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"Free English lessons for Asians?"

With the Government considering shelling out big money to pay for Asians living in this country to have English lessons I'd like to ask where and when my free lessons in Hindi, Urdu, Punjabi and Gujarati will be taking place.

Here's something that a few people may not like,or find hard to understand.

In Acton where my girlfriend lives, there is a massive Lebanese community.
There is a local food-store with a cafe on the side and all produce, magazines etc are Lebanese.
Two of the staff speak English there, mostly you communicate by pointing and trying to find the words to describe what you want.

And I love that.
I love the fact that I can walk for 30 seconds into the heart of a community that used to be totally alien to me.
I didn't know any of the words, what the foods were or anything.
I can't think, personally, of anything more abhorrent than a homogenised country where everyone speaks the same language.
We live in a world with thousands of languages and races of people, I dont want to see that restricted to each specific country.
What a horrible idea.

We need more integration of languages, culture, colour and everyhing else, because as long as people insist "Speak the language or don't live here" then we are still living in the trees throwing rocks at the moon.

I couldn't give a toss who wants to learn what language and why.
I refuse to ever pledge allegiance to the UK, simply because I consider myself an independant spirit, just because I was born within the borders of one country means I have no particular loyalty towards it.

In fact, I think that Britain is a petty, inbred snobby little country that is trying to cling to the notion of "The Empire" from when it ruled the world.
I have tried to leave on several occasions, emigrate to Canada but the laws there are stringent in the extreme for immigration - but I will triumph eventually seeing as half my family are there.

It means nothing to me if my neighbour doesn't speak English.
When I get home tonight, I'll put some copy from 2 articles in The Daily Mail that show shocking right-wing Nazi tendencies at worst, hostile bigotry at best.
One story was to do with those planespotters, the columnist referred to the "Fly-Blown 3rd world country they are held in", whilst another alluded to the fact that UK Police Forces will be taking on foreigners and we would "have to learn Gujerati for help".

England has one of the worst reputations for languages.
Here at work, there is a Dutch girl that speaks Dutch, German, French and English.
And that's the norm, whereas we sit and say "It's English innit? They should bloody learn it".

The day we are expected to pledge allegiance to the UK is the day I wear a brown-shirt and goose-step around playgrounds.
America has the pledge of allegiance, and that is one of the worst countries for racial intolerance.
When did blacks get the right to vote over there?
That's right, waaaaaay back in the 1960s.
Boy, there's a record to be proud of.

Quite frankly there are more important things to get passionate about for me.
And that's just speaking for me, nobody else.

I'm all for the lessons. We had a family from Chile living next door to us for about 13 years, and the mother could barely string a coherent sentence together in English.

I've never been particularly good with languages myself, but if I was living in France, Germany or Spain, I'm damn sure I'd pick up the lingo in considerably less than 13 years, even without lessons.

I'm also in favour of the Pledge of Allegiance to the UK which has been proposed in the report into the riots.

What annoys the hell out of me is the way these things are always branded racist. This is a multi-cultural society, but only as far as the British adapting their way of life to suit other cultures. The moment anyone suggests that minorities adapt *their* way of life to be 'more British', they are automatically branded a racist.

In a discussion on the Channel 4 forums about a year ago, I was told by a black man that the US had a far better record on race issues than the UK - the general gist was that the US knew how to do things properly. Now that it's been proposed that the UK introduce an Pledge of Allegiance, US/Canadian style, it's suddenly a racist idea. No-one says that about the US Pledge, and if they did, they'd be told where to go, I'm sure. You can't possibly hope to solve race issues when people keep moving the goalposts.

I will get on with anyone unless they give me a reason not to - I was brought up in a home where race/colour was irrelevant. In fact, having English, Irish, Jewish, Greek and South African ancestry I'm sure the BNP would hardly consider me to be of 'pure blood'.

But I was born in England, and therefore I consider myself to be nothing other than English. I don't care about my Irish/Greek/Jewish/South African 'roots' - I'm white, I'm English, and I'm damn proud of it. In some people's definition, that automatically makes me a racist.

I do honestly feel that Britain and her people are slowly being forced to give up any sense of national identity and pride. Britain has made change after change in recent years to try and accomodate as many cultures as possible. Yet the minute something is asked for in return, up goes the old 'racist' allegation.

I apologise if any of this offends anyone. That's not my intention, but I get extremely frustrated by these issues; while I'm sure there are genuine cases of racism in the UK, I feel that many of the claims are completely unfounded or just utter rubbish.

I'd just like to know why it is (or at least seems to be)that everyone can be openly proud of their national/religious heritage except us Brits?

No, the Government are giving free English lessons because they don't understand.

They seem to believe that if we all speak the Queen's English, then we'll all play nicely.

They don't seem to understand that some people are just hate filled, and will beat people within an inch of their life because they are different. They won't care if their victims are pleading for mercy in English, or any other language.

The other night there were people discussing racist violence, and they came up with the theory that it was all down to the types of houses these people lived in. ???? They just don't get it, some people just hate, these people should be put down.

The Government are giving free English lessons becos it is a core language. Everywhere you go, you here people talking English. Although I am a Singaporean, I an mot defending the Asians. If you thik I do THEN... that's your problem.
When you go overseas, people too communicate with in English. Even here in Singapore, English is so important that failing it will not allow you to be promoted to the next grade.

The Government are giving free English lessons becos it is a core language. Everywhere you go, you here people talking English. Although I am a Singaporean, I an mot defending the Asians. If you thik I do THEN... that's your problem.
When you go overseas, people too communicate with in English. Even here in Singapore, English is so important that failing it will not allow you to be promoted to the next grade.

I'm Asian my self by the way.

Punjabi is my Family's language, But I know only the very basics in it. I hardly ever use it. Its not needed.

But the traditional thing asians do with thier kids is teach them an asian language first. Its pumped in right from the start of life. When i first started school in England, i knew very basic english. Much less than the rest of the kids. MY parents only spoke in punjabi to me, so thats all i spoke! I reckon thats why my engish is sooo crap now, i've taken GCSE english 3 times but have come out with a D grade each time :(

I really dont think i am making any sort of point here...maybe i'll just stop there.

I do work with several Asian people, but no, have never had the need to speak the languages.

It doesn't bother me, offering people free English lessons is a good thing. But it's the way that the Government have gone about it. They always seem to announce such things in the worst ways, and that bugs me.

Need to reply to this.

Sure, if you have the desire to go live in India, get the government there to give you free lessons in Hindi, but why make a fuss about it?

This is part of their scheme to keep the minorities less noticeable and to stop segregation and riots. Personally, I think this is a good thing, but can go to far if, as Blunkett mentioned, he suggested that some of their customs too would have to be given up.

I think your point was aimed at the fact that if they live here they should be able to learn English for themselves and I think I agree with that. Perhaps the government aren’t going the right way about this and need to promote English learning rather then fund it, but you have to bear in mind how hard it is to integrate yourself and family into a culture such as this.

From a government that shells out around a million pounds a day to fund submarines armed with Nuclear weapons that will never do anything, is trying to stop racial segregation by teaching English such a bad thing?

Besides, We all went to school didn’t we? We all learnt English free, and probably other languages too as part of our education. The money used to fund those schools were taxes, but as far as I know we’re talking about people who pay taxes here, not people who don’t. They just moved here later in their lives and without the option of schooling we had.

I doubt that made sense, I’ll go disappear into the midst of fog again..

Incoming rant, I believe..