Lost in translation
Posted in News on Sunday October 23rd, 2005 9:45pm
Anna Kessel in The Observer:
The Manchester United midfielder was the centre of attention again last Tuesday night when he came on to replace Ryan Giggs in the Champions League game against Lille. Giggs, United’s captain, passed on the captain’s armband as he came off, expecting Park to hand it to Rio Ferdinand. Park thought it was meant for him, wore it for the last seven minutes of the match, and was mobbed after the game by Asian journalists who wanted to know what he thought about the honour of having been Manchester United captain.
Ferdinand looked on disapprovingly. A cultural misunderstanding. It was not the first and it will not be the last.
‘I’ve had fans coming up to me and speaking Chinese or Japanese,’ says Park. ‘It’s not a case of mistaken nationality. I just don’t think they realise that we don’t all speak the same language.
‘There is no question that Korean footballers have the ability to play in Europe,’ he continues. ‘The real challenge is whether they will be able to adapt to western culture.’ Asked to elaborate, he smiles sagely. It is difficult to know where to begin.
As Premiership clubs continue to scour the far reaches of the globe for talent, a new criterion of club expertise is becoming essential: the ability to assimilate a player with a completely foreign culture. It is a process that goes far beyond the realm of linguistics. Cultural differences run deep.
Park describes how, arriving in Europe, he discovered a football playing culture very different from his own. ‘In Korea if a player doesn’t play well, you would never criticise him, but in European countries fans criticise their own teams, sometimes they boo them off the pitch,’ he says, incredulous.
‘In Korea if a player makes a mistake, the other players don’t like to point it out, rather they try to embrace it, they take the attitude, “Let’s do better next time”. But in the West if you do something wrong another player will make a point of saying something and you will have to fix it immediately.’
View other posts by Administrator
