Quote:
Originally Posted by Dimman
Could be his translator girl, too. I do conversational English language instruction once a week here with Japanese ESL students.
What I've learned:
A) Japanese women have little interest in automotive stuff. (Everyone's shocked, I know...)
B) Technical stuff doesn't translate easily.
C) Japanese don't often stop me and ask for clarifications, usually just nod and agree when they don't understand something I say. I have to catch that they are not getting something myself, and back up.
So put A + B + C and you don't have the best starting point for a good translation about cars, especially for a super-pumped, hyper-stimulated car fan.
It's also possible his translator was having difficulty keeping up. So the info may have been 'lagging'. There were LFA's there, and they may have been talking about them or the tech. Maybe some comparisons between both, and the translator couldn't keep up, or mixed up some info.
I don't think it was deliberate.
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Dimman, I concurred on what you said about Japanese ESL students. Heck, I think the same can be applied to eastern Asian (Japanese, Kor,ean Chinese) ESL student. It is very common like that.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Ryephile
It's possible; we'll likely never know for sure if the info was intentionally misleading or if it was simply a language translation misstep. Over time, the actual production info will be known.
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That said, I think IIRC Leeky did said that he talked directly to the head of advertising from Toyota (the last picture shown with two guys stand beside him with Mt. Fuji as the background) without using the translator. As per Leeky, he said his translator has done her best to translate his conversation, but for the info about *1000 unit/year* and "handmade* or *LF-A transmission*, I think Leeky got it directly from those two guys, and even Leeky was correcting the mistake those two people said about LF-A has a V-8 (V-10 is the correct answer).
Poor Leeky is just scapegoated by more season journalists. There is no need to judge his intelligence just because he passed something he heard from the people at scene.