Japanese pool player makes most of limited English skills in comedic post-match interview
Naoyuki Oi of Japan had a memorable weekend at the World Pool Masters. He advanced to the quarterfinals after defeating Cheng Yu Hsuan, 8-6, on Saturday, but it was what happened after the match that turned him into a highlight. Oi doesn’t speak much English, so while interviewer Tony Wrighton asked him elaborate questions about the match, Oi couldn’t reciprocate his answers with the same level of vocabulary.
Instead, Oi made the best of his English skills by saying what he knows and being theatrical about it.
Wrighton: “We thought you’d won it, a couple of racks before you did win it.”
Oi: “Mmm. My name is Naoyuki Oi. Today very lucky! Congratulations me! [Oi raises his arms in celebratory fashion] Yay! English a little. No problem. Only so.”
Wrighton: “So, um, so you had that shot to win it, and then you kind of recreated it for the crowd afterwards. When that shot didn’t go in, did you think I might have blown it?”
Oi: “Uh, I have a pen. I have a apple. Oh, eee, apple pen!”
[Then he says something in Japanese that sounds a bit like “sonna kanji” which likely translates to “something like that,” although please, please, please correct me if I’m wrong.]
On Sunday, Oi was eliminated from the tournament after losing to Albin Ouschan, which meant he had one more post-match interview to give before going home. Again, Oi made it clear he did not speak English, and again, he did his best to leave his mark by giving a theatrical farewell for the crowd.
If there’s one regrettable thing about these interviews, it’s that I wish people didn’t view them as a “bizarre” or “weird.” Oi is funny in these moments because he made it apparent that his English isn’t good, and he committed himself to a bit that was built around that fact, a bit that was meant to make people laugh and connect with him, because he has no other way of expressing himself that would be good for the crowd or for TV.
He obviously has a great sense of humor about his English — here he is in 2015 giving a similar, humorous interview — and if he’s interested in learning more, I wish him the best of luck on that (and in winning pool tournaments), and hopefully we’ll see him on TV more.
