Workforce Language Services

This is in the UK, but it applies to the US too with all of the English Only bills floating around the states these days. It’s really not fair for a politician to stand up and say we should not only, only use English, but we should also not accommodate anyone who doesn’t speak English. The role of a local/state/federal representative is to represent the people. If the people don’t speak English, they still have a right to be represented. So our options are to 1) ignore this population, 2) don’t do anything until this population learns English or 3) provide language specific translations to help their participation. It seems like it is the fairest and most efficient way to promote a democratic society to me. Read more.

A COUNCIL leader has criticized an MP for attacking the authority for offering to translate documents for people who were unable to understand English.

Harwich MP Douglas Carswell called the translation service “multi-cultural dogma” and added: “This is England. Public documents should be in English.”

He said: “The July 7, 2005, terror attacks forced the political establishment to re-think multi-culturalism. Many people now recognize that cultural relativism has failed Britain.

“It has let our country down by creating social fragmentation rather than cohesion. I believe that in order to build a sense of Britishness, we need to encourage social cohesion and the use of English.

“I am appalled to see my local council encouraging social division and fragmentation by promoting languages other than English.”