My first thought was, they have free English lessons for asylum seekers? They don’t seem to have done much good if the calls I take are anything to go by.
Published Oct 27, 2006 -
14 Comments on “Free English Lessons For Asylum Seekers Stopped”
Unless you have some way of telling how many foreign-sounding callers with passable English are asylum-seekers, you cannot tell whether or not they’ve done any good.
In one of the states of the Increasingly-Benighted-and-Disunited-States, they’ve gone one better. Their idea is to have a requirement that only English is allowed AND to stop all state support for English language classes. Officially, a dispatcher (just to take an example out of the blue) would have to demand that a caller learn English before helping him/her. (Yes, I’m probably exaggerating, but that’s what Utah’s current situation sounds like.)
mc1rvariant - the free lessons aren’t just for asylum seekers, they’re for all people who are on benefits who need them. It’s only the asylum seekers who have had them stopped. Sorry, should have made that clearer.
I wonder if these people are even aware that the lessons are (were) available, because the number of people I speak to who don’t even have a basic grasp of English is enormous…
I think the lessons should not only be free, they should be compulsory.
I’ll definitely agree with that. I don’t want to sound opinionated but I do think that anyone who comes to live here, a condition of their stay should be to learn english. After all if we went to live abroad we’d have to learn their language. Besides, being multi-lingual is fantastic.
Re Lola’s comment above. Locally, Pinney’s of Scotland (part of the Uniq foods group) caused a mild furore a couple of weeks ago by offering Polish lessons to the native English (Scottish) - speaking members of their workforce. I believe that there hasn’t been much uptake!
Kevinmillhill - the other side of that is picking up the language unoficially - I know several people I was at school with who wouldn’t know a language qualification if it cut their legs off, much less take such a course, but who now, due to their factory jobs, are picking up a working day-to-day vocabulary of Portugese that frankly could piss all over my higher-tier GCSE French and German.
That said, I think the facilities to learn the language of the country you are in are as basic a requirement as a place to sleep, food to eat, clean water to drink and so on.
Well at least that’s another drain on public funding plugged. Perhaps the unskilled workers who can’t speak or write English properly will benefit from the free employee courses that McDonald’s are doing these days.
In response to Lola’s comment I think you’ll find plenty of examples of Brits living abroad who don’t learn the language. Ever been to the Med? Full of expats who pride themselves on speaking no other language but English.
If we expect people to learn English then we should provide the opportunity to do so.
Why is it that everyone time someone criticises people who come to England and don’t learn English, someone else always points out that there are English people abroad who do the same thing - implying that we think that’s okay. Of course we don’t! Living in a foreign country and not learning the language is wrong, full stop. Living in a foreign country and not learning the language after being offered free lessons is mindboggling. I wish I could go and live in Greece and get free Greek lessons…
I agree the Brits abroad thing is overused, but I was responding to Lola’s comment that ‘if we went abroad we’d have to learn their language’, which is patently untrue in many situations.
I also don’t like the mealy-mouthed attitude of some people in this country that asylum seekers get ’something for nothing’. Asylum seekers contribute 10% more to the UK ecomony than they use. Helping people who could (and often do) contribute to our society to learn the language is the least we can do.
Incidentally, it is somewhat ironic that you criticise me for making a rather hackneyed point, then go on to do the same yourself in mentioning people who don’t learn English. How obvious of you to point out the negative. I work with asylum seekers, and the ones who don’t learn English are very much in the minority - and many have genuine reasons. Why not stick your neck out and say something positive.
Um, the post was about how these free lessons had been stopped, and how I was surprised they existed in the first place because there are so many people who can’t speak a word. I fail to see how I could have expressed this without saying something negative about people who don’t learn to speak English.
Of course, it’s not only asylum seekers who are guilty of this, but a lot of the foreigners around here are asylum seekers, and as for it only being a minority who don’t learn English… well, I’d be willing to bet you don’t work where I live. Either that or the English lessons they are getting are so poor they don’t teach the simple words “Yes” “No” and “Interpreter”, let alone “please” and “thank you”.
And you happen to know that every single person you meet who speaks poor English is an asylum seeker do you? No, thought not. Let’s just use them anyway - easy bunch of people to pick on.
And you’re right, I don’t work where you live. I live in a very racially mixed area of inner city Manchester. London isn’t the only cosmopolitan city in the UK you know.
Any road up, as we say in t’North, you’ll be ecstatic to know that I won’t be coming to your site again, so please be as catty as you like in your reply.
And you happen to know that every single person you meet who speaks poor English is an asylum seeker do you?
No, which is why I said Of course, it’s not only asylum seekers who are guilty of this… So you won’t be reading my site any more? Looks like you weren’t reading it properly in the first place!
I’m afraid this site probably isn’t a good place for people who can’t take someone disagreeing with them…
Foreign calls can be amusing to listen to as a third party. A colleague of mine was taking a 999 call (police) yesterday that went like this:
Caller: “Hello can I have petrol.”
Her: “Petrol? This is the police. We don’t sell petrol..”
Caller: “Urgent please petrol in Some Road, Somewhere”
Her: “You do not dial 999 and ask for petrol. We do not sell petrol!”
Caller: “No no pat-rul! pat-rul!”
Her: “Pat-rul? Pat… PATROL!! You want a patrol car!”
Caller: “Yes!!”
October 27th, 2006 at 5:19 pm
Unless you have some way of telling how many foreign-sounding callers with passable English are asylum-seekers, you cannot tell whether or not they’ve done any good.
