Metallikid wrote:But why though? Obviously he knows enough to be conversational but the value to having a larger vocabulary is that you can more accurately describe things, and this is especially true of English which is much less hampered by strict grammar.
Comfort. Being in front of a camera, on live television, is a scenario that puts more pressure on one's linguistic skills than talking about baseball with other baseball players. Ichiro had an interpreter his whole career; he spoke excellent English (the biggest flaw in his English, and part of the reason he apparently didn't use it in public, is that he cursed prolifically).