Rui Machida, who contributed to the runner-up of Fujitsu Red Wave, will join WNBA’s Washington Mystics to prepare for the new season that will start on May 6th. However, it is not easy for Japan national team Machida to adjust to a new team. Especially for foreign teams with language barriers. Machida’s encouraging ally is Ki Takei, who is in charge of interpreting. He went to Tokai University from Hiryu High School, went to the United States alone after graduating from university, and is currently a GA (Graduate Assistant = graduate student coach) & player development coach of NCAA Division 2 Southern Arkansas University Men’s Basketball Club. We asked Takei how he approached his dream and his thoughts on Machida.
“I started to be aware of America when I saw the movie Spider-Man.”
──Please introduce yourself again.
Born in Bangkok (Thailand), Southeast Asia. Due to his father’s work, he spent up to 6 years in Bangkok, then returned to Japan and spent elementary school to junior high school in Kanagawa prefecture, and high school went to Shizuoka prefecture.
──When did you start playing basketball? Also, please tell us your achievements.
I’ve been playing basketball since my second year of elementary school because my friend invited me to play basketball. There is no track record at that time. I had never won a championship in the prefecture during the minibus era, and I was at a level where I could compete in the last-minute prefectural tournament.
──Please tell us how you decided to go to the prestigious Hiryu High School from there.
When I was in the second year of junior high school, I had the opportunity to play a practice game with Hiryu High School, and when I was in the third year, I wanted two players who were selected for Kanagawa Prefecture. I received various offers in Kanagawa Prefecture, but it was Mr. Harada (Yusaku) who inspired me to choose Hiryu. The moment I saw Mr. Harada, he said, “This person! I thought. The moment he went to practice, he really thought that if he played basketball for this person, he would be stronger, and although he was in the third year of junior high school, my intuition worked.
──Did Mr. Harada give birth to your desire to go to the United States?
Well, I’ve always had an overseas orientation since I was in Thailand. Thailand is a tourist destination, so Europeans and Americans were wearing sunglasses and drinking coffee in the cafeteria, and I thought it was really cool. Originally, I really like English and wanted to learn English, so I wanted to go to the United States, study in the United States, and work in the United States. I started to be aware of America when I saw the movie Spider-Man in the lower grades of elementary school. I fell in love with America when I saw Spider-Man moving through the skyscrapers of New York while using a thread.
When I heard that Professor Harada went to the United States and taught as a coach in Los Angeles, he said, “America! “have become. I wanted to talk to someone who actually experienced America.
──After that, you went on to Tokai University. Please tell us how you got to the United States from there.
I was only 160 cm tall and was the smallest, but I was still able to join Team B, and when I was in the second grade, I was able to participate in a rookie match. But in the second half of my second year of college, I broke my left leg. I had the ambition to come back, but I had surgery and couldn’t play at all. It’s been three years and it’s been a good time to face myself while I’m in the hospital, like what to do with my career plan. At that time, I really decided to go to America, and at the beginning of my fourth year at university, the basketball club retired.
I worked hard to earn 1 million yen to go to America. I also went to Hiryu for practical training. Instead of playing basketball, I graduated with a teacher’s license and concentrated on saving money with three part-time jobs. Until August when I went to the United States, I had been working part-time since I graduated.
“I am confident that I studied at the expense of everything.”
──You are ready to go to the United States. Did you just enter university?
At first, I entered a school that was not a university or a graduate school, but prepared to enter the university. So one goal was to become a college basketball coach. I enrolled in Division 2 Southern Arkansas Graduate School in April because I thought that the tuition fee was cheap and I could get in touch with the players more than Division 1.
──Of course, all communication is done in English, isn’t it? Wasn’t it difficult to prepare for English?
I was studying every day when I was in Japan. I am confident that I have studied at the expense of everything and have done so much that I can say that I am crazy. It wasn’t perfect, but I was confident that I was prepared accordingly, so there wasn’t that much language barrier.
I tried to imitate it when people who gave speeches in English thought it was cool, and from a young age I practiced speaking English in public at home. It’s really fast, but I tried studying Eminem’s lyrics. I’m having fun, but that’s what I’ve been preparing for over 10 years.
── Do you have any advice for those who are trying to challenge overseas or who want to learn English?
I want you to set the language setting of your mobile phone to English first without looking at Japanese media. I don’t really believe if I want to go to America with the language setting on my mobile phone still in Japanese. I felt as if I had been to America, and I said all my soliloquy in English. I think it’s difficult if you don’t do it with that feeling.
──I use the hashtag “Ambition in reality” on SNS, but please give some advice to children who lack ambition and ambition.
I think it’s better to have confidence, but I think it’s better to throw away all your ego and pride. My ego can get in the way when I hit a wall. You definitely need the courage to recover if you get hit somewhere. If there is a language barrier, it can be really pressure when you can’t say it back, so I think it’s important to be prepared to have the feeling of repelling it from the time you’re in Japan.
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