Would You Learn Polish Or Urdu?

[vortex]

How far would you go to help integration?

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-4130410/Brits-learn-Polish-says-university-professor.html

[mallyh]

if I lived in Poland or India yes I would try to learn the languages but if foreigners want to live here they should learn English .

[steg]

I'm still struggling with engerlish

[TheChair]

Just waiting for the angry reactionary posts to start appearing. :-)

[ummmm]

No.

[vortex]

Mallyh,do you agree though with the Professor who says there should be more opportunities to learn new languages and is she right to say it is seen only for the 'intellectually elite'?

[dannyk13]

I think that in this day and age it would be more practical for schools to teach Urdu or Polish rather than French & German.

[douglas9401]

nie, dziękuję

[mikey4444]

Considering British schoolkids almost complete inability to speak French, despite it being on almost every curriculum in the country, how much more success can we expect with another languages ?

Why can lots of European children speak English when our own kids can't reciprocate in any other language ?

[Peter Pedant]

dzien dobry pano

shen dobray parnee - yeah yeah I know there will be a thousand AB posts (when hoo-bray what-see ? yeah! ) and then a braying laugh .....

good moaning ....

what is wrong with learning Pollsh - could be a dialect of Russian and there is far more use to Russian hur hur hur - " I have a leak in my (water) bed " is something even Pres Trump could use - yeah and what about " I do not like Obama and I would like you to ...."

and zee polish zay no like the roshans

tell you whaaat ! when Mme Curie ( as Mamzel shlobodoka - think of something completely unpronounceable ) won a girlie school prize for being youthfully brilliant in dear old Poland the School inspector ( 1890 ) giving the prizes who was a russian appartchik gave her a book of Polish poetry. At that time the duchy of Poland was under russian domination - lucky souls! - and that was looked on as odd - Russian much more use

and Urdu - airdu as they say oop t north
apka kia haal hey !
yup that eez Good Morning in airdu - the 'r' isnt trilled ( as in Paree ) but is the soft post vocalic 'r' we have in English

I mean what is wrong with learning languages ?

Knee how ma ? leng ma ? ( good morning - cold innit ?) - Mandarin

learning languages ? excellent idea

sabaah al kheer !

[mikey4444]

Peter....I am sure that what you say makes sense.....if only I could make head or tail of it !

[Peter Pedant]

dammit Doug I knew you would get in with a bidda Polish before I did

that says No thanks I suppose
not a phrase I often use wizz zee Polka gurlz hur hur hur

[ummmm]

Mikey - We never had enough lessons in languages. 2 hours a week is not enough.

[Peter Pedant]

Mikey Mikey daaahling
you're one of those school kids who dont do Fransh innit

from the top

Good monring in Polish
then
good morning in Airdu
then
good morning cold innit in Mandarin
and finally
good morning in Arabic

Dougz is " No thanks " in er Polish

lord love us
for you Mikey
the answer to " would you learn Polish or Urdu ?" is clearly No

"Abroad Abroad? - terrible place - Ihave been there you know" George V

[ummmm]

Peter...Is English your first language?

[Peter Pedant]

Mikey the Dutch ( you can do your 3T impression: where dat den ? ) learn English Nederlands French and German at school

it can be done ...

hooder morgen mine hay-er
( Goedemorgen mynheer) - but you knew I was gonna say that .

[mikey4444]

Ummm...I agree but is that two hours well spent ?

We have been turning out kids that can count to ten in French, but can barely read a menu, and I count myself in that. As I went to a Secondary Modern school, languages were not even considered suitable or necessary for us cannon fodder.

But when I have stayed with European friends, I have always been amazed at their kids ability to not only speak English, but converse intelligently.

Maybe its not just the length of the lessons but the nature of them that is important. After all, what is important.....our ability to conjugate French verbs, or our ability to speak the language well enough to be understood ?

[mikey4444]

Sorry Peter, but I am in danger of sounding like Marjorie Dawes, the Fat Fighters leader here, when trying to understand that Indian lady.....come again ?

[Sqad]

P.P

\\\sabaah al kheer ! \\ is a greeting.....good morning.
You put it at the end of your post is like Delboy ending his phone call with "Bonjour."

[douglas9401]

You're demonstrating a couple of the main problems, Mikey, not trying hard enough and a short attention span.

Mr P delivers gold every time.

[yogi-bear]

If I was going to spend a few months in Poland and India/Pakistan then yes, I would make an effort, so no I wouldn't. I can speak in other languages other than English, but I'm no expert, but get by. :-)