Immigrants

[Biitchboy]

Quoting Mehmsy from 12:22, 30th Aug 2006
It's kind of like a recent scandal in the States where transsexual inmates in jails asked for taxpayer's money to be spent on giving them sex change operations.

I'm failing to make any connection...?

[Al]

Quoting Biitchboy from 17:13, 30th Aug 2006

Quoting Mehmsy from 12:22, 30th Aug 2006
It's kind of like a recent scandal in the States where transsexual inmates in jails asked for taxpayer's money to be spent on giving them sex change operations.

I'm failing to make any connection...?

That's exactly what they said.

[Lyeta]

Quoting Mehmsy from 12:22, 30th Aug 2006
As a person who has lived as a foreign national in several countries during his whole life (parents are diplomats), I think I'm going to have to agree with the original poster here.

When you immigrate and travel to another country, you should expect to mold yourself into their culture, rather than them to yours. It's up to you to learn the language and adopt the mannerisms, because you are, technically, their guest.

It's kind of like a recent scandal in the States where transsexual inmates in jails asked for taxpayer's money to be spent on giving them sex change operations.

[hr]

http://standrews.facebook.com/profile.php?id=37106593

Well said Mehmsy. I, too, have lived in different countries and agree with the whole "when in rome..." idea.

I remember several recent occassions when I have been trying to order food at a restaurant/ask for assistance in a shop here in Britain and the staff have been unable to understand or speak basic English. I will allow that for tourism's sake, it makes sense for staff in major resorts/holiday destinations to learn the basics of whichever language their visitors come from, but when people are coming to live in, work in, and be citizens of our country they ought to learn the country's language.

If anything is going to be advertised or explained in Polish (or other immigrant language), it ought to be where and how they can go about getting English lessons.

[Iain]

Quoting thePontificator from 12:00, 30th Aug 2006
Maybe we should get ICT to run the country? Financially they're very sound and do well on a small budget. Plus I'd love to see Darren Dods talking to George Bush about, well, anything really.

And they've got how many former Ross County players in their team now?!

Let's not mix up what Caley are doing, which is trying to attract fans (lets face it their home attendances are not great for a decent sized place) and the immigrant issue. In my mind they should all be vetted/given some kind of lessons at their cost to ensure a decent standard of English; at the very least it might help them integrate. Secondly is anyone drawing comparisons to the influx of Poles who helped build the hydro dams in the 50's? Were they bad for the place?

[hr]

http://www.st-andrews.ac.uk/~snpsoc

[Lyeta]

Quoting Iain from 18:27, 30th Aug 2006
Secondly is anyone drawing comparisons to the influx of Poles who helped build the hydro dams in the 50's? Were they bad for the place?

I don't think people are implying Poles are bad, just questioning whether creating what will essentially be a mini-Poland in Britain is a good idea.

[Mehmsy]

Quoting Biitchboy from 17:13, 30th Aug 2006

Quoting Mehmsy from 12:22, 30th Aug 2006
It's kind of like a recent scandal in the States where transsexual inmates in jails asked for taxpayer's money to be spent on giving them sex change operations.

I'm failing to make any connection...?

In both cases you have people external to the problem involuntarily involved because of some kind ridiculous demand.

[hr]

http://standrews.facebook.com/profile.php?id=37106593

[Preacher's Kid]

Why does this issue demand any kind of strict policy? Surely immigrant workers in Britain will learn and use English where it is necessary, just as a workable minimum of English can be found in immigrant communities across the United States. And if a 'foreign' enclave appears where English is tough to find.. so what? If it's an economically sustainable and peaceful community, where is the harm?

Spanish and English co-exist pretty easily in much of the U.S., and it's frankly odd to hear anybody rail against Polish being used in British adverts. It's just good business and a courtesy to 'guest' residents.

[Preacher's Kid]

Why does this issue demand any kind of strict policy? Surely immigrant workers in Britain will learn and use English where it is necessary, just as a workable minimum of English can be found in immigrant communities across the United States. And if a 'foreign' enclave appears where English is tough to find.. so what? If it's an economically sustainable and peaceful community, where is the harm?

Spanish and English co-exist pretty easily in much of the U.S., and it's frankly odd to hear anybody rail against Polish being used in British adverts. It's just good business and a courtesy to 'guest' residents.

[Rilla]

Yeah, this has happened too in Ireland. Churches are holding masses in Polish and the Evening Herald has a weekly supplement in Polish.
If it helps people feel less homesick then I really don't see what the problem is.



[hr]

Be good to yourself because nobody else has the power to make you happy.

[Otis redding]

I think we should export the NEDS and import proffesional poles such as doctors lawyers and prostitutes.

[Malcolm]

Edinburgh city centre is staffed near exclusively by Australians and random Eastern Europeans - just try finding British bar staff.

Some of the time, you can't understand what a waiter/waitress is saying to you.

It's also due to the language gap, and the difficulty the British have with languages as a whole, that's forcing a lot of British companies to move their call centres out of India and other "cheap" countries.

[hr]

" ... No-one knows what it's like, to be the bad man, to be the sad man, Behind Blue Eyes ... "

[Fozzy Bear]

Quoting Malcolm from 21:03, 30th Aug 2006

It's also due to the language gap, and the difficulty the British have with languages as a whole, that's forcing a lot of British companies to move their call centres out of India and other "cheap" countries.

[hr]

" ... No-one knows what it's like, to be the bad man, to be the sad man, Behind Blue Eyes ... "

you're talking crap. companies put call centres out there because it is cheap labour. they can get away with giving people in India less money than they could in this country so they do so to make more profits.

and if British people have so much difficulty with languages, surely it would make sense to keep call centres in this country where there is a higher number of native speakers (than there is in india).

