Just one nit-pick: the switching from saying “Britain” to saying “England” as if they were synonymous. Those millions of Brits who aren’t from England would seriously disagree.

Have you been to Britain/do you know many British? They are just as bad if not worse in reputation than Americans for learning languages and traveling to foreign countries.

Learning other languages (and being arrogant about being English-speakers)? Hell yes. Travelling? Not so much. It’s pretty common for Britains to travel to France/other parts of Europe, and a lot of them make it over to New Zealand/Australia – it’s certainly pushed enough as a tourist destination.

England is hideously insular and xenophobic but they’re certainly keen on travelling.

Touché.

As far as this lpga policy, I see why they are formulating this policy, I don’t agree with it though. Heck I’m hoping for a day when the LPGA will be abolished but we’re a long way from seeing that happen.

That being said, America’s size and insularity do make us much more reluctant as a culture to learn foreign language than the British, who are right next door to the myriad languages of Europe, are.

I’m not so sure about this. If you think about it there are a good lot of languages fairly close to us: Cajun French and Quebequois, the different Latin American versions of Spanish, Italian, Polish, Ukranian, Hungarian, German, Russian, and other immigrant languages that many people’s grandparents and parents still speak fluently, and fairly large communities of Asian Americans that still speak their native laguages. Not to mention the strange little dialects that aren’t English but are indigenous to the US (Pennsylvania Dutch is the one that’s comming to mind, though that’s fairly specific to a certain religious group). If people wanted to learn a second language, there’s plenty of chance to do so. I mean, there’s not the added onus of “we’re in your country” but the chance is still there.

I think the reason so many Americans don’t bother to learn a second language is definately more the (sometimes unconcious) privelege of just not having to, rather than having anything to do with being isolated away from languages we could learn.

Have you been to Britain/do you know many British? They are just as bad if not worse in reputation than Americans for learning languages and traveling to foreign countries. See the British’s reputation in Spain for coming to their vacation home there and making no attempt to speak Spanish to any of their neighbors. I see the same thing in France all the time. Wandering around Paris asking where’s the Marks & Spencer’s… heh.

Moreover, given their attitude and the current global trends….that golfing association may want to consider investing in some Mandarin Chinese lessons…..

when I was living in Barcelona, it was far, far easier to see films and hear music from more corners of the earth than it is in the UK).

When I was in China in the late ’90s….television stations were still showing old Maoist era movies, Chinese history period films, and music videos of the People’s Liberation Army’s Song and Dance troupe like http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZvU6I3go4uU&feature=related

Though I listened to a lot of Chinese music on the radio during that summer, the vast majority of the music being played was their equivalent of the Top-40 Mandarin pop music from Mainland China, Hong Kong, and the ROC(Taiwan). In fact, I’ve only heard one Western song during my entire stay: Ace of Base’s “It’s a Beautiful Life”.

Though American movies were popular among students and young adults, they co-existed with the popularity of Hong Kong, ROC (Taiwan) cinema, and Mainland Chinese films. Over the last few years, there has also been a rise in popularity in movies, tv shows, and pop music from South Korea.