Four!

Here's a quick current-events quiz for American golf fans:
Question: When people turn out for the LPGA tour, they are most interested in:
A) Viewing the athletic prowess of the best women golfers in the world.
B) Hearing them speak good English.
If you're confused by the question - and the choice of answers - then you've passed the test. That's exactly how intelligent people ought to respond to the LPGA's requirement that international players not just speak some English, but be English-proficient by 2009 or be suspended. It's befuddling that the Ladies Professional Golf Association would choose to alienate some of the world's best players for the sake of proper English discourse.
This kind of requirement might have been acceptable in the days of American sports of yore, when there were mostly homegrown players on the field and the few female players were subjected to much more personal scrutiny than the men.
These days, sports organizations, from baseball to soccer, are more concerned with how athletes excel in their particular sports than with their looks, their culture or their language skills.
As they must be. To put together winning teams, U.S. sports organizations are now regularly recruiting players from all over the world. Indeed, there are 121 international players on the LPGA tour. When you're a multinational organization of that scope, you've got to expect some language diversity.
So what gives? LPGA officials' reasoning for why they are treading where no other sports league has, including the PGA, is thin, not to mention patronizing.
"In order for them and the LPGA to be most successful, players must be able to effectively communicate with fans, sponsors and media, the vast majority of whom speak English," LPGA Commissioner Carolyn F. Bivens said in defense of the new rule, which caused an instant uproar. Funny, the sports world hasn't seemed at all concerned about players' use of translators or language barriers before.
But the LPGA sees itself apart from other sports. "Unlike athletes in other sports, LPGA players must entertain and engage sponsors and their customers on a weekly basis." Is she talking abut professional athletes or strippers here? It's hard to tell. (In any case, the controversy surrounding the new rule has at least one sponsor, State Farm, reconsidering its sponsorship.)
As for charges that this is an English-only rule, Bivens explained that English would be required in three instances: during pro-ams, winner acceptance speeches and media interviews. Players could speak to their caddies, for example, in whatever tongue they like.
Not surprisingly, the LPGA's patronizing tone with this language requirement has caused some uproar from groups representing Asian-Americans and women, such as the Asian American Justice Center and the California National Organization for Women.
The rule seems to have been targeting some of the 45 players from South Korea who have varying English skills and are camera-shy to boot.
But it also targets women athletes, and that is what has so many people upset. No other professional sports league has any similar requirement, though many do have international players with varying degrees of English proficiency.
California state Sen. Leland Yee condemned the action.
This rule reflects poorly on the LPGA, which should rescind it immediately. In this day and age, it's not acceptable to hold women athletes to a different standard than men, and certainly not when it comes to behavior when the games are over.
It would be nice if all the players were able to rattle off in clear English their hopes, their dreams, their strategies and competitors. But it does no service to anyone - the players, the tour, the media, the fans or even those important sponsors - to make decisions about players based on something other than their skill on the green.
There clearly is a language barrier on the LPGA tour, and it has nothing to do with the players.

I'm not sure whether Telephone Interpreting is really the solution to the above impasse, but for most other communication difficulties contact LangCommLive.
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