English pupils should they speak Urdu.?

Well, I'm Pakistani and I cant speak Urdu. You say its English lessons so why would they need to learn Urdu? Also, as time progresses these children will learn how to speak English very fluently. A weird example could be this, earlier this year I went to Pakistan to live with some relatives for a month and as my grasp of Urdu and Punjabi is poor I chose to speak English whenever I could, picking up the language as I went on. In the end my Punjabi skills have significantly improved, as have my relatives English skills! Give people some time and they will improve. Also, this guy should have been arrested as he made racist comments. End of.

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You've misunderstood me, I'm not alleging that you have made a racist comment, you haven't. I'm acknowledging the fact that the person concerned did and therefore there should be some form of punishment. I don't know what he/she said but for a child to be arrested for saying something is a bit harsh in my opinion.

The situation is getting out of hand. Many other European countries expect immigrants to pass a citizenship test as well as a language test, yet the British government is too scared to even deploy such an idea.

The problem is also evident in schools- one school speaks 66 different languages with English as a second language for only half of them. The school admits having exam and lesson problems with so many different languages. The problem created by such a cultural mix means that many children don't get good exam results or go on to university.

To sort out the problem you'd have to go to the source- the family. Many children who don't speak English don't hear it at home but instead Urdu/Punjabi/Chinese/Arabic...they won't learn a language they hear at school only, and especially if they don't use it at home.

The schools must also act. They should be the ones helping the kids learn English at the earliest stage possible, so that they have a good chance of passing their exams. Also, ban the translators and bi-lingual dictionaries from exams- surely a pupil who doesn't completely understand the exam paper has litlle chance of getting a good mark?

On the flip side more British should study languages. Few Brits try to speak the language of the country they are going to on holiday, and fewer still know the basic manners and social custom. It wouldn't be too hard to learn a few words would it?

Few school kids also learn GCSE languages such as French and German. It must soon be made compulsory for all pupils to study languages from age 5, like many other countries. Otherwise we will fall into the trap of arrogance in believing everyone should speak English or does, and then fall behind in the international markets.

So it works both ways.

Yes I do believe, more should be done to insure that those coming to live in this country should learn to speak English, but by the same token those moving from this country abroad, should learn to speak the language of the country they are moving to, all to often I hear of how arrogant the British can be abroad, thinking everyone should speak English, I know this is a small minority, but it only takes a few to give the whole a bad name.

It is down to respect, that anyone going to another country should take into consideration that country's customs and laws, and not believe they are above it. All to often we hear of drug traffickers being put in poor prison conditions, and the government is expected to intervine, er no, check laws before you go to a country and make sure you are not breaking any, if you want to make sure people are punished correctly here, make sure the British take the punishment they are due in a foreign country, if you cant do the time, dont do the crime, and that goes for anybody.

If I travel abroad, I will always try and learn basic conversational pieces of language from the country of which I am visiting. If I was going to live abroad I would make sure, out of courtesy and for my own safety, that I knew a moderate level of the language.

However I also know a lot of people who regularly go abroad to visit and live and don't speak a word of any language other than english.

Most other countries are taught languages from a much earlier age than what england does. There is also a much higher emphasis on languages in particularly European countries.

So can we really have this argument when we ourselves can be just as ignorant as people who come here and don't speak our languages?

I am not saying that the example you gave was justified as it clearly wasn't. But if everyone including this country had a greater respect for eachother as countries and people then it wouldn't be such an issue.

English as a second language should be compulsory for all non-english speaking immigrants. How else are they to get a job, communicate with the existing population, explain to a doctor where it hurts etc? Live here by all means, but make the effort to learn the language. Also, when in the company of native brits, if you are an english speaker, do not converse with someone in your native tongue, that just plain bloody rude. If it's something you don't think we should hear, then you probably shouldn't be saying it anyway.

It gets my back up when foreigners speak their own language. If their here on holiday fair enough, but if they've taken up home here, I think the least they can do is learn the language.

If i moved to a non English speaking country I would learn the language, I think it's just common courtesy.

There are some Pakistan guys who work in my office. They speak to each other in whatever language it is they speak (no, not being racist, just don't know the language) I find it very offencive. They can all speak English, which makes me think that by not speaking English they are speaking about things 'us English' are not supposed to hear!

I don't think that she was racist. It is rude for anyone who speaks another language to be in a group and eliminate someone from the conversation by speaking a language that everyone is not familiar with. My son went through a similar situation with the Asian children in his class and when the teacher set up a meeting with the Asian children's parents, they didn't see anything wrong with their children not speaking English or not speaking to anyone else in the class other than each other. If you ask me they were the racist ones. And by no means do I think that all Asians are this way but there are some. Why is everyone picking on the young lady and no one asking why the other children would be so rude as to speak in a language that only they understood? How were they supposed to work together if they couldn't understand each other? She had every right to ask to be switched.

i agree. however it can go both ways. we need learn other people languages as well. we don learn another language until we are doing gcse, which by then is far to late. we seem ignorant when we go other countries and expect them to know English. however, if your are planning to live in a different country, then where ever you came from you must learn the language for not just knowledge but to respect everyone Else around you.

I am not British but I love it here and the first thing I always took as the most important when I moved here 8 years ago was to try to learn the language and ways as soon and as well as possible. Otherwise, I should have f****d off back to my starting point.

Perhaps it would be good to have them speak English first, hmm?

But seriously - lived in Spain for nearly three years and felt sick when I was forced to talk to fellow countrymen in English, despite us knowing a fair degree of Spanish. I doubted whether our escape to familiar oral climes was rude (after thinking about it now) but maybe our train of thought, via English would be quicker...suspect the same happens here with Pakistanis - they may know a handful of English terms to get by, but a fully-fledged conversation would be impossible for the time being, as they don't know enough English to compose and counteract with intellectual meaning.