There is an article in the Now Newspaper telling the opinion of Tom Marks. He believes it is “an immigrant's responsibility to learn one of the official languages” of Canada. I agree with his opinion because Canada is a bilingual country. If someone is choosing to live in a country with English as one of the main languages they should be able to speak and understand basic English. If an immigrant knows some English I believe it would make their lives easier in Canada. To make it easier for immigrants to learn English I think more people should start an ESL business to provide training to new arrivals.
This is the link to the article:
http://www.thenownewspaper.com/life/Immigrants+should+speak+Canada+official+language/4771152/story.html
Interesting perspective, Nisha! There is a lot of money to be earned in private ESL tutoring - particularly in helping new immigrants pass the various standardised tests used by universities and government bodies (e.g., IELTS, TOEFL). My thought has always been, however, that it is the government's responsibility to provide FREE English language training to new immigrants.
ReplyDeleteI agree with the fact that there should be some knowledge of English when immigrating to this country. At the same time, it is amazing to see how so many different people from all over the world can live together in Vancouver. As a person who can speak 2 languages, it is sometimes hard when my 2 different cultural norms overlap, sometimes it makes it harder to effectively get a message through properly.
ReplyDelete