Quoting tamikidakika:

thousands of foreign employees come to Turkey every year for job, but they hardly have an incentive to learn the language. The place where I live in Turkey has an high population of foreign professionals and expats. You can see lots of people speaking foreign language in the street there, but I hardly see them speaking Turkish. They usually learn just a couple of words to cope with the common everyday tasks like getting groceries or asking for directions, but thats all.

I also know people who try hard to learn the language. two of them were my English and math teachers when I was in highschool and their Turkish was splendid.

But the majority of foreign people especially those who come from the western countries to Turkey are just like what I described.

Quoting catwoman:

So this is comparable to people who were born in a country, live in it their whole lives and still can´t speak the country´s language?

Quoting tamikidakika:

I was commenting on teaschip post. who are these people you`re mentioning about btw. That sounds like a silly exaggeration to me.

Quote:

The same has happen in England, migrant are more or less expected to come and fill the labour shortage gaps and low and behold they (the Government) withdraw funding for ESOL. So the migrant on a low income cannot afford to pay for language classes. How you can say demand I am not sure, someone has to pay for the classes, they are not free, and they are not always easy to access. Not everyone has access to computers or further education colleges. Books are not cheap, and the low earning jobs are usually long hours, leaving little time for study.

Quoting Cacık:

Well, I have to disagree that this is common across the UK. The colleges I work with still provide free ESOL because they must according to government rulings.

What about the library - books, computers, and more are free of charge. Many many towns and cities have public libraries with full time staff on hand to help.

The UK has a super adult education system where many of the cities or towns secondary schools open in the evening from 7pm to 9pm and provide often about 200 courses at each centre and hundreds of thousands across the UK, anything ranging from any language courses, gardening programmes, accountancy & auditing, English language, literature music, trampolining, wood work, cooking, computer programme, microsoft programmes teaching etc... and very often 1 term being September to December or Januay to May are about 40 or 50 pounds for the whole term. That is not expensive. Click through the links and see what types of courses are available. Thousands!

UK Adult Education

I know quite a few Turkish people working in the UK earning 6 pounds per hour in hospitality. Of the many I know, I have not yet met one who is actually on minimum salary. OK 6 pounds per hour may not be much but it is still not minimum salary and is still more that benefits.

There is no excuse for racism by English folk against others, but there are many cases where newcomers do not and refuse to integrate because they don´t think they should have to - it is still no excuse for racism.

I think there are those who take their opportunities to integrate and make use of opportunities and there are those who can´t be bothered too. I also don´t think this will change! But I don´t think it is fair to say their difficulties are across the board and immigrants are having such an awful time!

As Tamik said - exactly the same can be said for the Brits who don´t bother to learn Turkish who live here. They stay in groups and communities particularly in the south and aegean coastal regions. It is not a good representation of the Brits and those Brits who do genuinely try to integrate very hard. But again not all Brits are the same!

No nationalities, ethnic group or immigrant are the same. But I won´t say that all are victims, this is just not true. You can only ring the "I´m a victim bell" for so long and that goes for any group, any where.

Quoting tamikidakika:

thousands of foreign employees come to Turkey every year for job, but they hardly have an incentive to learn the language. The place where I live in Turkey has an high population of foreign professionals and expats. You can see lots of people speaking foreign language in the street there, but I hardly see them speaking Turkish. They usually learn just a couple of words to cope with the common everyday tasks like getting groceries or asking for directions, but thats all.

I also know people who try hard to learn the language. two of them were my English and math teachers when I was in highschool and their Turkish was splendid.

But the majority of foreign people especially those who come from the western countries to Turkey are just like what I described.

Quoting Cacık:

Quoting libralady:

I agree with what you are saying, and I am not defending those who can´t be bothered to learn the host language, but believe me, things are not quite as you put it and there are many factors involved. Firstly you have to be able to get to a library and college!

And I can provide you with reports on how migrant workers are abused, just look at the TUC or UCATT websites or Joseph Rowntree, IPPR etc etc. I belong to a Vulnerable Workers forum, of which migrants are included, and I can confirm some workers go home with no pay after paying the unscrupulous boss (usually agencies) for housing, transport, food, clothing, and anything else they can conjure up.

I am also on ESOL development groups, but those classes will not be free.

Another factor, our bosses are keen to take on migrants but are not so keen when it comes to assisting them in integration.