Spouses from outside EU will have to prove they can speak it
Article Source: msnbc.com
from:msnbc.comBritain's new romance language is English
Seeded on Wed Jun 9, 2010 6:37 PM EDT (msnbc.com)
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Wow! Required to speak English in an "primarily" English speaking nation! What a novel idea! Why doesn't the US try that? Oh, no! We're too politcally correct. We just publish everything in Spanish and English so none of our "illegal immigrants" have to learn English. I don't believe that if I moved to Mexico, they would publish everything in English AND have a translator at school to help me with my Spanish. We are the most gutless people on earth which is probably why most of the world hates us. We're the do-gooders of the earth. We tell everyone elses how to run their own countries but do nothing in our own. We help everyone on the planet but our own people. Our own vererans have crummy healthcare. We have homeless and hungry people everywhere. Our prisoners have more benefits and privileges than our senior citizens. When we had thousands of Vietnamese immigrants, they didn't speak English either, but they certainly learned and became some of our smartest, most productive citizens. No one bothered to double publish every written word in their language. They came to OUR country and learned OUR language. Bravo to the British.
Delores,
I totally agree with you. When immigration was heaviest in this country there was one language and to become a citizen the immigrant had to learn English (My grand parents did just that). Those people were the most productive and best citizens this country or any country could ask for. What do we have now. Most of our immigrants are not interested in integrating into the American fold. They expect everything given to them, and that is probably one of the reasons we have the mess we have at this time.
Cut out dual language manuals and notices etc. Cut out free interpreters. English is still the primary language in this country and should be made the OFFICIAL language.
Not that fast, this only applies to spouses from non-European Union countries, therefore if the spouse is from Estonia, Romania or Spain, they would be accepted even if they don't speak English.
It seems to me a racist way to discriminate against immigrants from third world countries and even other non-EU developed countries like Japan or Korea by forcing them to speak English while others can come without questioning.
Too bad America doesn't get it. Everyone who comes here should speak STANDARD AMERICAN ENGLISH FIRST!
End of discussion! Don't we VALUE our LANGUAGE TOO?
I like German better!!!
go back to Germany/ we are the only country that does not required that every one who comes here soeak our lanaugae. when the British are speaken there is a differrence in there english. have you ever tried to speak to some one from Ireland. every one thinks they speak english well if you know there tough. it is sometimes to undertand. But they learn our lanuage very well so do FRENCH/GERMANS/DUTCH/ ( the only one are the SPANISH)
pat-1126979 I can see you have an excellent command of the English language, you should be proud of yourself:
soeak, lanaugae, speaken, differrence, lanuage
As a British person who lives in Spain and speaks fluent Spanish, I'd like to point out that the vast majority of British citizens who live in Spain speak absolutely no Spanish. I know that the British government can't demand English language skills from European Union citizens who want to live in Britain, but seeing just how poor the foreign language skills are of British people who live abroad, I don't know how anyone British or the British government dares ask for English language skills from foreigners. By the way, in my experience the same goes for Americans.
Totally agree with you on that, they are even lazy to learn proper English.
Bienvindos a los Estados Unidos de Amexico
Most Americans I know have no foreign language skills,and that's particularly true of the Tea Partiers who through their own arrogance and self rightiousness wish to make the English language the official one in the United States.Our founding fathers had a purpose in mind when they decided that there should never be an official language in the U.S. and I totally agree.I,too, have a preferred language and that is Modern High German with all it's beauty and richness.The Hispanic population should be given every right to speak only Spanish if they choose to.
We Americans don't need to speak a foreign language because most of us have no desire to live in another country. Those that do desire to live abroad will learn the necessary language skills, but they are the minority. Most people from other countries want to come live in America, not the other way around. Also, unlike most European countries, the U.S. is only bordered by two countries, and one of those two speaks English. So there is not the necessity of being multilingual like a European country. I decided to spend time in Japan as an exchange student, so I took 4 semesters of Japanese so I could take advantage of the opportunities available to me when I was there. If I had not bothered to do so, obviously I would have been limited in what I could do and learn. People who choose to live in another country should do the same. Oh, English should be the official language of the U.S. because language is a unifier. If we do not share a common language, then eventually the country will be pulled apart and there will be no unity. People used to WANT to be and American, but now immigrants want to retain their own seperate cultural identity and language, and the newer generation of Americans are infected with self loathing and seek to undermine and destroy all the work our founding fathers put into it.
