has nothing to do with English, yet most people speak the language very proficiently. And even if we isolate for just Slavic : you’ll find a lot more English speakers in Czechia or Slovenia for example.

 

[Elvs]

I have spent a lot of time with people from Slavic countries and it is not only Russians that have trouble and it is not only with the English language. Russian, Bulgarian, Ukrainian etc are very different to languages like English, French, German... That is why many of them struggle and have thick accents for most of their lives. It is very frustrating for them as they feel limited and cannot express themselves as well as they would like to.

Another factor than Slavic and Germanic languages being different, is the different alphabets some countries use. For example, Czechia, Slovakia and Poland are using the latin alphabet, and so it's easier for them to learn English than the countries you mentioned, Russia, Bulgaria and Ukraine, who are using the cyrillic alphabet.

But school is the main factor, I think. If I am not mistaken, in the first group of countries, English is mandatory in school nowadays. I don't think that's the case with the other group. The first group is also influenced more by western culture.

 

[Doctyl]

Hmm...on ESPN's game 7 NYR-Carolina game, I learned that Igor has been here about 3 years, yet still needs an interpreter. I don't closely follow the Rangers, so wasn't aware.

Is this disappointing, or only somewhat disappointing (if at all) to the Rangers, their fans and the NHL that any player, esp. a star, hasn't learned enough English after 3 years to engage in a quick intermission interview?

I realize some or many Russian NHL players (and maybe others?) have thick accents even after many years in North America, but after 3 years, don't most or all seem to be able to function in simple interviews without an interpreter?

Is this common in MLB or the NBA? I do recall interpreters, maybe even currently, in other sports, but isn't it usually for the player's first year or so, not three years later?

I am American, and sadly only know English despite foreign language courses in high school and even a few advanced French courses in college, decades ago. I do realize how hard it is as an adult to learn a new language if not immersed in it, which I never was. But hockey players are indeed immersed in English in the NHL, so isn't three years too long to still need an interpreter?

Any current pro stars in other North American sports require an interpreter?

...

Oh, and Canes fans never serenaded Igor tonight (or all series?) unlike Pens fans. They should have started at puck drop! No excuse.

Is it disappointing? His skin could be green, he could have 2 heads, 3 arms, and be completely mute and I wouldn’t give a flying f*** if he keeps putting up .930 seasons.

 

[Seiza]

And even if we isolate for just Slavic : you’ll find a lot more English speakers in Czechia or Slovenia for example.

I have a lot of colleagues in Slovenia that I speak with every week and in general, they are good English speakers. At least the younger generations.

 

[PeteWorrell]

I think it has much, much more to do with the education system in those countries than any kind of inherent difficulties because of speaking a Slavic language as a mother tongue. Just look at a place like Finland; the language has nothing to do with English, yet most people speak the language very proficiently. And even if we isolate for just Slavic : you’ll find a lot more English speakers in Czechia or Slovenia for example.

Finnish people struggle less with English because they focus on teaching it at school. Not the case in many places in Eastern Europe where Russian will be taught as a second language. I have met people who spoke seven languages most of them being Slavic so learning a new language was not an issue when it was more closely related to their mother tongue.

 

[Rufus T Firefly]

Watching the KHL, there are North Americans that play there for much more than 3 years and can't speak Russian and have to use an interpreter. The gap between Russian and English is pretty big linguistically with grammar, syntax and words that often have little in common, much bigger than French/Spanish to English for example. It is also much easier to insulate oneself in a large foreign city if one can find a community of fellow native speakers than you might think. I'm guessing NYC has a decently sized Russian-speaking population and the need to speak English might not be that large depending on his social circle. There can also be a pretty large gap in passive and active language ability, where he might understand what the interpreter asks, but have difficulty in conveying his thoughts, his personality and the image he wants to present in English, all of which may make him uncomfortable doing an interview in English.

Besides, I think it's much better that he expresses himself in his own language and you get a better interview (albeit through a translator) than a stilted, very basic English interview where nothing is really gained (not that one ever really gains all that much from hockey player interviews since they all tend to say the same things over and over).

 

[Zenos]

Finnish people struggle less with English because they focus on teaching it at school.

Yes, that was exactly the point I was trying to make (sorry if it wasn’t clear).
Certainly being close linguistically can help when picking up a second language, but the education system and focus at school seems far more important.

 

[HungryFrank]

Is it disappointing? His skin could be green, he could have 2 heads, 3 arms, and be completely mute and I wouldn’t give a flying f*** if he keeps putting up .930 seasons.

With 2 heads and 3 arms .930 isn't that impressive

 

[Hennessy]

I've lived in Sweden 20 years and my Swedish sucks. I've got conversational stuff down, but when I need to be more precise I can't muster it. It doesn't help that Swedes speak English to me even when I'm using Swedish. Has made it easy to be lazy.
I understand Swedish fine, at least.
Point being, 3 years for a player that speaks Russian isn't obscene.