Muslim women must learn English

mackenzie said:
This is nothing new, in that we were encouraging ESOL classes to Muslim women 20 odd years back. I had to do the promotion side of it in the part of Bury that has a high Muslim community.
The point, as bloody always, is that Cameron says what the populace wants to hear (in a rather authoritative tone) and then forgets about it. The funding won't be there to deliver it and the wherewithal to actually monitor it certainly won't.
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This is exactly what will happen. I'm an ESL teacher, and the typical job advertised in the UK is some part time, 8 hours a week job, earning something pathetic like £15 an hour, not including planning time. Whereas in Australia, where the government actually gives a shit about stuff like this, an ESL teacher can get $45-50k a year with a full time contract and all of the normal job benefits you'd expect (pension, healthcare, etc). I've been teaching abroad for 5 years, and I don't think I've met anyone who wants to teach in the UK in the future.

And you can tell that they know they're not going to fund it properly because of their targets. They need to reach A2 level in 3 years. A good language learner can get to that level in 3 months, and our school typically says 180 hours of classes will get you there, which works out at just over 6 months for most people. But most of our students come about 3 times a week for 2 hours a time. I wonder if the UK government will be willing to fund that, or will it end up like their attempts to teach school kids French? If these classes were already available, I would bet they'd be well attended. I went to a free class for immigrants once, and it was good, but it was only on once a week, which just sums it up. Why wouldn't immigrants go to free classes? Learning a language can be pretty expensive. I suspect one of the main reasons they don't is because they're not available.
 
Even if I agreed with a language fluency requirement...to use Muslim ladies as the tag-line for this interesting proposal and utter the threat of "deportation" is startling.

Not quite as startling as listening to people complain about foreigners not learning the language even as they themselves have swallowed Murdochs style-sheet since 1982 by adopting the incorrect Australian-French "s" over the correct English "z".

Really? Really people?

Don't have a clue what I just said? You must be a Muslim woman then.
 
Sigh said:
Even if I agreed with a language fluency requirement...to use Muslim ladies as the tag-line for this interesting proposal and utter the threat of "deportation" is startling.

Not quite as startling as listening to people complain about foreigners not learning the language even as they themselves have swallowed Murdochs style-sheet since 1982 by adopting the incorrect Australian-French "s" over the correct English "z".

Really? Really people?

Don't have a clue what I just said? You must be a Muslim woman then.
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Both 's' and 'z' are acceptable in English, whereas only 'z' is correct in US English.

This is, in my view, an excellent reason to favour the 's'.

Edit: 's' spellings have been around since the 18th century, before even Murdoch was born.
 
I'm With Stupid said:
This is exactly what will happen. I'm an ESL teacher, and the typical job advertised in the UK is some part time, 8 hours a week job, earning something pathetic like £15 an hour, not including planning time. Whereas in Australia, where the government actually gives a shit about stuff like this, an ESL teacher can get $45-50k a year with a full time contract and all of the normal job benefits you'd expect (pension, healthcare, etc). I've been teaching abroad for 5 years, and I don't think I've met anyone who wants to teach in the UK in the future.

And you can tell that they know they're not going to fund it properly because of their targets. They need to reach A2 level in 3 years. A good language learner can get to that level in 3 months, and our school typically says 180 hours of classes will get you there, which works out at just over 6 months for most people. But most of our students come about 3 times a week for 2 hours a time. I wonder if the UK government will be willing to fund that, or will it end up like their attempts to teach school kids French? If these classes were already available, I would bet they'd be well attended. I went to a free class for immigrants once, and it was good, but it was only on once a week, which just sums it up. Why wouldn't immigrants go to free classes? Learning a language can be pretty expensive. I suspect one of the main reasons they don't is because they're not available.
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This is one of the problems we have always had; part time (very part time) courses, that are over subscribed. If you don't get a place in the first week of enrolment then you don't get one at all. The only option is to try again 3 months, or even 6 months later.
 
blueinsa said:
This is not a dig at you in any way mate but most folk would kill to earn a pathetic £15 an hour.
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£15 an hour might be good if you're working 40 hours a week. Teachers can't though, because it takes at least an hour to plan a 2 hour class. So that £15 an hour is effectively £10 an hour (actually less, when you add in marking, admin, etc). A full time teaching job is usually 20 or 24 hours a week. Any more than that, and you can't really do a decent job of it. So yeah, £15 an hour translates to £300-360 a week, which you're probably having to string together at a number of schools at unsociable hours. Very few people learn English at 9 to 5 on a weekday.
 
I'm With Stupid said:
£15 an hour might be good if you're working 40 hours a week. Teachers can't though, because it takes at least an hour to plan a 2 hour class. So that £15 an hour is effectively £10 an hour (actually less, when you add in marking, admin, etc). A full time teaching job is usually 20 or 24 hours a week. Any more than that, and you can't really do a decent job of it. So yeah, £15 an hour translates to £300-360 a week, which you're probably having to string together at a number of schools at unsociable hours. Very few people learn English at 9 to 5 on a weekday.
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It shouldn't be taking an hour to plan a 2-hour lesson!
 
Chancy Termites said:
Both 's' and 'z' are acceptable in English, whereas only 'z' is correct in US English.

This is, in my view, an excellent reason to favour the 's'.

Edit: 's' spellings have been around since the 18th century, before even Murdoch was born.
Click to expand...

What a load of zhit
 
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