"English Spoken"

cee

EKIMIKE wrote:

In your opinion, are the people who complained about the foreign/non-english speaking taxi drivers racist?

Hey mike..

I would hope that at least some of the complaints were legitimate...the customer either could not understand the driver, or the driver could not understand them.

My question is...how many people has this actually happened to...and how many are stories from i know a guy who knows a guy who knows a guy, and then people making the assumption that they won't be understood before they have even said anything. In this case...i believe racism underlies it...the pre-judgement that drivers who look like they come from certain parts of the world will not understand english enough to know a street name.

EKIMIKE wrote:

If the taxi drivers with the stickers were racists, why didn't they have these stickers before/why wasn't there a documented issue of tension between the foreign and English speaking drivers?

I believe that this is the first time that the media has reported this issue, but I have heard several taxi drivers complaining about other apparently non-british taxi drivers not understanding english, so i do think that this tension has been bubbling for some considerable time.

I must say that I have only not been understood by apparently white english taxi drivers. Maybe my scottish accent is too difficult for them......all the apparently asian drivers I have told where I needed to go had no issue with even my strange accent.......

I mean.....

Anonymous

I'm Scottish but my accent has changed now. Had to round my accent out to be understood in England and now if I go back home, I sound posh and people take the mickey.
Although I do get a fair bit of Scottish banter at work, wonder if that's racist ? Don't think so, I'm a big boyso I dish it straight back. 8)

Garry H

dmclite wrote:

I'm Scottish but my accent has changed now. Had to round my accent out to be understood in England and now if I go back home, I sound posh and people take the mickey.
Although I do get a fair bit of Scottish banter at work, wonder if that's racist ? Don't think so, I'm a big boyso I dish it straight back. 8)

No, just xenophobic

Anonymous

Garry H wrote:

dmclite wrote:

I'm Scottish but my accent has changed now. Had to round my accent out to be understood in England and now if I go back home, I sound posh and people take the mickey.
Although I do get a fair bit of Scottish banter at work, wonder if that's racist ? Don't think so, I'm a big boyso I dish it straight back. 8)

No, just xenophobic

Ahh of course. I can now call my colleagues Xenophobes with confidence. Ta.

cee

dmclite wrote:

Had to round my accent out to be understood in England)

exactly my point.

and with that in mind....how much english do you need to speak before english people can understand you, to then be entitled to the 'English Spoken' sign....

I presume your grasp of english was pretty good before your accent changed (even living in places will do this...it doesn't always have to be intentional)....

Had you gotten a job as a taxi driver, would people have complained that they couldn't understand you in the same way as this topic? No.

Therefor I contend that the basis of usage of these signs is racist.

markwalker

cee wrote:

dmclite wrote:

Had to round my accent out to be understood in England)

exactly my point.

and with that in mind....how much english do you need to speak before english people can understand you, to then be entitled to the 'English Spoken' sign....

I presume your grasp of english was pretty good before your accent changed (even living in places will do this...it doesn't always have to be intentional)....

Had you gotten a job as a taxi driver, would people have complained that they couldn't understand you in the same way as this topic? No.

Therefor I contend that the basis of usage of these signs is racist.

We all have to spea clearley if our egional dialects or accents make us unitelligable its about commuication. edit and spell properly

Anonymous

cee wrote:

dmclite wrote:

Had to round my accent out to be understood in England)

exactly my point.

and with that in mind....how much english do you need to speak before english people can understand you, to then be entitled to the 'English Spoken' sign....

I presume your grasp of english was pretty good before your accent changed (even living in places will do this...it doesn't always have to be intentional)....

Had you gotten a job as a taxi driver, would people have complained that they couldn't understand you in the same way as this topic? No.

Therefor I contend that the basis of usage of these signs is racist.

You are so way off the mark with your reasoning, I can't be bothered to argue it.

-spider-

markwalker wrote:

dont be so sensitiive, it was an observation with nothing implied or suggested.

OK - Let's all laugh at sectarianism.

passout

The European Commission has just announced an agreement whereby English will be the official language of the European Union rather than German, which was the other possibility. As part of the negotiations, the British Government conceded that English spelling had some room for improvement and has accepted a 5-year phase-in plan that would become known as "Euro-English".

In the first year, "s" will replace the soft "c". Sertainly, this will make the sivil servants jump with joy. The hard "c" will be dropped in favour of "k". This should klear up konfusion, and keyboards kan have one less letter.

There will be growing publik enthusiasm in the sekond year when the troublesome "ph" will be replaced with "f". This will make words like fotograf 20% shorter.

In the 3rd year, publik akseptanse of the new spelling kan be expekted to reach the stage where more komplikated changes are possible. Governments will enkourage the removal of double letters which have always ben a deterent to akurate speling. Also, al wil agre that the horibl mes of the silent "e" in the languag is disgrasful and it should go away.

By the 4th yer people wil be reseptiv to steps such as replasing "th" with "z" and "w" with "v".

During ze fifz yer, ze unesesary "o" kan be dropd from vords kontaining "ou" and after ziz fifz yer, ve vil hav a reil sensi bl riten styl. Zer vil be no mor trubl or difikultis and evrivun vil find it ezi TU understand ech oza.Ze drem of a united urop vil finali kum tru.

Und efter ze fifz yer, ve vil al be speking German like zey vunted in ze forst plas.

If zis mad you smil, pleas pas on to oza pepl

cee

dmclite wrote:

You are so way off the mark with your reasoning, I can't be bothered to argue it.

well why bother with the comment then?

I have made my beliefs known. no-one here has said anything which have drastically changed that. I perhaps have modified a couple of minor points based on things others have said, but for the main...
anyway...

I think something....you think another...thats cool with me.

cheers.c

cee

markwalker wrote:

We all have to spea clearley if our egional dialects or accents make us unitelligable its about commuication. edit and spell properly

so are the people who find it hard to be understood just not speaking clearly enough?

any further forward on those stats?

rake

muk esir for disleksik pepl to red.

markwalker

cee wrote:

markwalker wrote:

We all have to spea clearley if our egional dialects or accents make us unitelligable its about commuication. edit and spell properly

so are the people who find it hard to be understood just not speaking clearly enough?

any further forward on those stats?

hi sorry no ive been away from my desk.

rake

he poped out for some milk with his pliers.

Bikerbaboon

rake wrote:

muk esir for disleksik pepl to red.

kinda funny but yep im heavly deslexic.... as in a tutor fomr the age of 5. deslexic only school from the age of 10 to 13 and then extra english tuition just to get me up to a C in GCSE and to be honest the only reason i managed to get a pass as thanks to my tutor writing 90% of my coursework and me getting A* in the course work and a fail in the exam.

but the changes above is how my brain thinks about spelling. Even trying to type in correct english mean me running masses of punomics over and over in my head just to try to spell.

I also have had issues with taxi drivers that can not speek english. Mainly the unisured one that did a nice hit and run on me.

why not have a stamp saying that they have a qualification in english ?

rake

a friend is dyslexic i noticed his mind seems to think in terms of how single letters sound being strung together. thats what made me think of it.