Learn English in 30 months or leave

David Cameron was on the Today show this morning announcing a new mandatory English test, to be taken by every foreign spouse 2 and a half years after arrival. Those that fail the test face deportation to their home countries.

I’ve got mixed feelings about this. On the one hand, I think anyone moving to another country should know the language, for their own sake as much as the country they are moving to. That said, the numbers involved are not large. We’re talking 38K women that have no English language skills, and another 190K that would not pass the test.

I accept that it is a problem, and I don’t have an issue with it practiced as a deterrent. We may end up getting more people that speak English from day one. The implementation bothers me. Mothers will potentially be separated from their children, leaving them in the custody of fathers that in many cases, won’t have a fucking clue about the practicalities of parenthood. Could get very messy.

Thoughts?

My mum said I learnt English in six months, and within a year had enough lingo to hit on the babysitters.

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This doesn’t sound like a new thing. My Mrs had to do a ‘life in the UK’ test. It was fecking hard and I don’t think any of my mates would have passed. There were questions about the house of lords and cricket and other stuff only rich weirdos like. She doesn’t know fuck all about living in the UK but she could tell you all about Shivnarine Chanderpaul’s text book use of the open or square stance to counter off spin bowling.

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As some who is bilingual I think you need to learn the language of a place you want to live. Anyone who move abroad and doesn’t speak the local language is pretty brave in my view. You could lead a very insular life if you don’t. A colleague told me recently that she had a family who had been in the UK for a number of years but refused to learn English. In some places in UK you probably can get by, if a Brit moved to Costa Del Sol they probably don’t need to lean more than Hola. So maybe that’s the deal. British abroad should also learn the local lingo or get deported back to Blighty.

I do have an issue with deporting people if they don’t pass, it will break up families (break Human Rights) and maybe cost us in deportation, legal cases etc. I wouldn’t go as far to say athose men left with kids may not do a good job but it may be trickier for them as a single parent. think there are a minority of people who are not encourage to learn English by family members (I can think of one abusive case I dealt with) which this could possibly help uncover those cases.

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I am torn on this and I fully welcome a multicultural environment. Many of the immigrants I know work fecking hard for a living and are very grateful of all they can get here. Far more so than a lot of ‘True Brits’

However, being lectured by somone in a torrent of abusive Turkish about the inadequacies of the NHS by somone who has been here 3 years via an NHS appointed interpreter does make you stop for a second and ask would this happen the other way round.

It must’ve come as a nasty shock to Mrs TS, when she learnt a bit of English, and found out what a dumbass you are RIP

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Originally posted by @Intiniki

As some who is bilingual I think you need to learn the language of a place you want to live. Anyone who move abroad and doesn’t speak the local language is pretty brave in my view.

Now I’m only working 3 days per week I’ve got a lot of time to watch things like Mr. Tumble on Cbeebies, and have picked up quite a lot of Sign Language. I’ve learned words like: Spotty, Bag, Touch, My, etc things like that

people who live in a foreign country should at least be adequate in the language of that country. I’d like to see what the government would say if the Spanish started during British in Spain for the same thing.I haven’t read anything about the proposal but I presume that this will go hand in hand with a policy of not letting people into the country if they can’t communicate effectively in English. If it doesn’t then its somewhat self defeating and creating more expense and hassle for authorities later on. Deporting people seems a little over the top, particularly when we struggle to deport criminals at times. Id like to see British people sent to Australia if they are stupid.

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I’ll have no asparagus cast in Justins direction. He is a total hero. Any suggestion to the otherwise is total

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No you dumb ass, she already spoke English, this was to upgrade her visa from wife of Celtic arsehole to permanent leave to remain or whatever.

Here are some example questions:

Currently the Commonwealth has how many members?

After the Black Death, a new social class appeared, - owners of large areas of land. Later they were called?

What is the name of the Scottish government agency that looks after the Edinburgh Castle?

Name one of the commanders in the defeat of the Spanish Armada?

Newspapers were allowed to operate without a government licence since?

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Open stance for a leggy. Not off spin. I deduce that she was shagging a well hung young stallion when she told you was sitting this test.

Do you get a 50/50 or i.e. Phone A Friend? Are they even multiple choice?

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Yes thats obviously bloody ridiculous, its sad that most people wouldn’t be able to answer those but its a fact.

However, as a minimum requirement asking somone to be able to come up with a few cogent phrases isn’t asking the world - for the record I think it should go the other way as well - ex-pats in Spain should speak Spanish

I agree with that as well but they are slightly different examples, Cameron is really alludingor I see it to our cultural differences of allowiing women out and partaking in a Western society, the issue of language (22% of Mulsim women can not speak little or no English is awfully high).

Deporting people is ridiculous and couldn’t happen.

Decent piece in the New Statesman with quite a bit of context. Would anyone be surprised to learn that we’ve cut English language teaching for foreigners by 50%?

Most of the policy is old hat; the only part that is new is deporting people from outside the EU that fail the language test.

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The cases of Brits in Spain is a poor example as I don’t really ever see the Spanish complaining over integration, I have a few friends who live there and there children are fully integrated and are Spanish which is surely what it is all about, the Brits abroad retired or working is about sunshine usually, I also have Spanish friends who live in Cala Rajada, Majorca and they say the same about Germans and Swedes not speaking Spanish, they don’t care really as the next generation will, go to Manacor in the centre of the Island and its a different picture there. The Brits and Spanish are remarkably close in their cultural ties, there are issues but they aren’t cultural, they are because we are lazy.

Originally posted by @Barry-Sanchez

they don’t care really as the next generation will.

yeah gd point. Fk it. Let them stay, it’ll sort itself out eventually.

Cameron is saying in a softly softly way, let the Muslim women out and speak, let them have thier own lives but he can not do that in this PC era, he has to allude to it via language.

If people born here cannot pass these tests and we intend to send them back where they came from it’s going to get fucking messy.

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My ex took my kids to Spain to live for 3 years. They went to an English speaking school and all of their friends spoke to them in English because they wanted to improve their language. They did have Spanish lessons but rarely got a chance to speak the lingo whilst there.