I won’t bite!
While watching this 4 on Dmand documentary, called “Why Don’t You Speak English?”, several thoughts come to mind.
I grew up in a country (Canada) with two official languages: French and English. I learned them both, and learned a third and fourth, Russian and Yiddish, in university. I earned a certificate in teaching English as a Second Language some years ago, but haven’t had the opportunity to use my skills much.
I absolutely love travelling, and would think it my duty be polite, to at least try to muddle my way through a phrasebook on visiting a country whose language is not English.
While I think it’s very important for people to try to grasp the language of their chosen adopted country, it is equally important to pass this message on in a non-threatening, inclusive and welcoming manner.
When I was learning Russian, I gained the impression that English is one of the most difficult language to learn as an adult. Some of my classmates were native Russian speakers brushing up on what they had learned “at their mother’s knee”.
I’m not surprised that people have trouble with it, especially when they are bombarded with negatively-charged messages that may rob them of their confidence (check out the first 3 minutes of the documentary to see how quickly the sharks come out).
In my visits to France and Russia, ordinary people were delighted when I took the time to speak to them in their own languages, rather than bluster about, assuming they should kneel linguistically to me. Even if my pronunciation was shaky, that didn’t seem to matter. At least I tried. Nobody ever barked at me, “Why don’t you speak Russian/French?”
And so are these people. The Britons in this film, in my opinion, need to ease off their criticisms. It’s impossible to know how difficult and daunting a language is to learn from scratch when you have grown up speaking it. These people learning English aren’t just students – they’re adults, parents, working people, with a lot on their plates beside language acquisition. So, go easy on them and laissez les bonnes temps roulez!
