Multilingual Britain

[Ifti]

Multilingual Britain
The miracle of human variety is in danger of disappearing, if all of us speak alike, dress alike, eat the same food, read the same fiction and enjoy the same music. It would be a great loss to our colourful planet. Public sector needs a multilingual work force. Teachers and police officers can help with race relations in the classroom and in the community. Public sector is seeking multilingual recruits to serve multicultural Britain. The ability to speak languages from Arabic to Urdu is considered to be an asset. Linguistic skills, in addition to the usual entry criteria, will boost the number of recruits in teaching, police, medicine, nursing and the civil service. Bilingual teachers, police officers, doctors and nurses are in a better position to serve the bilingual Muslim community. The language system has been used successfully in the United States. Mary Doherty at TTA, points out those bilingual teachers can be particularly welcome in state schools for bilingual pupils. Various studies show that bilingualism increases overall intelligence. Monolingualism leads to isolationist and inward thinking.

Exposure to different languages and cultures can increase tolerance. Language learning in childhood lays the foundations for developing real fluency in that language. Every child should have the opportunity to study a foreign language and develop their interest in the culture of other nations. Languages can be seen as an important way of putting more fun into primary learning and of broadening the children experience. Learning a second language boosts your intellectual powers by physically increasing the number of nerve cells in the language centres of the brain. A study at University College London shows that the brains of bilingual people are structurally enhanced compared to the brains of people who can only speak one language. The effect is even more marked in people who learnt a second language before they were five. Speaking a second language is like having access to another world. No other subject expands mental horizons in the same way. In an ordinary inner city school in England, nearly 100 languages are spoken, yet still essentially this is still a monolingual nation. London is the most multicultural city in the world with over 300 languages spoken everyday.

Bilingual Muslim children need state funded Muslim schools with bilingual teachers as role models during their developmental periods. All state schools where Muslim pupils are the majority should be designated as Muslim community schools. They are in a better position to provide balanced education by teaching the National Curriculum along with Arabic, Islamic studies, Urdu and other community languages. An Islamic atmosphere will help to develop Islamic Identity crucial for mental, emotional and personality development.
Iftikhar Ahmad

[JCfromGA]

Actually, brains of bilinguals/polylinguals vs monolinguals are structurally the same. That research is false. The brain is such a complex creature that it does not have to structurally change to hold more than one language. The brain in it's intial 3 months of life is able to recognize every phoneme that exists in every language in the world. Only as time progresses and these phonemes aren't utilized by the brain... does the brain stop recognizing them in an attempt to organize efficiently. I am a bilingual speech language pathologist and I research bilingual individuals, their development, and the effects of their languages after stroke. While I don't disagree that people should be bilingual, I do not promote the use of false research to support ideas.

Now, while the argument is in support of a bilingual world, I only heard the argument of learning Arabic as a second language. That makes the argument sound political. If you really believe that people should be bilingual, then you should believe that the parents should be allowed to choose the other language instead of requiring all children to be exposed to one specific language. That sounds like forcing another person's culture on someone else... which is not right either. Tolerance isn't created that way.

[Celyn]

Ah, that's interesting, JCfromGa. I notice that Ifti does not cite much detail about her/his "study at University College London". Ifti, this "study" - has it been published anywhere? Reviewed at all?

... An Islamic atmosphere will help to develop Islamic Identity crucial for mental, emotional and personality development

What a strange thought. Are we to suppose that everyone without this "Islamic atmosphere" is utterly devoid of any mental, emotional etc. development? I imagine proponents of other religions make similar claims, and I find them equally spurious. Are you sure your main focus here is really the value of language learning? There seems to be a bit of a jump in your post from the value of language learning (undisputed, although perhaps not in quite the way you suggest) and a claimed "need"" for Islamic schools.

Anyway, I shall not worry too much about the National Curriculum of other countries. Are you under the impression that your National Curriculum applies to Scotland, Ifti? If so, perhaps you might want to work on increasing your knowledge and cultural sensitiivity.

Also, what is the connection with gay and lesbian issues that causes this to be posted here?

[Saorsa1]

You're not allowed to be homosexual in muslim countries..

[Lachlan09]

Originally Posted by Saorsa1

You're not allowed to be homosexual in muslim countries..

That's the official stance, particularly in Saudi Arabia where it is a capital offence. However, the reality, happily, is somewhat different and gay muslim arabs can be found in KSA as well as Oman, UAE and elsewhere. Further, Filipino expats contain a sizeable number of active gay men and lesser extent women in muslim arab countries, who link up with each other or the gay arab community. A number of my wife's (and my) Filipino friends are openly gay males who have stories to tell about their liasons with locals they met at favourite disco haunts.

BTW The concept of Arab women wearing the loose, flowing abaya to show constancy in their cultural, religious and national identity is fine as far as it goes, but you only have to be on a plane out of Oman to Thailand or Singapore to see the transformation as they go into the toilet clad in black from head to toe, to see these completely different-looking women emerge butterfly-like from the same toilet in spaghetti-tops and tight jeans, ready to party when they arrive. On the way home, it's the opposite routine. Abayas go back on before the flight home.

Plus another thing I've wondered about - all these Chinese and Russian prostitutes operating in hotels, discos, massage parlours and certain streets in Oman - who do they serve ? Foreigners ? Yes they do, but the expat community is small and the prostitutes' number is very noticeablely large. So who do they serve ? Local men is the answer. They're as hot-blooded as men anywhere and I've seen Omanis who have stopped their cars at the side of the street and picked them up.

Muslims give the impression of being holier than thou, free from weakness and holding the higher moral ground, but the truth is weakness and individual choice, particularly male weakness and choice, makes them more human than perhaps they care to admit.

[Cadbren]

I worked alongside a muslim man from South Africa, he was a Cape coloured (that's how they identify themselves) and he told me that there were no muslim homosexuals, as though somehow the belief in Allah precluded the possibility of this.
We also had a politician (Ashraf Choudhary) who was muslim, I forget if he was from Pakistan or Fiji, but his attitude was that he would not condemn stoning in muslim countries but would condemn it here because it was against the current law.
As for the original post, what complete tosh, multi-culturalism only works if cultures are free to practice their own cultures in their own communities. That means that western countries have a right to clamp down on foreign cultures in order to preserve our own as those foreign cultures are surviving quite happily in their own lands, we should not endorse them at an official level in ours.
With few exceptions, most practitioners of foreign cultures have come to our shores willingly and so should not get special treatment to preserve their cultures at our expense. If they wish to pursue their own ethnic cultures more fully then they can either fund such things themselves within their own areas or go to the places where their cultures have official representation (ie go home). They should not receive any monies or encouragement to what otherwise is a colonization of our living spaces to our ultimate detriment.

[Cadbren]

Originally Posted by Celyn

Also, what is the connection with gay and lesbian issues that causes this to be posted here?

I'm thinking it's a mix up with multi-lingual and similar sounding words but I'd not like to postulate too much on that.