October 27th, 2006 at 6:01 pm
In one of the states of the Increasingly-Benighted-and-Disunited-States, they’ve gone one better. Their idea is to have a requirement that only English is allowed AND to stop all state support for English language classes. Officially, a dispatcher (just to take an example out of the blue) would have to demand that a caller learn English before helping him/her. (Yes, I’m probably exaggerating, but that’s what Utah’s current situation sounds like.)
October 28th, 2006 at 2:23 pm
mc1rvariant - the free lessons aren’t just for asylum seekers, they’re for all people who are on benefits who need them. It’s only the asylum seekers who have had them stopped. Sorry, should have made that clearer.
I wonder if these people are even aware that the lessons are (were) available, because the number of people I speak to who don’t even have a basic grasp of English is enormous…
I think the lessons should not only be free, they should be compulsory.
October 30th, 2006 at 1:03 am
I’ll definitely agree with that. I don’t want to sound opinionated but I do think that anyone who comes to live here, a condition of their stay should be to learn english. After all if we went to live abroad we’d have to learn their language. Besides, being multi-lingual is fantastic.
October 30th, 2006 at 9:22 am
Re Lola’s comment above. Locally, Pinney’s of Scotland (part of the Uniq foods group) caused a mild furore a couple of weeks ago by offering Polish lessons to the native English (Scottish) - speaking members of their workforce. I believe that there hasn’t been much uptake!
October 30th, 2006 at 11:23 am
Kevinmillhill - the other side of that is picking up the language unoficially - I know several people I was at school with who wouldn’t know a language qualification if it cut their legs off, much less take such a course, but who now, due to their factory jobs, are picking up a working day-to-day vocabulary of Portugese that frankly could piss all over my higher-tier GCSE French and German.
That said, I think the facilities to learn the language of the country you are in are as basic a requirement as a place to sleep, food to eat, clean water to drink and so on.
October 31st, 2006 at 1:33 pm
Well at least that’s another drain on public funding plugged. Perhaps the unskilled workers who can’t speak or write English properly will benefit from the free employee courses that McDonald’s are doing these days.
November 2nd, 2006 at 2:45 pm
In response to Lola’s comment I think you’ll find plenty of examples of Brits living abroad who don’t learn the language. Ever been to the Med? Full of expats who pride themselves on speaking no other language but English.
If we expect people to learn English then we should provide the opportunity to do so.
November 2nd, 2006 at 3:15 pm
Why is it that everyone time someone criticises people who come to England and don’t learn English, someone else always points out that there are English people abroad who do the same thing - implying that we think that’s okay. Of course we don’t! Living in a foreign country and not learning the language is wrong, full stop. Living in a foreign country and not learning the language after being offered free lessons is mindboggling. I wish I could go and live in Greece and get free Greek lessons…
November 3rd, 2006 at 11:55 am
I agree the Brits abroad thing is overused, but I was responding to Lola’s comment that ‘if we went abroad we’d have to learn their language’, which is patently untrue in many situations.
I also don’t like the mealy-mouthed attitude of some people in this country that asylum seekers get ’something for nothing’. Asylum seekers contribute 10% more to the UK ecomony than they use. Helping people who could (and often do) contribute to our society to learn the language is the least we can do.
Incidentally, it is somewhat ironic that you criticise me for making a rather hackneyed point, then go on to do the same yourself in mentioning people who don’t learn English. How obvious of you to point out the negative. I work with asylum seekers, and the ones who don’t learn English are very much in the minority - and many have genuine reasons. Why not stick your neck out and say something positive.
November 3rd, 2006 at 12:18 pm
Um, the post was about how these free lessons had been stopped, and how I was surprised they existed in the first place because there are so many people who can’t speak a word. I fail to see how I could have expressed this without saying something negative about people who don’t learn to speak English.
Of course, it’s not only asylum seekers who are guilty of this, but a lot of the foreigners around here are asylum seekers, and as for it only being a minority who don’t learn English… well, I’d be willing to bet you don’t work where I live. Either that or the English lessons they are getting are so poor they don’t teach the simple words “Yes” “No” and “Interpreter”, let alone “please” and “thank you”.
November 6th, 2006 at 1:31 pm
And you happen to know that every single person you meet who speaks poor English is an asylum seeker do you? No, thought not. Let’s just use them anyway - easy bunch of people to pick on.
And you’re right, I don’t work where you live. I live in a very racially mixed area of inner city Manchester. London isn’t the only cosmopolitan city in the UK you know.
Any road up, as we say in t’North, you’ll be ecstatic to know that I won’t be coming to your site again, so please be as catty as you like in your reply.
Adios!
November 6th, 2006 at 9:05 pm
And you happen to know that every single person you meet who speaks poor English is an asylum seeker do you?
No, which is why I said Of course, it’s not only asylum seekers who are guilty of this… So you won’t be reading my site any more? Looks like you weren’t reading it properly in the first place!
I’m afraid this site probably isn’t a good place for people who can’t take someone disagreeing with them…
December 1st, 2006 at 7:22 pm
Foreign calls can be amusing to listen to as a third party. A colleague of mine was taking a 999 call (police) yesterday that went like this:
Caller: “Hello can I have petrol.”
Her: “Petrol? This is the police. We don’t sell petrol..”
Caller: “Urgent please petrol in Some Road, Somewhere”
Her: “You do not dial 999 and ask for petrol. We do not sell petrol!”
Caller: “No no pat-rul! pat-rul!”
Her: “Pat-rul? Pat… PATROL!! You want a patrol car!”
Caller: “Yes!!”
Oh how we laughed.