Should immigrants have to go to language school?

Frenchie! said:
Lol Agent can't confront. Run away, child!
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Agent will no longer confront. I called her a bigot and she wants to know why. I refuse to tell her as she is in denial and will brush it off anyway like most bigots do.

If everyone calls her a bigot, it is up to her to realise what she is saying/doing is making her one. But I am not going to tell her, it is her job to self-reflect on all her posts and find out why.

I knew my comments were bigoted even before she called me one.

As for you, I think you gave her good advice :p
 
absolutely hudson. but there are issues, such as countries with multiple national languages. would an immigrant to switzerland have to learn french, german, and italian (and maybe english)? would an immigrant to a country with a different alphabet be given more time to learn before being ejected?
either way i'm behind this idea. what i'm against is being forced to learn another language because of the people entering the country i live in being unable or unwilling to learn my country's language
in other words, all you expats need to stop expecting everyone else to speak english for you :p
 
Well with somewhere like Switzerland it would be the majority language in the canton they live in and yeah if the languages are wildly different people should get more time or lessons
 
Neon Knight. said:
absolutely hudson. but there are issues, such as countries with multiple national languages. would an immigrant to switzerland have to learn french, german, and italian (and maybe english)? would an immigrant to a country with a different alphabet be given more time to learn before being ejected?
either way i'm behind this idea. what i'm against is being forced to learn another language because of the people entering the country i live in being unable or unwilling to learn my country's language
in other words, all you expats need to stop expecting everyone else to speak english for you :p
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In a country like Switzerland, I would expect the government and official communications to translate their messages in each of the country's official languages. Would be unreasonable to know French and go to a bank, and no one at the bank knows French and none of the do***ents have French translations if it's an official language, even in a primarily German speaking part of the country.

And I would guess the speakers of each of those languages are divided geographically.

In short, I think it's more of an issue only in theory. In the real world I doubt it would be a big deal.

Edit: way to be mature C-A.
 
Personally I don't know my opinion on this but I do believe one thing... People that live in the country (we talking about USA right?) If so shouldn't have to learn Spanish because of it.. After all don't we have to learn Other country's Language's to live in them?
 
exe said:
but everyone speaks english. :dontknow::dontknow::dontknow:
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Because most of the world countries were occupied by England(great britain). Not because they chose to learn english or because they emigrated or because they like the language. :)

And i'm not an immigrant, Nor living in europe/america.:ashamed:
 
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I think if a person wants to be a part of the country they are moving to and intends to spend a good time of their life there then yes, they need to be compelled to learn the local languages.
This is also logical and practical if they plan to work in the country.
As a consumer, I have a right to order something, whether it is a food product at a restaurant or something over the phone, without having to repeat myself three or four times because the employee on the other end does not understand the language they are servicing.
Unless, of course, I am doing business with a place specializing in that culture. That would be the exception to the rule.
If that makes me elitist then I guess I am elitist.
Though I would ask yourself this. In the country you are moving from how accommodating are they to other languages.
 
I dont think its unreasonable to want new immigrants to speak the language customarily used in their new home. In Canada, we have two official languages, (english and french) so I think they should know one or the other or both. If they need help, I dont see any problem with the government helping poorer immigrants or refugees with some language skills.
 
Hudson said:
As some of you may or may not know I moved to Germany a while ago. In Germany there is a system established whereby migrants can learn German for a low price. As a citizen of an EU country I was not obliged to attend one of these courses but I chose to because to me it made no sense to arrive in a country and expect them all to speak English (the fact that they all speak English anyway notwithstanding). If you come from outside the EU then you must attend the language course and attain B1 standard (Threshold or intermediate) in order to remain.

I mentioned that it is relatively cheap, it costs 120 euro for 100 hours and there is 660 hours so altogether it costs 794 euro. If you get a letter from the Employment Office stating you can take a course then upon passing the final exam (B1) you receive half the money back. Furthermore it is a part time course, 3hrs15 minutes a day Monday to Friday, there are day courses and night courses to fit around work commitments. The course itself is rather mundane but very practical. The exercises equip you to deal with helpful things like writing a formal letter, looking for jobs and apartments etc.

I have found it incredibly beneficial and believe it is entirely reasonable in format and what is expected of you. So my question is - should immigrants arriving in a country with a different language to their country of origin be legally obliged to attend a language course such as the one outlined above in order to remain or do you think it's discriminatory/unnecessary?

(This question only applies to legal immigrants and people 'in the system'. If you want to discuss illegal immigration there are other threads for that.)
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If they want to as you did.
We have free English classes here, some of us have also taken our time to teach non English people to speak English (lord knows my spelling is horrible and I would never teach anyone that ha).
My mr here his grandparents on both sides were not from america. One set never learned English. He says that set of grandparents scared him. He could not communicate with them. At one time when you became American you gave up everything from where you were from that was the mentality . That is not the case anymore.
I have absolutely no problems with folks coming to america and not learning English. I do not think they should have to learn anything they dont want to learn ..... in fact just the other day I spoke to a neighbor and I have no clue if she even understood a word I said, her child speaks English though - I helped a dude catch his dog.... come to find out that dog did not know a lick of English haha, no wonder the dog just looked at me funny , he told his dog in his language to get in the truck and the dog jumped right up there ...
However, if those folks do learn English they can get better paying jobs!
 
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