Everyone Who Comes To Britain Must Speak English.

[anotheoldgit]

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-3045507/Everyone-comes-Britain-speak-English-says-Miliband-admits-Labour-mad-mistakes-immigration.html

So says ED, very fine words from one who admits Labour got it wrong, but I wonder how he is going to 'police' this, will immigrants have to speak in English at border control or risk being turned back?

[jim360]

It's kind of difficult to police especially when you throw tourism into the mix. Also what level of English has he in mind?

For immigrants who intend to stay in the country I agree that their English shouldn't be non-existent but on the other hand a fair few come with say not particularly brilliant English but with every intention to improve it. Which is more than can be said for some English people abroad...

[Old_Geezer]

Should speak. Musty learn. Doesn't say anything about being able to on entry as far I spotted with a quick glance over the article. That's fair enough I think. It's about fitting in to existing society once accepted here.
The bigger problem is that we are already over full and need to stop all economic immigrants anyway. Save those who can show special cause.

How would any government police it ? Probably by spotting interpreters are always being needed when a particular person is in contact, I suppose.

[Old_Geezer]

I typed no 'y' on the end of the word must.
sigh
How can the tech not be doing it deliberately ?

[Orderlimit]

Speechless !!

More Carry on politics

[Svejk]

Thank goodness Nigel didn't say it. We'd never hear the end of it.

[mushroom25]

the way to enforce something like this is to ensure all official business is conducted in the official language - eg english (and welsh, scots/scots gaelic and irish gaelic, as appropriate in the respective countries).

no other leading country in the EU - France for example - conducts business in english for the many ex-pats who live there. why is it that British officialdom feels obliged to spend millions on translation services?

[TWR]

If employed within the NHS as a Nurse / G.P It should be a must, a lot of mistakes have be made by nurses from abroad that can not understand our language.

[-Talbot-]

Will the Glaswegians be deported?

[Svejk]

hopefully

[anotheoldgit]

mushroom25

/// the way to enforce something like this is to ensure all official business is conducted in the official language - eg english (and welsh, scots/scots gaelic and irish gaelic, as appropriate in the respective countries). ///

No you had it right the first time "Only In English', I would not wish to see the various Gaelic languages to die out in their specific countries, but where all official business etc is concerned, it has to be English.

[Peter Pedant]

// Will the Glaswegians be deported?//
o god there are a few managers at work I would like deported back to Glaswegia or wherever

However when 300 000 signed up a petition for Piers Moron to be deported from Amerikee - back here, the White House snootily commented the system was not meant to be a vehicle of comedy

[bob561941]

The last time I spoke to a Glaswegian girl I had to ask her to slow down,are they paid on how fast they can speak ?

[mushroom25]

i work in an industry where there is an imperative to the speaking and understanding of english (it's kinda life preserving if you can say "there's a train coming" and understand what it means).

at a recent safety course laid on for a group of poles and romanians, the trainer did his stuff, the students took the "exam" and they all passed. once he'd told them this, he asked them to put their chairs on the tables, and they (to a man) were utterly uncomprehending. needless to say he withdrew their "pass".

[jim360]

It does depend rather on things like your accent, how you asked, word order, etc. Did you say "170" as in "one seventy" or as "one hundred [and] seventy", for example? It's a bit of idiomatic usage for English speakers to treat three-/ four-digit numbers as if they were made of smaller ones. If Mr Polish Man didn't know this it doesn't mean he's not studied English -- just that he hasn't reached the proficiency of a native speaker yet and is perhaps too bound by the English he's been taught in lessons.

One of my all-time most embarrassing moments came when talking with a French speaker, from one of the African Francophone countries, I don't remember which. Anyway, I told him that I had been studying French for seven years at high school. He then asked me, quite naturally, "Sy oo que tu letudee le frans 'ay?" or something. I couldn't understand a word. And then realised that, he was saying "C'est où que tu étudies le français ? " which is a word order I had never encountered in my life but is asking an entirely obvious question. Red-faced, I told him. And then felt awful.

Learning a language, and being able to converse with a native speaker, are two entirely different skills. Never underestimate how hard it is to learn a language. Especially English, because the "rules" that foreigners learn about English are almost universally ignored by the natives -- leaving even those who have studied it in some depth floundering when they meet a native.

[Barsel]

Hope you don't mind aog but I would like to ask a question. On many occasions now I have been somewhere (Doctors, Hospital etc) and there have been patients who don't speak English and so they have an interpreter.
Do they have to pay for that themselves?

[bazwillrun]

what about the hundreds of thousands that have lived here decades but only speak english when it suits them ?........

[bazwillrun]

Last year i had to go for a leg scan......this african "scanner" or whatever he's called said something to me, I asked him 3 or4 times "what ?" ...nurse called across the room "he wants you to turn over to do the back of the leg"

shame he didnt ask me in english...a language i understand !

[jim360]

What do you mean by "when it suits them"? It's entirely reasonable for speakers of, say, Spanish, to revert to their native language when speaking with other Spanish-speaking friends/ family etc. So long as they are also capable of understanding and speaking English as necessary, what's the problem?

[retrocop]

Barsel
First of all apologies for jumping in to a question directed for him.
My wife is a nurse with 40 years experience.She works in the Endoscopy unit.Prior to that she covered many different clinics in out-patients in same hospital.She see's hundreds of cases where patients turn up without one word of English.The elderly,seem to be the worst because they have lived here for many years.Sometimes a younger child or relative translates for them but that is the exception rather than the rule. Any interpretation fees are currently paid by the NHS which costs millions a year.
My wife has saved her trust a few bob over the years.She speaks fluent Spanish and near fluent French.