Japan has a pro basketball league. Kumamoto’s team is called the Volters (disclaimer: my daughter once served on their cheer squad). They’re not … good in the sense that they tend to pass the ball through the hoop less frequently than their opponents. But they are good in the sense that they’re nice guys and try hard. As such, they’re a perfect Kumamoto team.
One non-Japanese team member, Australian Josh Duinker, recently spoke before a group of high school students at a seminar on human rights. He said that many shy away from speaking to him in English as they’re worried about their language skills, and that sometimes hurts his feelings, and that Japanese should approach communication with non-Japanese speakers to the best of their ability without concern of mistakes.
What a sweet guy. And he’s tall. - William
(Note: It’s been pointed out that Josh is from Australia, not America, and the post has been corrected. Perhaps that’s one reason for his inability to be understood; I’ve had several Australian friends and could only understand about half of what they were saying.)
