dlish

im curious what TFPers think of Non english speakers speaking in their mother tongue in public in a western country.

Do 'westerners' find it rude/insulting/racist if someone was speaking to someone else in their own language?

if you are insulted, why would you be insulted?

I know that many western countries are now in the process of implementing or have implemented citizenship tests for migrants. i think that's a great thing. if you want to migrate to another country and exploit its generosity without giving back, then you need not apply.

However, what if someone did pass all the labguage tests, the history and culture tests, and has all the relevant qualifications as well as a job. If this particular person was speaking in public in their own language, i dare say some people would find it insulting, despite the fact that this person has a right to be in the country as much as the next person. some people would even go as far as confronting the person and asking them to speak in english or 'go back to your own country'. ive heard this term many a times in australia, especially as a kid when the arabic community wasnt especially big in Sydney 30 years ago. We were called 'wogs' and 'dago's' for looking different, even though my mother was fluent in 3 languages, and my father 5.

i know that members of my family including my wife have been abused for not looking the part during major world events like 911. The truth be told, she speaks better english and arabic than i do. she speaks on talkback radio giving free nutritional advice to the arabic community at large in her own time, but an undercurrent of racisms still exists in many parts of the west and it rears its ugly head whenever the next big news story pops on the front page.

'We' as first and generation australians are expected to fit the australian mould, which most have done successfully for the most part. I then look at expat westerners who live in the middle east who have come to reap the rewards of an expat life, but do nothing to learn the language, learn its culture, history or understand its people. i see a disparity between these two cultures. Here in Dubai, almost everything is in english. every sign board accomodates to the westerner, every government official is bilingual if not trilingual, every shop conducts its business in english. Its a part of life, and no one finds it offensive when someone speaks another language. This is truely a cosmopolitan city where the lines of culture is blurred. where indians, arabs, africans, westerners, asians, and euorpean kids all learn about each other in the same classroom.

i compare this with the curriculum when i went to school where all the multicultural kids would be grouped in one class to attend 'special english classes' even though i was the best speller in my class. i never understood why they'd ask me to go learn english with a bunch of other migrant kids who also spoke perfect english. ironically, we would spend an hour playing musical instruments instead of learning english.

now that i am thinking about heading back home after a good stint in the middle east ( yes australia is home) i am having second thoughts about going back. Will my kids be treated the same way that i was treated when i was a kid? will they be considered outcasts because they're not westerners? will they be singled out because of their names? This is also taking into mind that i will be teaching my kids arabic at every opportunity outside of the school curriculum, as well as speaking to them in public in arabic and other places.

I guess what i fear the most is having someone confront me for being less australian than they are, when i consider myself australian wherever i live.

are people really racist deep down? or is it the fear of the unknown?

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