Speak English?

[Jemisa]

Should foreigners who come here to live and work be able to speak English?
Evidently there's a new law that says YES and they won't be able to enter the country without a test.

Having said that, what about the Brits that go out to Spain to live without being able to speak a word of Spanish? Should Spain enforce this law too.?

jem

[Sqad]

piggy aah!.......got it.

[piggynose]

any advice would be gratefully accepted.
constructive even better(for those ready to do some name calling)

[pa___ul3]

piggy, not a dig at all, but as you're an English teacher surely one would think you'd find it easier pick up other languages. What parts have you found difficult about learning Spanish, or is it more motivation? Where about in Spain are you?

[Safiya]

*I cannot think of another job for him. *


theres probably plenty of jobs he could do... i know dozens of people who cant speak english or dont speak it too good.... they nearly all work....with people that speak the same language as they do.....

[Sqad]

Safiya....good point.....bring him in.

[piggynose]

computer playing up.
after 3rd word it returns to the thread!!

[piggynose]

pa_il3, i didnt go on the academic road to teach english, but done an intensive TEFL course a couple of years ago. not having an academic background, i found it hard going. I still struggle with the complexities of english grammar, and dont always have the all the answers when giving a class(normally find out the answer for the next class).

[starone]

My friend and his wife and three children went to live in France. The three children went to school - no effort was made to teach them French - just learn it and get on with it. Needless to say they picked it up very quickly and so now they have returned to England (don't ask) and the three children - now grown up - can all speak and write French fluently. Don't know that it has done them any good, but I was just illustrating the fact that if you have to learn you will.

[english_welshman]

Yes, if the will of the majority is in favour of such a thing. It would screw up their tourism though! The problem in the UK is areas of the country where engish is not spoken, parts of leicester, london, birmingham, any large city of the uk has areas like this. Acceptable?

[Ankou]

agreed starbuck, and being in residence is one of the best ways.

the issue here, is the requirement to be fliuent in the language and writing of a country, before you can get into it.

[pa___ul3]

fair enough piggy.. the funny thing is, I was useless at English in school but good at French and Spanish, I went on to study Hispanic Studies at Uni and, having studies foreign languages, my understanding of the English language is now far far greater... although a lot of the time it still doesn't make sense!

[netibiza]

Agree with piggy, but at school I was excellent at Eng lit and lang, but have found Spanish very difficuult because it is backwards to how we speak in England. I've been here 40 yrs and obviously can get by but do not conjugate my verbs!!

[firebird74521]

I don't know what country your in but here even suggesting that English would be an immigration requirement would get you in deep trouble. That would be considered racist. I am in Canada. Political correctness (No common sense) now runs our country.

[New Judge]

That is what has been required here in the UK since last November, firebird. This is what is being challenged by Mrs Chapti and in my view her challenge will almost certainly succeed. It is almost certain to be declared discriminatory and also (a problem you do not have in Canada) contrary to Human Rights legislation.

In my view the issue here is not the requirement itself but whether or not the elected representatives in the UK Parliament can run the country on behalf of the electorate as they see fit. At the moment they most certainly cannot.

[Bambiagain]

I think there are two parts to this - does the person concerned speak the language when coming into the country, and if not are they going to make the effort to learn once they are there? Asking for fluency on entry is unreasonable in most cases, but asking for some effort to be put into learning is more than reasonable. I speak as one who has lived in Germany for a little over four years and whose command of German on coming here was very poor, verging on non-existant. Being, shall we say, of mature years, I haven't found it easy, but I now speak and understand the language passably. Since very few people here in the old East learned English in school, there are not many adults who do speak any English and I would have been unable to cope without my German OH, who speaks fluent English. I can now socialise, go the the doctor's and carry out most of my day-to-day life without assistance. There is no expat community around here and I would be extremely isolated if I could only speak English. I don't expect anyone to produce English translations of formal documents - why should I? I think it is quite reasonable to expect people who settle in a foreign country to make the effort to speak the local language.

[boxtops]

bill has a point - it is hard to say that we must impose standards of literacy on the immigrant population, when it was announced only a few days ago that written and spoken English in our own school children is not up to scratch in a fairly large percentage of youngsters. Let's put our own house in order first, otherwise we will have part of the next generation unable to interpret documents, sign contracts, and making themselves generally sociable.
And yes - if we retire overseas, which we hope to, we have already got the basic language CDs and every time we go abroad, we pick up a few more words.