Yesterday in class, we talked about how the LPGA imposed a rule stating that every player has to speak English. This rule was imposed to diminish the boundaries between the players. LPGA commissioner Carolyn Bivens received a large amount of criticism for this rule that was imposed on the players. This past summer after having to deal with many different complaints and objections to Bivens’s new rule, she stepped down as the commissioner. However, I wonder if the complaints that she was receiving were really that fair.
Carolyn Bivens was trying to reduce the boundaries between the players so that there were not nearly the troubles that there are with communication while playing. The trouble is that there must be a translator for the players that cannot speak the English language and that creates an issue when an English speaking woman is paired with a woman that does not speak English.
I think that what Carolyn was doing was the right thing to do. Most athletes that come to the United State at least put forth an effort to be able to speak English and communicate with others. Although the English may not be that great, they still are trying to make it easier. If I were to go out and be paired with a person that could not speak the same language as me, I would be frustrated because I would not be able to talk to them at all. Any communication I would want to have with them would take longer due to the translation and would probably get fairly annoying.
I am not saying that Carolyn’s rule was completely fair, but I do think that the amount of criticism that she received for this was wrong. She was trying to make it fair for everyone on tour and the majority of players are English speaking. It is only fair to try to make the most dominant language the primary one.
http://sports.outsidethebeltway.com/2009/07/is-lpga-commissioner-carolyn-bivens-about-to-be-ousted/
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I would agree that Carolyn got a lot of heat for something so minor. If someone from over seas is looking to play sports in the U.S. than ya better learn some English. Translators get old and boring and annoying like you said. If CEOs and other heads of big time companies are going to pay X amount of dollars to play in A Pro-am than the LPGA golfers best learn some English.
ReplyDeleteIf players are told that they must learn English to play in the U.S., then it seems reasonable to expect English-speaking players to learn Korean, or other languages when they play at international sites. From what someone said in the earlier class, Bivens took heat for a lot more than the "language debacle" as the attached article referred to it. Apparently, a lot of tournaments were being cut because of her lack of "people skills."
ReplyDeleteI do not think that players should have to speak Korean because is it not an organization in the United States. I would assume that the LPGA is an organization that based out of hte United States, which to me seems logical to make everyone speak english. If the organization was built in Korea, then the players should all be able to speak Korean. It would be fair, but right now everything is based out of the United States and regardless of the fact that there are tournaments overseas, it is still an American tour (to my knowledge).
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