[hr]

"I don't want to achieve immortality through my work. I want to achieve immortality through not dying." - Woody Allen

[Odysseus]

[quote]Quoting Malcolm from 21:03, 30th Aug 2006
Edinburgh city centre is staffed near exclusively by Australians and random Eastern Europeans - just try finding British bar staff.

Some of the time, you can't understand what a waiter/waitress is saying to you.

[quote]

You sound like an A-typical Daily Mail-reading intolerant - And for someone at University, who should perhaps know better, I find that distressing to say the least. Thankfully, people with xenophobic views such as yourself aren't too prominant in Scotland.

[Bonnie]

There are British government handbooks in other languages?! (Well, I already knew that, but bare with me, because I need the shock as part of this joke.)

How come I never saw these government handbooks in MY language? I was an immigrant for a while. And one of the reasons why I left was that I felt Scotland's social environment was not welcoming.
I WANT THEM WRITTEN IN AMERICAN!

I get all confused with those spurious "u"'s, and I don't understand the questionable lack of commas. (Do you see how that sentence has a comma before the conjunction of two independent clauses?)
Additionally, I cannot understand when a comma is not present before the last word in a series. It makes me hurt, makes my face a red color, and makes me want to leave this neighborhood. (It's really hard to crowbar Americanisms into this. Help me out here.)

Imagine the new benefits explanation sheet:
"So, you're barefoot and pregnant..." -- for women who need to go on benefits because they have no education or prospects, and their husband is working class.
"So, you're from Cow Town..." -- Common Agricultural Policy benefits/ subsidies/ how to sell your land to huge corporations and lose the integrity of small family-owned farms.
"Talk to the hand..."-- multicultralism explained.

etc.

Are there any others we can make up?

[novium]

i'm having trouble thinking of government related ones...
ummm
the fees the consulate/etc charges for a visa: mandatory highway robbery

non government related:


booze day tuesday: lush night


[hr]

tamen ira procul absit, cum qua nihil recte fieri, nihil considerate potest.

[exnihilo]

Quoting Odysseus from 01:42, 4th Sep 2006

Quoting Malcolm from 21:03, 30th Aug 2006
Edinburgh city centre is staffed near exclusively by Australians and random Eastern Europeans - just try finding British bar staff.

Some of the time, you can't understand what a waiter/waitress is saying to you.

You sound like an A-typical Daily Mail-reading intolerant - And for someone at University, who should perhaps know better, I find that distressing to say the least. Thankfully, people with xenophobic views such as yourself aren't too prominant in Scotland.

An a-typical? Huh? However, you do choose to bridle at the oddest things. Where's the xenophobia in saying that most bar staff are Australian or East European? Indeed, where's the xenophobia in him/her saying he sometimes has trouble undertanding what's being said? Are you jumping in purely because he/she said Edinburgh rather than London and you perceive some bizarre slight to Scotland!?

[Rufus]

Quoting Malcolm from 21:03, 30th Aug 2006
Edinburgh city centre is staffed near exclusively by Australians and random Eastern Europeans - just try finding British bar staff.

Some of the time, you can't understand what a waiter/waitress is saying to you.


[hr]

" ... No-one knows what it's like, to be the bad man, to be the sad man, Behind Blue Eyes ... "

I find the Polish people that I work with possess a better grasp of the English language - and are thus easier to understand - than my fellow Fifers.

[Odysseus]

Quoting exnihilo from 11:06, 4th Sep 2006

Quoting Odysseus from 01:42, 4th Sep 2006

Quoting Malcolm from 21:03, 30th Aug 2006
Edinburgh city centre is staffed near exclusively by Australians and random Eastern Europeans - just try finding British bar staff.

Some of the time, you can't understand what a waiter/waitress is saying to you.

You sound like an A-typical Daily Mail-reading intolerant - And for someone at University, who should perhaps know better, I find that distressing to say the least. Thankfully, people with xenophobic views such as yourself aren't too prominant in Scotland.

An a-typical? Huh? However, you do choose to bridle at the oddest things. Where's the xenophobia in saying that most bar staff are Australian or East European? Indeed, where's the xenophobia in him/her saying he sometimes has trouble undertanding what's being said? Are you jumping in purely because he/she said Edinburgh rather than London and you perceive some bizarre slight to Scotland!?

I'm not answering to you, war crime-denier.

[hr]

Walk into the bright lights of sorrow, oh drink a bit of wine and we both might go tommorow, my love...

[Malcolm]

Quoting Odysseus from 01:42, 4th Sep 2006

Quoting Malcolm from 21:03, 30th Aug 2006
Edinburgh city centre is staffed near exclusively by Australians and random Eastern Europeans - just try finding British bar staff.

Some of the time, you can't understand what a waiter/waitress is saying to you.

You sound like an A-typical Daily Mail-reading intolerant - And for someone at University, who should perhaps know better, I find that distressing to say the least. Thankfully, people with xenophobic views such as yourself aren't too prominant in Scotland.

[/quote]
In Edinburgh regularly, are you? Try re-reading my post, I am not expressing any xenophobic views whatsoever, just stating a fact.

I tend to read broadsheets, actually. I'll occasionally read The Sun for a laugh if I'm waiting for something (they have tabloids in my local Chinese takeaway for you to read whilst waiting for your food, same with my local barber).

[hr]

" ... No-one knows what it's like, to be the bad man, to be the sad man, Behind Blue Eyes ... "

[Al]

Quoting Odysseus from 16:38, 4th Sep 2006
I'm not answering to you, war crime-denier.

Eh?