LPGA to golfers: speak English or get off the tour

[Anthea Fraser Gupta]

More on UK Radio (BBC Radio 4, Today Programme) today. Some complacency
from UK golfers who claim that they learnt (very) basic Japanese to play
in Japan, but Americans never have a go. Suggestion that the French and
Swiss should retaliate with requirement for French.  Also a suggestion
that it would be reasonable with a 4 year lead-in so that the Koreans
had time to learn English.
 
Listen to it at:
 
http://news.bbc.co.uk/today/hi/today/newsid_7587000/7587332.stm
<http://news.bbc.co.uk/today/hi/today/newsid_7587000/7587332.stm>  (8.30
-- the sports news)
 
Anthea


*     *     *     *     *
Anthea Fraser Gupta (Dr)
School of English, University of Leeds, LS2 9JT
<www.leeds.ac.uk/english/staff/afg>
NB: Reply to a.f.gupta at leeds.ac.uk
*     *     *     *     *
  

 


________________________________

	From: owner-lgpolicy-list at ccat.sas.upenn.edu
[mailto:owner-lgpolicy-list at ccat.sas.upenn.edu] On Behalf Of Dennis
Baron
	Sent: 29 August 2008 06:11
	To: language language policy; ads ads; wpa; Baron Dennis
	Subject: LPGA to golfers: speak English or get off the tour
	
	
	There's a new post on the Web of Language
<http://illinois.edu/goto/weboflanguage> : LPGA to golfers: speak
English or get off the tour 

	The LPGA is going English-only
<http://www.golfweek.com/protours/lpga/> . Following the lead of the
Salvation Army
<http://illinois.edu/blog/view?blogId=25&topicId=1013&count=1&ACTION=VIE
W_TOPIC_DIALOGS&skinId=286> , St. Anne Catholic School
<http://illinois.edu/blog/view?blogId=25&topicId=2084&count=1&ACTION=VIE
W_TOPIC_DIALOGS&skinId=286> , and Geno's Steaks
<http://illinois.edu/blog/view?blogId=25&topicId=73&count=1&ACTION=VIEW_
TOPIC_DIALOGS&skinId=286> , the Ladies Professional Golf Association has
made English its official language. Not only that, the association told
the Korean golfers on the tour that even if they're winning tournaments,
they'll have to start speaking English by 2009 or face suspension.
	 

	The LPGA defended its new rule by arguing that golf is
entertainment as well as sport. It further insisted that amateurs
playing with the Korean pros in U.S. pro-am tournaments were not amused
when their partners couldn't sufficiently entertain them in English.

	 

	While requiring golfers to speak English feeds into the ongoing
mania for declaring English official everywhere Americans gather, golf
itself originated not in the U.S. but in Scotland, in the 15th century.
The sport, or entertainment, if you prefer, didn't become popular in
England for another 150 years, and it didn't cross the Atlantic
<http://www.charlestononlinehomes.com/Golf_Course_Homes/page_1709069.htm
l>  until the 1780s, when Scottish merchants set up the first course in
Charleston, South Carolina.

	 

	Presumably women were excluded from the South Carolina Golf
Club, as this first golf course was known, along with Africans and the
occasional Jew or Catholic who might turn up, regardless of whether or
not they brought their own clubs, or their willingness to entertain the
members. . . . 

	read the rest on the Web of Language
<http://illinois.edu/goto/weboflanguage> 
	
	
	
	
	
	
	____________________
	
	Dennis Baron
	Professor of English and Linguistics
	Department of English                    
	University of Illinois 
	608 S. Wright St.
	Urbana, IL 61801                                               
	
	
	office: 217-244-0568
	fax: 217-333-4321
	
	
	http://illinois.edu/goto/debaron
	
	
	read the Web of Language:
	http://illinois.edu/goto/weboflanguage
	
	







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