Language skills kick off career
Learning a foreign language has led to amanawatu¯ man interpreting for Japanese rugby clubs and the All Blacks.
Rush, 37, has been a Japanese translator for 15 years, but has been at home since Covid-19 interrupted the Japanese rugby season.
Rush works as a translator for the Kobelco Steelers in Kobe, near Osaka. Former All Black Dan Carter has just left the club Kiwis Andy Ellis, Tom Franklin, Richard Buckman and Hayden Parker play for. Former All Blacks coach Wayne Smith is on the coaching staff. The Japan Top League competition was called off in February due to Covid-19 so Rush came home, but he plans to go back to Japan in August.
Last year he was a translator for the All Blacks during the Rugby World Cup in Japan, where he worked at press conferences and gave the All Blacks local information. He said the All Blacks embraced Japanese culture.
‘‘Being able to say a few things in someone else’s language shows you’re really trying to get into the culture.’’
Rush said working with the All Blacks was a dream.
Being a Japanese translator not born in Japan was rare, and cultural intelligence was important. A lot of his cultural experiences had aided his work.
For the Steelers he works at training, game day and during player-coach meetings. During games he acts as water boy and delivers messages from the coach.
Rush learnt Japanese by chance. When he was year 10 at high school he missed out on an overseas exchange for being too young, but later replaced someone who pulled out of a Japanese exchange. Rush ended up in Yokohama for a year.
When he finished school he went back to Japan and learnt Japanese while working at an amusement park. He returned to New Zealand and went to tertiary education institute IPU New Zealand. When he graduated he was offered a job in IPU’S Tokyo office. He spent seven years interpreting for the Kintetsu Liners club, came back to New Zealand and worked in recruitment for IPU, and then returned to Japan to join the Steelers.
Rush has a Japanese wife, who has been in New Zealand with their two children, aged 3 and 5, since the start of the year. While Rush has been at home he ran an online course for IPU students learning to be translators.