Language, culture, and being British

An article entitled “Who’s blame for the rise of the BNP?” suggests the government need to require all the immigrants to learn the language and culture of this country if they wish to stay in the UK, Rod Bulcock wrote in The Guardian.

Here are some of the quotes from the article, “People need to learn the language and culture of whatever country they choose to live in…”, and then more quotes to come “government needs to act now to restore some prosperity to these areas. The problems will only grow if they don’t engage with them.”

Rod Bulcock then continued to comment “If the presence of the BNP gets that conversation under way, they will have done us all a service.

Rod Bulcock thinks that BNP’s anti-immigrants perspective formed from those immigrants’ lack of English language skills and understanding of British culture.

Rukiya Dadhiwala, of Batley, from West Yorkshire, writes a comment on The Guardian, 11 June responding how their opinion regarding “being a British” issue.

Rukiya says to an extent she agrees that of course, it is essential that the language of the country is leant in order to be part of the society, but people must be kidding themselves if them believe the majority of the immigrants do not speak the English language or have no interest in getting to know the British culture whatsoever.

She then tells a story about herself. She is from Batley, just a stone’s throw from Bingley and lives in a majority Indian community, and 99% of their residents speak English – though not all have the confidence to speak in a professional manner.

She says she spoke English with her gran at home, but she her gran still prefers Rukiya to be her spokesperson at the hospital.

As for the culture, she then continues that there are four generations of her family in the UK, and across the four generations they have qualified teachers, accountants, lawyers, doctors, lab technicians, architects, statisticians and herself work in medical research area.

She stressed that her family case is not rare across the whole area where she lives, she admits her and her family like any other UK groups and share probably similar problems. But they are all proud of being British, and in the meantime, her and her families are also proud of their south Asian heritage and their culture in the UK reflects both of these two heritages.

She concludes her article by saying, and finally questioning: “We work in the UK, we socialise in the UK, we marry in the UK, we have our families in the UK, we pay our taxes in the UK, we use the education and healthcare systems in the UK, and national problems affect us too – so are we not part of the culture? What more do we need to be doing?