Scout
08-27-2008, 01:36 PM
Interesting news tidbit from the LPGA, which announced this week it will require its players to have at least a cursory grasp of the English language by 2009 if they wish to play for that organization.
I wouldn’t demand a similar regulation be imposed on NHLers that forces them to change. But it would behoove the league and NHLPA to stress to its European players the importance of getting a firm handle on the primary language in which the game’s business is conducted.
Indeed, if the likes of Ilya Kovalchuk, Alexander Semin and other rising European stars became more fluent in English, there’s little doubt their on-ice talents would garner more mainstream attention than they do at present.
Everyone in the NHL is well aware the league is above all else a business. And if a significant part of your business conductors are trapped inside a language foreign to most of your customers, well, there’s more than a little that is bound to get lost in translation.
Scout
I wouldn’t demand a similar regulation be imposed on NHLers that forces them to change. But it would behoove the league and NHLPA to stress to its European players the importance of getting a firm handle on the primary language in which the game’s business is conducted.
Indeed, if the likes of Ilya Kovalchuk, Alexander Semin and other rising European stars became more fluent in English, there’s little doubt their on-ice talents would garner more mainstream attention than they do at present.
Everyone in the NHL is well aware the league is above all else a business. And if a significant part of your business conductors are trapped inside a language foreign to most of your customers, well, there’s more than a little that is bound to get lost in translation.
Scout