play nice together

本日のJTに興味深い記事が載っています。English and Japanese just don't always play nice together ...　通訳者時代に、そして今、現在もこの２つの言語の間で右往左往している（させられている）わたしには諸手をあげて賛成です。ここはプロ野球の話ですが、納得のエピソードが綴られています。お読みください。（UG）

Foreign players' message sometimes lost in translation

By JASON COSKREY
Staff writer
Foreign ballplayers in Japan have had their words misunderstood for as long as there have been foreign ballplayers in Japan.

Say that again: The language barrier is something players such as Hanshin's Matt Murton have to navigate in Japan. KYODO
It doesn't happen all the time, and sometimes the results are humorous, such as many years ago when a former Lotte batter asked interpreter Toyo Kunimitsu for his batting tee, only to have Kunimitsu ask if he wanted sugar and lemon with it.

Linguistically, English and Japanese just don't always play nice together, and mixups are bound to happen from time to time.

"Some Japanese expressions don't translate well," said best-selling author and Japanese baseball historian Robert Whiting in an email. "(Former Taiyo Whales interpreter Tadahiro) Ushigome translated 'gambatte' — exhortations from the manager or front office — as 'do your best,' which offended some Americans, and they would answer back that they always did their best. So after a while, Ushigome learned to translate 'gambatte' as 'good luck' and then everything was OK."

http://www.japantimes.co.jp/text/sb20120618j1.html#.T97zPxx7GjQ