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I felt that there won't be much interest for golf, much less the women's tour in the Sports and Games section so I just decided to post this in Blogs instead where I can vent my irritation at how dumb people can be.
http://sports.espn.go.com/golf/columns/story?columnist=sirak_ron&id=3555947
Basically, the article is about the LPGA about to pass a law stating that all of their players have to be somewhat fluent in English, which basically fucks over almost ALL of the Koreans that play on this tour. Out of roughly 100 or so, 40 of them are Koreans. Out of those 40 Koreans, only about 10 can speak passable English.
Annoys the hell out of me that they're going to pass a law about language requirements in a sport. Seriously, is it necessary for a foreign basketball player to be able to speak English to play against an American as long as they are on the same page when it comes to rules? I don't see golf as a social sport (it's basically playing against yourself) and making athletes study English when they became athletes because they didn't enjoy studying is completely ridiculous.
Discuss.
EDIT: Obviously I'm probably really biased here because I'm a Korean myself so it would be interesting to get more people into this. 
 
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I'm Korean and golf blows.
But in all seriousness, any of the superstar players should be able to speak English anyway since they learn it in school. Its probably not a bad idea for people to be able to speak a common language in sports, especially team sports because when there is a dispute it can be resolved.
With that said, golf fucking blows. Stop taking the law so personally =/
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Braavos36402 Posts
On August 30 2008 06:23 Ack1027 wrote:
I'm Korean and golf blows.
But in all seriousness, any of the superstar players should be able to speak English anyway since they learn it in school. Its probably not a bad idea for people to be able to speak a common language in sports, especially team sports because when there is a dispute it can be resolved.
With that said, golf fucking blows. Stop taking the law so personally =/
it's not a team sport. that aside, while having english skills in golf can be a positive (you can do more PR for yourself, have more advertisers and fans) there should never be a requirement for minimum english level. no major sport has this sort of language requirement; all it does is make it harder for international players to succeed. if the LPGA wants more interviews and publicity, they can do other things to achieve those goals.
and i don't see how your personal hate for golf impacts how anyone should feel about this law or its effects. i think it's really irresponsible and stupid for the LPGA to do something like this. its completely fine for equinox to be offended by this, its not him "taking it personally."
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Its ridiculous and jingoistic. I'm boycotting the LPGA now.
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United States24805 Posts
A more reasonable thing to discuss would be whether or not the pga should legally/morally ban people who can't walk 18 holes (such as some guy who can't walk at all but can hit the ball when strapped to a golf cart) from playing on the tour.
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Braavos36402 Posts
On August 30 2008 07:23 micronesia wrote:
A more reasonable thing to discuss would be whether or not the pga should legally/morally ban people who can't walk 18 holes (such as some guy who can't walk at all but can hit the ball when strapped to a golf cart) from playing on the tour.
i think there are a lot of people that believe the walking 18 holes is part of golf, just like being able to swing a club is... otherwise everyone would be taking carts everywhere? it certainly would've helped tiger to take a cart instead of walk the previous us open...
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On August 30 2008 06:23 Ack1027 wrote:
I'm Korean and golf blows.
But in all seriousness, any of the superstar players should be able to speak English anyway since they learn it in school. Its probably not a bad idea for people to be able to speak a common language in sports, especially team sports because when there is a dispute it can be resolved.
With that said, golf fucking blows. Stop taking the law so personally =/
I'll admit right here that I dislike playing golf, the game pisses me off to no end. But I do enjoy watching professionals play, much like how everybody on this website does with Starcraft matches. But Koreans in the LPGA make the game more competitive for the players and more entertaining for the fans to watch. It's said that with the Koreans in the LPGA the average score went down by about three strokes, which is DAMN impressive.
It's just like telling the Koreans in WCG, "Sorry you can't compete because you can't speak fluent English."
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On August 30 2008 07:11 Hot_Bid wrote:Show nested quote +On August 30 2008 06:23 Ack1027 wrote:
I'm Korean and golf blows.
But in all seriousness, any of the superstar players should be able to speak English anyway since they learn it in school. Its probably not a bad idea for people to be able to speak a common language in sports, especially team sports because when there is a dispute it can be resolved.
With that said, golf fucking blows. Stop taking the law so personally =/ it's not a team sport. that aside, while having english skills in golf can be a positive (you can do more PR for yourself, have more advertisers and fans) there should never be a requirement for minimum english level. no major sport has this sort of language requirement; all it does is make it harder for international players to succeed. if the LPGA wants more interviews and publicity, they can do other things to achieve those goals. and i don't see how your personal hate for golf impacts how anyone should feel about this law or its effects. i think it's really irresponsible and stupid for the LPGA to do something like this. its completely fine for equinox to be offended by this, its not him "taking it personally."
Didn't say it was a team sport. I said it *would be especially for team sports*
He took it personally. He admitted he was biased? ' Obviously I'm probably really biased here because I'm a Korean myself '
Koreans learn English in school: fact.
Didn't tell anyone to hate golf because of my personal hate for golf. It's a forum, it's a blog, I expressed my opinion.
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By the way read the article:
" that all players with at least two years' seniority have sufficient skills in English to manage media interviews, deliver victory speeches and interact at an acceptable level with amateur partners in pro-am competitions. "
If any top Korean golf player can't manage that, then that's completely beyond me. It's not even confirmed 100%
Unwarranted imo.
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I think its ridiculous and jingoistic. We should be flattered that other cultures are interested in our sport, rather than offended that they don't speak our language.
I feel its more reverse of what Hot_Bid was saying.
We as foreigners are interested in Korea's starcraft scene, much like Koreans are interested in golf (except they actually kick ass at it). This requirement would be like KESPA requiring players to speak Korean (sucks for Idra)
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United States22883 Posts
On August 30 2008 09:22 GeneralStan wrote:
I think its ridiculous and jingoistic. We should be flattered that other cultures are interested in our sport, rather than offended that they don't speak our language.
I feel its more reverse of what Hot_Bid was saying.
We as foreigners are interested in Korea's starcraft scene, much like Koreans are interested in golf (except they actually kick ass at it). This requirement would be like KESPA requiring players to speak Korean (sucks for Idra)
If Idra were a top player, it wouldn't be that unreasonable.
Golf, moreso than other sports, is driven by tournament sponsors and marketing/advertisements are a huge part of that. They want players to be marketable to their main audience (US watchers) and it's difficult to do that if they don't speak English. If this was a team sport, they could get away with it but it's not possible with golf/
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korean women are really good at golf too
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This does suck, koreans dominate. Why not just some translators?
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On August 30 2008 12:21 il0seonpurpose wrote:
This does suck, koreans dominate. Why not just some translators?
that's like saying anyone that works in a country where they don't speak that language should just have a translator around at all times right?
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major American organizations are being racist and are attracting media attention while claiming that all is fair and their rules are on sensible terms when everyone knows it's total bs.
that's a first
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EPT
