Saturday, March 19, 2011
The LPGA
In class a couple weeks ago, there was a discussion about a rule in the LPGA requiring all athletes to be able to speak English. The rule was said to be the result of a lack of communication between several tour players, a considerable amount who are Asian, and sponsors. The discussion within class made me think about other possible reasons the LPGA would create such a rule, and something that stuck out to me was the use of this rule as a scare tactic. By requiring those athletes who cannot speak English to learn or suffer the consequences, which originally were talked as being fines or suspensions, successful athletes had more to worry about than their English speaking counterparts. After looking up more information on this topic from the LPGA website, http://www.lpga.com/, I was able to find information on the KOLON-LPGA Cross-Cultural Professional Development Program. This program was developed to "offer educational and cross-cultural training for all members" (LPGA). There are topics such as learning a new language and cross-cultural interactions discussed on the webpage. This program seems to be a better alternative because it encourages all tour members to learn about the different cultures that make up this international organization. However, it seems the LPGA needs to take more care with how it responds to diversity. Another example would be the recent controversy regarding the rule stating to be a member of the LPGA tour you must be born female. Although overturned in 2010, it was not until a lawsuit was filed and a threat of losing the ability to play tournaments in the state of California
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Hi Courtney,
ReplyDeleteI think it’s unfair to require athletes who cannot speak English to learn or suffer the consequences, because athletes who cannot speak English do not against any game rules. It reminds me what happens in China. All Chinese children in school have to learn English as a required course. But most of Chinese barely have chances to talk to foreigners or go abroad. I think students should have the right to decide whether or not to learn English or other languages. Similarly, athletes also have right to speak English or hire a translator.
It is amazing to me that this rule was ever put into effect in the first place. You think of 'American' Sports and the melting pot that we say we are and other slogans like that and yet we tell women (who already started behind the eight ball with sport) that they can only participate if they can speak english. That concept is rediculous! Im glad to hear that there is a program that can help everyone learn about everyone - you would think that that would have been the first rule they put in place.
ReplyDeleteI don't mean to be an echo, but I absolutely agree with Yu and Sarah. It is absolutely shocking that the LPGA would put such a rule into effect. Being an avid baseball fan, I look at the MLB and the vast number of cultures that go into those teams. There are players of American, Dominican, Cuban, Japanese, Korean, etc. descent, and they all seem to get along just fine, language barriers and all. While I do think that the cultural education program you discussed is a very positive step, the implementation of the language rule definitely shows that the LPGA still has a long way to go towards encouraging true cultural understanding.
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