Conveying foreignness

Rafael Nadal on his ATP blog: I've been reading some of your comments about my blog on one of the web pages. Believe me, it is me doing it. I'm not physically writing it, I don't have the skills to write so fast. But I talk to someone from the ATP and he types it in English. My team and I have been talking about doing a blog since January or February. We thought the best time to do it was during Roland Garros. It is me doing it and I enjoy it. ...

Also, people have asked me about my diet. I don't have a special diet but obviously I have to take care with what I eat. I eat pasta, meat and pizza. One thing I don't like is tomato. Even with pasta I prefer to have it without tomato. Also, I don't like cheese. Some people tell me I will like it when I get older but for the moment I don't like it.

Ah, Europe and America--two continents separated by a common cuisine. He loves pizza, but doesn't like tomato or cheese... just tells you how far afield our version of pizza has become.

Nadal's blog is great, he makes all sortsof of interesting and funny comments, sometimes without intent; and does a good job of showing what the life of a professional tennis player is like (lots of time in the hotel, and on the massage table). I especially like the way the blog reads; either whoever's transcribing it for the ATP either isn't a native speaker of English, or s/he is purposely trying to convey Nadal's 'Spanishness.'

It's like in an English-language movie set in Japan when they have all the Japanese characters speaking fractured English, even though obviously that person would really be speaking fluent Japanese.

Nadal, by the way, in the first round at the French Open broke the record for most consecutive victories on clay, previously held by Guillermo Vilas at 53. As someone on CNNSI's excellent tennis section mentioned, now he only needs 71 more to match Chris Evert's mark of 125 straight wins. The men's game is too competitive for that to ever happen, but it does bring to mind that tennis is one of the only sports where the women's game is as much as and at times more popular than the men's game.

Uncredited Getty Image photo of Rafael Nadal moving to the second round at the French Open via the ATP website.