FORT MYERS, Fla. (AP) – It’s fastballs, fielding drills and, now, flashcards for Daisuke Matsuzaka’s fellow Boston Red Sox pitchers.

Sachiyo Sekiguchi, a Red Sox media relations employee who’s also Matsuzaka’s translator, distributed laminated English-to-Japanese flash cards to a handful of Red Sox pitchers.

Sekiguchi printed the cards on her home computer, then bound them with a single ring. Among the first recipients were Tim Wakefield, Brendan Donnelly and Mike Timlin, each with his own name written in kanji, or Japanese symbols, on the cover card.

Timlin said he already got a start on learning Japanese with an English-to-Japanese dictionary he received from his brother for Christmas.

“It’s difficult, like Spanish, because they speak so fast,” Timlin said. “You can say something in Spanish to a guy and it won’t sound the same if he says it back because he knows what syllables he can knock off or words he can run into.”

The packs have introductory phrases, social greetings and some baseball specific terminology, as well as some translations for “Want to go out for a drink?” “Good-looking,” “Don’t be afraid,” and “Stupid.”

“You know, like you’re being silly,” Sekiguchi said.

Julian Tavarez got his hands on one set of flashcards and playfully yelled “Hotteke!” – which roughly translates to “Leave me alone” – to the six photographers who followed Matsuzaka’s game of catch with Hideki Okajima.