Re: Asian women and the English language.
 

Yes they should, but this is not encouraged because people are too afraid to say it. Instead we continue to print offical forms, and offer translation services, which is both divisive, as well as patronising to the people who have made an effort to learn the language of the country in which they live.

Re: Asian women and the English language.
 

I agree with willow ,asian women shouldnt be singled out here.. But yes being able to speak at least enough of the enlish language to get them by should be part of the visa settlement, but on the other hand there are so many of our own younger generation that cant speak it so how can that be an example to imigrants etc

Re: Asian women and the English language.
 

Jack Straw is asking all Asian women to speak english? does he realise how many countries are in Asia? I know about 20 women from Hong kong and they speak better english then he does. Maybe he was taking about women from another part of Asia, but in fact was stereotyping them all in to the same bracket. People actually vote for idiots, I am amazed how uneducated some politicians are.

Re: Asian women and the English language.
 

He is asking them to speak English to get a settlement visa so presumably he means in the UK. As far as I know Tony Blair is only in charge of the UK, George Bush is in charge of the rest of the world :)

Re: Asian women and the English language.
 

Its a pain in the ass when you have a delivery for someone with an asian name and they cant even understand "just sign at the botoom please in the big box".

Re: Asian women and the English language.
 

:confused: :confused: :confused:
What has that got to do with anything?

Re: Asian women and the English language.
 

Bless him he's an Essex lad, we shouldn't really hold that against him.:D

Re: Asian women and the English language.
 

Because this makes it look like he is asking all the women in Asia to speak English :)

Re: Asian women and the English language.
 

Personally,I find the fact that people from the Indian sub-continent are unable to speak English a surprise.After all we did have a presence there for a couple of hundred years.
One reason may be that the immigrants may be largely uneducated in any way.This was explained to me once by a Newsagent,who thought that the influx of so called village dwellers was the problem.These people had received little education in their own countries so struggled once they came here;
before the PC brigade get on my case the Newsagent in question was himself from India.

Re: Asian women and the English language.
 

I was actually pondering the same thought last night in bed. I've known Asians were the women don't live so segregated a life, and therefore don't have problems accessing education. Perhaps it's because a lot of the people that came/come here as immigrants are from rural areas, were their background, both spiritually and geographically, keeps them isolated from education.

I still think pandering to people who don't speak English, by translating everything into other languages, is both patronising and in the long term unhelpful.

Re: Asian women and the English language.
 

Yes I agree Garinda,where does it stop,we now have road signs in Polish.It's nearly as bad as Wales!:o

Re: Asian women and the English language.
 

They only do that because Shirley Basssey, Charlotte Church, and Tom Jones don't speak Welsh.;)

Re: Asian women and the English language.
 

Re: Asian women and the English language.
 

what about the men?

what if they cant speak english?

Re: Asian women and the English language.
 

I think the women were used as an example because thats who they've come into contact with, I think it should apply to anyone who wants citizenship.