Tomedes Blog

Not many people get the opportunity to do what they want to do, enjoy it and make a living out of it. Kenji Nimura, an erstwhile Spanish is among the lucky few who have been able to achieve the aforementioned. Nimura is a part of the Dodgers, he works as the interpreter for their Japanese players who understand very little of the English language.

Nimura who is 37 years old, was born in Japan. Life would have turned out to be much different had his family stayed back in Japan. Fate however, had other things in store – in 1983, his father was driven to Los Angeles in the search for new opportunities as the family’s import business in Japan was struggling to survive. Young Kenji was uprooted from familiar surroundings and transported to an alien L.A. His knowledge of the English language was limited to barely a few words, and he found himself to be the sole Japanese kid in a Latino school. All this and the loneliness stressed him out so much that it took him several weeks before he could go to school without vomiting.

Time passed and as he began getting familiar with Spanish he started liking the language. The language became a nurturing force which began and strengthened his friendship with the Latino children in his school. These new friends, many of whom were themselves outsiders, became a lifeline for Kenji. His other lifeline were The Dodgers, his hero being Steve Sax. Kenji used to imagine being a Dodger just like Sax. But life had other things in store for him, perhaps unknowingly Kenji’s English was polished by listening to Vin Scully and after three years of classes in English as a second language he moved on to the next level. After six years in Los Angeles, he had friends of all kinds – Latinos, Asians, whites, blacks, straight arrows, slackers, jocks, and surfers.

Kenji went on to teach Spanish to a wide range of people, from rich students at a private high school, to working-class ones at a junior college, to the members of the Japanese community in L.A. It was in 2007 that Kenji and his father became fans of Takashi Saito who was the Dodgers’ Japanese pitcher. Soon enough he came to know that the team was getting another Japanese player, Kuroda and would be requiring the services of an interpreter. Kenji submitted his resume on a lark and received his call within a week. He got the job after a single interview and considers that to be the proudest moments of his life. For Kenji, the Dodgers’ are not only his favorite team, but also a team that has global reach and that which stands for the things that he believes in.

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