..or English! The dreadful Sunday Morning Live programme with pouting Suzanne Reid posits “Should Immigrants be made to speak English?” You can guess where the BBC is coming from on this one! It picks up on the story of an English girl who has fallen in love with a Palestinian (natch) but the poor bloke might not get into the UK because he can’t be bothered to try and speak English . The path of true love is thus stunted by those evil Conservatives who hate Immigrants. This programme is a Sunday morning outing for the liberal conscience of the BBC.
WE NO SPEAK AMERICANO…
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“..English girl who has fallen in love with a Palestinian..” They could always live in the Arab lands know as Palestine, or maybe they could move to that friend of ours that is Pakistan, couldn’t they?
They also had the ghastly polly toynbee, uber hypocritical Tuscan villa owning socialist, on doing God this morning. Aparently the charidee classes / third sector types , are upset about not continuing to receive our money, whether we want them to have it or not.
I put this comment on the QT post but is just as fitting here.
Imagine the reaction if there was a British ex-pat on the programme who’d been living in Spain for a few years and they announced that they’d not learnt Spanish. The audience would take their purple placards out from under their seats and start chanting “RACIST NAZI FASCIST IMPERIALIST SCUM”.
The hypocrisy of the left is so obvious to all except themselves. They can’t quite understand that anyone with patriotic views usually has the same opinions regarding all countries and their right to maintain an identity.
The left’s agenda is purely anti-British.
I’m moderately ashamed to announce that I’ve lived in France for four years (wouldn’t come back, evah, neevah…), and have no command of the language, other than a few basics. I do try, but I am of a certain age…
I doubt if I’ll be chucked out because of it, but with ole’ Sarko, you never can tell.
Je vais écrire plus tard…
I see you do know to write at least some French. I would find it unbearable to live in a place and not understand or be able to use the language. To me that would be a half-life, a deprived life, forever cut off from the place and the people. They would remain closed to me, unreachable. I would have to hate a country not to want to learn its language and if I hated it, I wouldn’t for a moment consider living in it.
It’s not a case of not wanting to (I don’t believe I ever said that, did I?), more a situation of it being tres, tres difficile. We get by, Poor French hasn’t been (and won’t be) a show stopper. There’s plenty of time, I hope. Our quality of life here hasn’t diminished because we haven’t yet got a grip on the language, and nor will it. There are too many other advantages to let us worry about a limited command of the language. Certainly no half life, and certainly not cut off from anything or anyone. You can’t judge a person through his command of a foreign language. We are still who we are, wherever we choose to live.
No, and I didn’t say you did say that. It was more that I was giving my own reflections on the topic. It would frustrate me to hell and back to live somewhere and not have the language.
On immigration, BBC-NUJ, along with Labour (and elements of other political parties) still advocate unlimited mass immigration from Third World, and from Islamic countries.
Has anyone seen an article written by a Beeboid advocating a limit to the numbers of immigrants entering Britain?
I have to laugh at the desperation of some people for ever more immigrants. That was the starting point for the likes of Evan Harris, opposing the government’s proposed language tests for spouses.
Bring them here! Bring them here! They can best learn English here! There may be no English classes where they come from! The government is doing this to cut immigration!
As if that was a bad thing! As if he’s never come across people here who can’t speak English after being in the country for forty years. As if the onus is on us because there aren’t classes wherever they come from. As if we aren’t going to have to carry people who cannot work and pay their way. As if we need more of those!
Is he a Lib Dem loon with its mad open-door-to-all-comers immigration policy?
Do these people go to bed at night praying: More immigrants tomorrow! More immigrants for us! More! More! More! We want more!
I used to work in a financial call centre. If I had a penny for every time this happened:
Caller: I’m ringing about my Mum’s/Dad’s account.
Me: I can’t speak to you because you’re not the account holder. Please put the account holder on.
Caller: I can’t because they don’t speak any English.
Happened all the time.
Something I forgot to mention earlier ! I see the beeboids have hauled in the idealogically pure Simon heffalump to have a bash at the Tories and invited along a fairly low key coalition bod to defend their corner.
Strange, I don’t remember them ever inviting him on to criticise labour . They really are pulling out all the stops to denigrate the Tories aren’t they ?
What is the basis of this story? Is there a language test for immigrants to the UK?
From November, non-EU people applying to enter the UK as spouses or partners will have to pass a language test before they can get a visa:
http://www.homeoffice.gov.uk/media-centre/press-releases/migrants-learn-english
PS: There are also language and knowledge tests for immigrants wishing to obtain citizenship.
If the Palestinian wants to live here then he should have to get a job and not being able to speak English is going to hamper his ability to get one. Maybe he could sign on some benefits though as he’d get help with the translation. If you’re not prepared to spend some time learning the lingo beforehand, then you shouldn’t expect a country to accept you because you aren’t showing that you will make the effort to fit in.
I know Americans are always considered monoglots, but I don’t even visit other countries without learning at least a little bit of their languages. Any idiot (including moi) can make a small effort and at least learn how to be polite, ask for directions, and do a little shopping. It is just not that hard.
I couldn’t care less what language immigrants choose to speak as long as I don’t have to give them any benefit money, housing or health care financed by my tax cash.
The BBC uses English on trash like Eastenders, Casualty, Sunday and its flagship celebrity dancing competiton. I’d still resent paying for such rubbish if they were broadcast in Norwegian, Urdu or Mandarin Chinese.