Sajid Javid, a Conservative Member of Parliament (MP) and Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government, has revealed that census data suggests that 770,000 people living in England (approximately 2% of the population) speak either no English or little English. Up to 70% of those people are women, Javid suggests, with many coming from Pakistani and Bangladeshi communities.
In a bid to boost “integration” in the country, Javid’s plan is to pledge £50 million to projects including those that will promote the learning of English, tackle the low rates of Asian women taking up the offer of free childcare, and act against polygamy (which he describes as “not compatible with the British way of life”).
That’s not a lot of money to do an awful lot of things.
It is true that people will be limited if they do not speak the language of the country they live in and, should people wish to learn it, they should have the resources to do so. Women in particular can find themselves isolated, unable to work and unable to engage in the education of any children they have, if they are unable to communicate with potential bosses and teachers. An uptick in the availability of English language lessons, as well as encouragement to take up free childcare options (for the benefit of both parent and child), could work wonders for Asian women who have little contact outside of their family.
However, calls for a ‘cut-off date’ by which everybody should speak English are unrealistic and inappropriate, given the multitude of reasons that somebody may struggle with language learning.
For a start, the funding just is not there to provide sufficient English lessons for everybody in the country who wants or needs them. As English for Speakers of Other Languages classes are one of the things that has been consistently cut, time after time as part of the Conservative austerity measures, it is then impossible that somebody should be expected to find a rare English language class, take it up, and master the language within a year or two.
There used to be classes specifically for women, which felt safer to a lot of women than mixed classes, and these have been cut alongside the mixed classes. Some may still exist, but they are increasingly unavailable even in areas with high levels of immigration.
Secondly, not everybody is keen to learn English, and they should not be forced to do so. Whether it is to do with confidence, or simply satisfaction with their life as it is, nobody should be compelled to take classes and learn something they have no desire to learn. Studying is tough at the best of times, but when you don’t want to do it, it verges on the impossible.
And, finally, many people are simply not adept at language learning. I did a BA degree in French Language and Literature. Many friends would say to me, “You’re studying French?! I was terrible at languages in school!” and that was seen as a sufficient reason to have stopped studying them. If they cross the channel and struggle to order a croque monsieur or a café au lait, nobody thinks they are a terrible person who should not be entitled to a holiday.
Similarly, if somebody comes to the UK from Syria or Bangladesh or Peru, they should not be judged to be a “bad immigrant” if the part of their brain that specialises in language learning is a bit incompetent. Ham-fisted attempts at speaking a foreign language can leave people self-conscious and embarrassed, and a failure to grasp the multitude of grammatical rules and endless lists of vocabulary do not make somebody a bad person.
Some immigrants have learning disabilities, or are D/deaf or without speech; without very specialised provision, the chances of them mastering English with only a few mainstream classes available is very unrealistic.
Learning a new language is hard! Especially as an adult, and especially when it is just not one of your talents. Some people can learn the basics of dozens of languages, others learn one language to an in-depth level, while others really struggle to say hello or understand any of the speech they hear. Nobody is superior or inferior because of where their talents lie, nor should we make them feel as such.
Many Brits retire as ex pats to the sun in the Costa del Sol in Spain and embarrass us all by failing to engage at all with the local communities there. It is often those same people, commenting on the Daily Mail’s website, who criticise “ex pats” from elsewhere in the world for not having fluently mastered the nuances of English while recovering from the trauma of travelling across the world and losing many of their close friends and family.
According to Refugee Action, government funding for English lessons and wider “integration” measures fell from £203 million in 2010 to £90 million in 2016, and this leaves the 2% of the population who struggle with the language alone in their homes without access to the wider country and what it has to offer.
Photo: Ruth Hartnup/Creative Commons