We should learn Urdu and Polish says top linguist
BRITONS should learn languages such as Polish, Punjabi and Urdu to make immigrant families feel more at home, says a Cambridge professor.
Many more English speakers should think of immigration as a two-way street and be able to speak another language to aid integration and social cohesion, said academic Wendy Ayres-Bennett.
The call flies in the face of two major reports into integration in British society which called on immigrants to learn English if they want to live in the UK.
But Profesor Ayres Bennett, an expert on the French language at Cambridge University and leader of the MEITS project promoting multi-lingualism, said: “It is very important to think of integration as a two-way street.
“I would like to see more opportunities for British people to learn some of the community languages of the UK, such as Polish, Punjabi and Urdu, particularly in areas where there are high numbers of those speakers, so that there is some mutual effort in understanding the others’ language and culture.
Integrate
“Even a basic knowledge would be beneficial, which might be acquired formally or through engaging in joint community projects.
“We rightly expect immigrants to learn English but, as a nation, we often don’t see the need to learn another language and consider it to be something difficult and only for the intellectual elite.”
Yesterday Peterborough Tory MP Stewart Jackson said: “It’s important new migrants integrate into British society and support our values and that means – for their self-interest and that of society – learning and speaking and reading English. Professor Ayres-Bennett’s suggestion would be a retrograde step.”
The recent Casey Review on migration named language problems as one of the biggest causes of alienation.
Dame Louise Casey was asked if she agreed that people who were already in Britain should adapt to newcomers.
She said: “The process of immigrants is not a two-way street. I think that’s a soundbite that people like to say.”
She added that society made a mistake in making significant efforts to accommodate people coming in from the outside and that the onus should mostly be on immigrants to adapt to British culture. The All Party Parliamentary Group on Social Integration has called for compulsory English lessons for immigrants.
Prof Ayres-Bennett said she supported recommendations for immigrants to learn English.
“Without English, immigrants are likely to develop exclusive social networks and alternative labour markets,” she said.
“For most people, language is at the very heart of their identity.”
But she still felt Britons should learn other tongues.
WENDY Ayres-Bennett from the University of Cambridge thinks that Britons should learn languages such as Urdu and Polish in order to help newcomers integrate. It is remarkable how somebody intelligent enough to become a professor at such a prestigious university can also be quite so stupid.
Many areas with immigrant populations have witnessed profound cultural changes. This is a devastating blow for local people who mourn the loss of their traditional communities. Now they are told they should learn an alien language just to help new arrivals.
This idea is an insult that would undermine our national identity. Migrants must accept it is up to them to adapt to Britons’ way of life, not the other way round.