Should we insist that immigrants speak our language?

English is the lingua franca of the world today albeit with an American accent-not Spanish as I was told in my teens or Chinese as my daughter tells me and has her children learning it. The children should be learning fluent accentless English (hers)

I dont have a problem with it , just trying to make a point, as in "immigrants" not speaking "our" language(English) If we, British, can go/live where we want, then so can anyone else. And JessM, there's always a welcome in the hillside, whether you speak Welsh or not.

Hello Ik23. I am welsh too, but unfortunately do not speak it. One of my great grandmothers did, but at the time it was discouraged and she did not pass it down. And now i live in England

My first language is Welsh. I live in a small seaside village in West Wales and only a small handfull of people now speak Welsh here. Why? Because the majority of the homes here are second homes of English people, and not one have bothered to learn Welsh!!

Here in Australia we still have the volunteer tutors who go to houses, or teach in small groups in places like library study rooms. Sometimes a TAFE (like a technical college) will offer a short free course, such as 6 Saturday mornings for these tutors. I did one once, and it was excellent. It was assumed that many of the students would be older married women without a job - the sort of women who get little chance to interact with anyone outside of family.

We were taught that we had to teach them 'survival' skills first - how to get a bus and pay the fare, how to recognise the right stuff at a supermarket, how to greet people, basic standards of politeness etc. Then we built on that. We were taught that some would have no literacy in their own language, so basic reading skills were needed too.

AND we were taught that some folks just can't manage any of it, no matter how good the tutor, and how much they want to learn.

I worked for years in the EFL/ESL field as a volunteer and as a paid professional in more than one country, including the UK. JessM is right. There were lots of (mainly) women volunteers in this country who were able to go into people's homes and teach and befriend women who went out very little whether because of cultural restrictions or because of family demands. Some were qualified teachers, some were bilingual, some were actually ESOL teachers and some just wanted to reach out to women from another background. Then it was mostly taken over by schools and colleges. Then the money ran out.

I think the situation with learning English not helped by a requirement brought in 10 years ago that all those teaching EFL/ESOL in public sector should be PROPERLY QUALIFIED . This was brought in for all those teaching "basic skills" - it meant for instance that you had to have the equivalent in A level maths before you were allowed to teach basic numeracy and so on. Of course having well qualified teachers is a good idea, but the overarching principle was that you should be able to teach right up to the high end of GCSE and needed lots of underpinning knowledge. To become qualified in any one of the 3 areas, literacy, numeracy and ESOL was quite challenging if you did not have a relevant degree to start with.
If you were, say a primary teacher with years of experience you probably would not be deemed well qualified enough and unable to make the transition without lots of extra study. Hum.

Some of the Polish prisoners of war who were sent to North Wales learned to speak Welsh but not English. They just learned the dominant language of where they were.

I'm not sure about the 'your country' and 'our country' thing.

It's one world, one planet. Just because you happened to be born in one particular part of it, does that mean you have to stay there? In these dys of planes, boats and trains? And if you accept that, why should there be any requirement to speak the language, so long as you can get along, and support yourself, in your community.

Shouldn't any more than that be up to the individual?

Not quite like that! The Swiss Germans can all speak and write proper German.
and of you know German you pick up the dialect quicker. I believe Welsh is a Gaelic language and English has the usual structure of most European languages. They are very different.

I've just read back through the thread and thought how pompous I sounded pontificating on my former language ability . However I still stand by my opinion that if you come to live in a country you should learn the language. If you come over to escape the ghastly happenings in your country there should be the opportunities offered to start a new life here which includes learning the language. Not being able to communicate is so isolating which brings its own problems. I'm lucky enough to have many friends / acquaintances / colleagues for whom English is not their first language. Some have had awful experiences in their own country but were determined to do their best in their new one in order to get qualifications or a job. I hope I would feel the same in their circumstances.

Back to the OP - sometimes there is an added difficulty - as for those in Zurich, Zug, Bern, etc - is that Swiss German (and each of the above have a different dialect!!) - is very very different to 'proper' German. So expats often use it as an excuse - saying 'Well, are we supposed to learn Swiss German to speak to our neighbours, etc? Or 'proper' German for business, banking, etc'?.

Would be a bit like someone going to Wales and having to decide whether to learn Welsh or English.

Yep - no contest

Is that granjura?

And I'm done for - if a shark comes along, it will definitely go for the more juicy morsel (:

Perish the thought!

Do you mean I'm fatter?

But you're more cuddly, jeni

yes! Just like me!

Ahhh.......

Moi? Scary? I am a sweet white-haired old lady.

What IS Bisto? [snooty emoticon]

I have never felt the need for it!

My corned beef hash is fine without it.

I'm sure if any shark met greatnan it would regret it!she scares me to bits!

jeni - some people need 'nagging' honestly

Will you stop talking about sharks, PLEASE!

So might the sharks!