Daniel, you are wrong. English should be spoken in the United States. Language unifies a nation.
To be bilingual is great, but English is the unifying language in the United States of America. The Hispanic population is becoming more and more integrated as the children who are born here are American and speak English. They are as American as rice and beans!
the politicians in the US don't have the balls to make that kind of decision. they are too weak and afraid of the media.
Tha'll never fly here as long as the "transnational" Obama Regime is running things....
Love those Brits, now, if they could just do something about those rotten teeth.
QUOTE: " . . . she believed that being able to speak English should be a prerequisite for anyone who wants to settle in Britain."
This is something the West has lost, the natural assumption that immigrants speak the language of the nation to which they migrate. In our inordinant and unprecendented desire to cater to the cultures of others, we slowly lose our own culture, all in deferment to the "other."
The only immigrants that seem to want to speak English in our nation are the muslims, so they can blend-in and consume us.
Pat - given that this is a discussion about language, it saddens me to read your response several times without managing to even get the grasp of what you were trying to say.
English should not only be the US's official language, it should also be taught -properly- and held to higher standards in schools. But that's a whole other discussion all together...
tennochi: Well said.
I'm a USA citizen and if transferred to Germany (for example) to live I would study German to better integrate into my new country. I would not expect to "Press 2 for English".
I attended an Engineering meeting in Nice, FR. with other colleagues from France, Spain, Germany, England, and USA. Since it was my first meeting abroad, I was concerned about verbal communications. It turns out that everyone spoke English, and I was told that English is the common language of business and technical meetings in Europe.
It shows your lack of foreign knowledge, English has been the language of trade for more than a century. Thanks God those Europeans taught you something.
By the way, French is the language of diplomacy, Italian is the language to sing, Spanish to pray and German to train dogs. LOL
What if this causes some immigrants to leave England?
It is horribly limiting to not be able to speak a language of a country you are in. People speaking only their native language in the US are forever limited to their immigration gettho.
Spanish is a primary issue because there are so many Spanish-speaking people in the US, but there are other language/national getthos also. Most of those people are in the US illegaly, since almost every legal resident/citizen of the USA speaks English to one degree or another.
Every Hispanic person I ever met born in the US spoke perfect English aside of Spanish. Every foreign specialist I ever met - be it form Brazil, or Mexico or France or Germany spoke English also to a degree necessary to do his (legal) job and move around the country.
Let's face it - almost anyone who does not speak English in the USA is in the USA illegaly. And that is why it is an issue.
I wish America had the fortitude of will to adopt measures that Europeans are adopting in order to preserve their culture. As it stands now, America is gradually "selling" itself to foreigners that have little respect or love for this country and simply want to take from it what they can get.
"We also don't focus purely on integration, the way Europe seems to have latched on integration," he said.
But eventually we will have too - just like Europe. There has to be some common denominator in order for people to live together as a society. Language seems like the most logical place to start.
Nothing wrong with the law adopted by England. If they want to live there, they should learn to speak basic English. French Quebec has been doing that for the last 40 years: all new adult immigrants who don`t speak French need to attend language school for a year.
Wish they would adopt the same law England did in the rest of Canada and the US.
It's about time someone did this.
For too long, both Britain and the U.S. have been kissing the rectums of non English speakers who come to our nations and then expect us to learn their languages (primarily Hispanics and Arabs).
During my military career, I served short tours in Germany, South Korea, Haiti, and Bosnia, I also worked with Soldiers from Lithuania, Romania, and Uzbekistan, and I learned bits of all three languages even though we were together for only six weeks.
My stays in the countries where I was stationed were a mere six months to a year (except the 3 year tour in Germany), yet I learned enough of the local language to get by.
I now live back in the U.S., and English speaking nation. So, in dealing with people from other nations (mainly Mexico-Canada) I may do a short greeting in their native language, but if they plan to stay here, they need to learn English. That goes for ANY foreigner coming here. But if they do not wish to learn English I am happy to converse with them, for a time, in my second language. Any Mexicans or Canadians out there fluent in German?