i have just been reading about a polish woman who was up in court for a driving offence, she had to speak via an interpreter, the article then went on to say she had been here or at least working here for the last 5 years, surely she should have learnt to speak english by then? im now waiting or the back lash!!!
I wouldn't even think of going to live in another country without first learning the language there. I am always slightly suspicious of anyone who has lived in the UK foor more than a couple of years who 'claims' to be unable to speak English.
No backlash from me gina, I totally agree. I believe that if you make your home in another country then you should learn their language. Not just people who come here, but English people who move abroad too.
When my son took his driving theory test - he could have listened to it in 5 different languages - in fact he was in the minority taking it in English.
Maybe as it was a court she wanted to be more precise ? But it does annoy me. I went to buy pate in the supermarket and the guy could not understand the word - pate is a fairly universal word so maybe he was just thick
stewey when i was learning to drive my instructor told me of plenty of ppeople he had that could speak english, one he said had failed her theoory quite a few times and in the end passed by memorising the answers.
I know many, many Brits who have live in Spain and have no intention of learning Spanish. They drink in English bars, hang round with Brits and have nothing to do with the natives at all. As long as they can get their British tv on Sky and have British sausage and bacon, they're happy.
I only ask because I think people often underestimate the difficulty of learning a new language fluently. -Obviously if you speak another language fluently you'r in a better position to suggest this.
Personally my French is good enough to get through a newspaper article but I struggle with the spoken word.
I lived in Spain for 3 years and managed to learn conversational Spanish. But I did so by immersing myself in the local culture, and avoiding the 2-pints-of-lager-and-a-packet-of-crisps brigade.