Citizenship

[eldar]

So the UK is to get a Citizenship Test. This strikes me as a good idea, except for one thing. It's not going to prevent employers from giving jobs to people whose grasp of the English language is a little on the suspect side. Now in jobs where the employee doesn't have to do much talking, this isn't really a problem. It's when communication comes into play that I have issues. The thing is, there's so much 'positive discrimination' about that its deemed politically incorrect not to give jobs to people who can't spreche la lingo. If I go into a shop and ask for something, I expect to be understood. If I'm on the 'phone, I expect to be understood. I am a fluent English speaker, and, quite reasonably given that the majority of inhabitants of this country are also fluent English speakers, I expect to deal with a fluent English speaker when I'm carrying out a transaction that involves spoken communication (within this country, of course).
So, indeed, whilst a Citizenship Test might well help those immigrants who are willing to work hard and integrate themselves, it's not going to be of benefit to those who've got in, got a job, and are confusing and annoying the heck out of Joe Public because they don't understand what he's saying.

Comments

[verlaine.livejournal.com]

Whaaat! If everyone who worked for the NHS could speak fluent English, that'd be the one virtue that I do have when compared to other secretaries in the Trust gone. The one thing that makes anyone sort of like me working for them at all! It'd be a disaster!

[arosoff.livejournal.com]

Yeah, but some of the worst offenders are born-and-bred Britons :)

(We've got an analogous problem in the States. Shop assistants seem to be OK, but delivery men, gardeners, home help etc generally have very poor English. Strictly español.)

We have a test to become a citizen as well: it tends to mean that naturalized adults remember more about US history than their American-born neighbors (who last studied it in high school, if they were paying attention at all!)

[eldar.livejournal.com]

At least when they don't speak English, they all speak the same language. That isn't that difficult to comprehend. Kurdish, Serbo-Croat, Albanian, Urdu, Swahili, it's all Greek to me....

[arosoff.livejournal.com]

oh, we've got people speaking every language imaginable. It's just that a third of Latin America is here, mostly illegally. Cheap labor galore!