Re: Daft figures!
- From: The Highlander <micheil@xxxxxxx>
- Date: Tue, 12 Jun 2007 15:57:16 GMT
On Mon, 11 Jun 2007 22:32:47 GMT, "allan connochie"
<allan@xxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:
In the Scotsman today there is an article today which claims that AsianThis was a major problem in Canada which attracts immigrants and their
languages should be given the same support as Gaelic and that twice as many
people in Scotland speak Arabic than Gaelic; thrice as many people speak
Chinese than Gaelic; six times as many speak Urdu; and eight times as many
speak Punjabi.
http://thescotsman.scotsman.com/index.cfm?id=908692007
So 1.2% of the population of Scotland speak Gaelic which relates to around
60,000 people. Hence the claim is that 120,000 Scots speak Arabic; 180,000
speak Chinese; 360,000 speak Urdu; and 480,000 speak Punjabi. By my
calculation that is 1.14 million Scots speaking these Asian languages. Of
course it is utter nonsense. Fair enough to make an argument for other
languages but why on earth do people keep exaggerating (and really these
figures are down right lies) the number of speakers? Normally they will
claim something like there are more Punjabi speakers than Gaels - which in
itself must be doubtful - but this time the figures are completely off the
wall.
According to Whitaker's Almanac the total non-white population of Scotland
in 1999 was estimated at 1.6% of the population - yet the above url seems to
claim that 22.8% of Scots speak an Asian language!!!
Allan
children from all over the world and the Canadian answer was to
introduce ESL (English Second language) classes.
In most instances this worked quite well, and minority language
speaking children also tended to learn English rapidly from watching
children's television at home and eventually making English-speaking
friends at school.
The biggest problem was Chinese-speaking children, as following the
handover of Hong Kong to China and emigrants from China itself as exit
permits began to be issued, as well as families leaving Taiwan because
of fear of an eventual military takeover by Mainland China and the
desire to have their children avoid being swept up into the Taiwanese
armed forces, local schools filled with Chinese children who often
outnumbered the local English-speaking children. The Chinese kids
tended to hang together by language preference; such as
Cantonese-speaking groups, Mandarin-speaking groups, etc.
This created a great deal of anger among Canadian parents who felt
that their children's schooling was being held back by time spent
trying to make Chinese kids understand what was happening in the
classroom.
The ESL programs were introduced to counter this effect, but again the
children's natural inclinition to make friends with Canadian children
who shared their interests resolved much of the problem and,
typically, the Chinese children not only began to speak English at
school, but also tended to reject Chinese languages as a way of not
being different from the local kids. Children are of course
instinctively compelled not to be different; a form of survival.
Thus the problem was turned in its head, and Chinese parents began
establishing Chinese language after-hours schools so that their
children would not forget how to speak Chinese.
In general the children tended to resent this appropriation of their
free time, and now it is quite common for Chinese children to speak
poor or no Chinese, leading to dissent within families as monoglot
Chinese-speaking grandparents find themselves unable to communicate
with their grandchildren. It was quite common to hear Chinese children
out in public with their families saying to their parents, "Speak
English!"
There was also a knock-on effect with Canadian children in schools
with large Chinese populations, and as an example. my grandson picked
up Cantonese without anyone of us realizing it until one day I heard
him chattering to some Chinese children in Cantonese, to my
astonishment.
Now I meet Chinese children whose Chinese is not as good as mine;
something which produces a mix of amusement, amazement and a generally
stunned effect, all speaking with perfect western Canadian accents,
right down to a local (Richmond only, not Vancouver) pronunciation of
the word "school" as skü-ull; a unique pronunciation heard only in
Richmond, an area of Saskatchewan, and nowhere else in North America.
The Chinese language groupings in school have also all but disappeared
and intermarriage among school-leavers is producing a whole new, often
very attractive new generation of half-Canadian, half-Chinese
children. As many Canadians are of non-English speaking origin, we are
seeing a genuine mixture of the races and as a result, a tendency for
racism to be low-priority among younger people.
I think that's a good thing and it was underlined the other day when I
asked a young local policeman who was clearly of Chinese descent, a
question in Cantonese and he said, rather chidingly, "Sorry, I don't
speak Chinese - I'm Canadian." I didn't believe him, but I did think
it was an interesting encounter and a good example of how well the ESL
programs worked.
I must say too that many Chinese families have bent over backwards
integrating. It reminds me of a comment by a Jewish writer in New
York, who said that within weeks of his uncle and aunt arriving there,
whenever the aunt spoke Yiddish to her husband, he would turn to the
rest of the family and ask in mangled English, "What did she said?"
The urge to integrate is very powerful and indeed, the local Chinatown
in Vancouver is heavily composed of shopkeepers who assume Chinese
accents for the benefit of tourists, but speak perfect Canadian
English among themselves!
The only group which does not speak English well is that composed of
low-paid adult Chinese workers who have neither the time nor the money
to spend on English classes. I have frequently been asked by such
people to teach them English and I am proud to say that there are now
several Chinese working people whose rich Scottish accents startle
local Canadians! (I am exaggerating - somewhat!)
The Highlander
Tilgibh smucaid air do làmhan,
togaibh a' bhratach dhubh agus
toisichibh a' geàrradh na sgòrnanan!
.
- References:
- Daft figures!
- From: allan connochie
- Daft figures!
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