There was a time not long ago when Kyeong Bae's English tutor was an animated character who lived under the sea. Or a mouse who wears pants.

"Cartoons," she said, "like Spongie Bob."

To the connoisseur, that would be SpongeBob SquarePants. Bae also found a language mentor in Disney movies, while she sat in hotel rooms on her idle hours during her early days as an LPGA regular.

That was five years ago, when Bae, now 25, was a young South Korean on the Tour, which in the last few years has gone from reactionary to proactive in response to the dramatic shift in player demographics.

A faction of the old LPGA feared the influx of Korean players at the turn of the century, prompting the infamous quote from 16-time winner Jan Stephenson in 2003 that "Asians are killing the Tour."

How times have changed. These days, language instructors hired in May travel with the Tour, offering one-on-one instruction for all players, including North Americans who might be interested in learning Japanese and Korean given the global direction of the LPGA's brave new world.

Indeed, that might be the future LPGA, which now has 45 South Korean players and events in Malaysia, Korea, Thailand, Singapore and Japan.

For now, however, around 15 Tour regulars meet once a week with language instructors from the Indianapolis-based Language Training Center. The goal is rather simple: Without English skills, players can not communicate with sponsors, media, fans -- even their own caddies. That's a hazard waiting to happen.

"I think they see that their clubs do the talking when they're playing," LTC president Martin George said yesterday.

"But they want to be able to talk to fans. They want to be able to talk to the media. They want to talk to sponsors.... We have to have them get more confident and more excited about being outgoing."

Bae thinks language instructors are almost as important as swing coaches on the practice range. The LPGA provides interpreters, but she thinks using them is spinning wheels.

"It's not helping myself," Bae said. "I wanted to speak more specific English, more difficult parts. I need to study.

"To hit the ball is really important. But I have to communicate better with the caddy."

The bottom line is that professional golf is a business, and a shrinking one in a recession-ravaged economy. The LPGA relies heavily on pro-am revenue, such as the $10,000-per-foursome event today at St. Charles. So communication is paramount.

As one Tour official noted, "Football players don't have to charm sponsors."

Korean-born Sean Pyun, the LPGA's manager of international development, had to interpret for certain players up to 15 times two years ago. Now there is little need.

"Certainly, the LPGA is quite different from when I started two years ago," Pyun said. "When [Asian players] first got here, they were shy. They couldn't say anything. Now you see them and they're joking around with their pro-am partners, giving them lessons. Is their English perfect? No, it's not, but progress has been made.

"A lot more people understand that the nature of women's golf has changed over time. Whether we like it or not, we're going to go to many different countries in the future. We'll be more global."

Pyun said one American player has already expressed interest in learning Japanese or Korean.

"The word is getting out [about the language training]," Pyun said. "Now they're asking about it. There's a lot of incentives from an individual standpoint to relate to a different culture to speak another language. Maybe get a Japanese sponsor interested."

Stephenson might never have envisioned a day where Asian-born players would not require interpreters, and where North Americans consider learning Korean. Or that a tournament played in Winnipeg, as LPGA commissioner Mike Whan noted, would be broadcast "and somebody in Korea, Taiwan, Australia, Japan is going to watch it on TV."

With the global shift, North Americans could feel the pressure to do exactly what Stephenson once demanded of Asian players.

Still, Bae insists that "this is the American LPGA Tour, not the KLPGA [Korean Tour]. When I go Roma, follow Roma rules."

A Korean sitting in Canada summoning an ancient Italian adage in a discussion about Asian golfers coming to America.

Sounds about right.