LL-L "Language politics" 2008.08.31 (06) [E]

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L O W L A N D S - L - 30 August 2008 - Volume 06
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From: Sandy Fleming <sandy at scotstext.org>
Subject: LL-L "Language politics" 2008.08.27 (02) [E]

> From: Brooks, Mark <mark.brooks at twc.state.tx.us>
> Subject: Language Policy
>
> A controversy has arisen here in the USA about a new policy of the
> Ladies Professional Golf Association (LPGA).  They have decided to
> require all foreign non-English speaking players to pass an oral test
> on conversational English or they can't play in tournaments.  A batch
> of Korean players feel that the LPGA has targeted them.  It has turned
> into quite a brouhaha.  From an article in Newsday:

>           "LPGA officials do realize they are in the entertainment
> business, and business is not so hot when the winner can't communicate
> with her followers. Also, amateurs pay big money to play in pro-ams.
> Those folks do not believe they get their money's worth when they
> cannot get more than "hello" out of the pro they're teamed with."

I thought one of the strengths of sport was its ability to transcend
language barriers?

I suppose it would be reasonable for a debating society to have such a
rule, though, wouldn't it? So perhaps you can't simply play the
discrimination card in all cases. It's just that you'd think sport would
be the one area where language really wouldn't matter.

I did a Thai cookery course a couple of years ago at the local college.
The teacher was only learning English, so the head chef interpreted her
English into English we could understand. I think the secret here is
that everybody is interested in keeping this thing going. She's making
an effort to learn English. He's used to her English and is prepared to
interpret when we don't understand. We don't care about the quality of
the language, we just want to learn to cook.

Can there really be 45 South Korean women in the association and (given
that money is scarce and employing a professional interpreter would be
prohibitive), there isn't a subset who can act as a facilitator for
their compatriots? Do the Pro and Am golfers really find golf so
uninteresting that halting communication would make the game
unenjoyable?

Sounds to me like the association has worse problems than money or
language!

Sandy Fleming
http://scotstext.org/

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From: Theo Homan <theohoman at yahoo.com>
Subject: LL-L "Language politics" 2008.08.31 (03) [E]

> From: Sandy Fleming <sandy at scotstext.org>
> Subject: LL-L "Language politics" 2008.08.28 (02)

[...]

> It must be one of those EU directives that never happened,
> like the one
> where there was supposed to be a ruling that bananas had to
> pass a
> straightness test. I think the truth is that supermarkets
> encourage
> straight bananas because you can pack more into a box, and
> people have
> noticed the preponderance of straight bananas these days
> (and
> cucumbers!) and made up a story about it being due to an EU
> directive.
> These things always get into the papers, of course!

Hi,

Nono, it is because the EU soon found out that all countries had their own
rules about bananas. And so it was an advantage to transform these rules
into one new rule. Thatcher and her valets had a good laughter about it, and
this laughter is still going on in England.
But let's not forget: England still got its own banana-rules.

vr. gr.
Theo Homan

•

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