Comments on: English test for Immigrants? At least it isn’t Gaelic!

By: Jaŋari

Jaŋari — Thu, 01 Mar 2007 10:21:46 +0000

Well, Cooper, that was a bit out of left-field, but I love a good Pulp Fiction reference.

“Mm! that is a tasty burger!”

By: Cooper

Cooper — Thu, 01 Mar 2007 09:01:16 +0000

Of course, it would be entertaining (and cost-cutting) if instead of spending all that money on P.R spin, training, etc implementing the silly policy, they just put up a huge screen in every international airport with a large projection of Samuel L. Jackson on a perpetual loop, shouting
“ENGLISH MOTHERFUCKER, DO YOU SPEAK IT?”

By: Claire

Claire — Tue, 02 Jan 2007 14:26:35 +0000

Jaŋari, this was part of the White Australia Policy, the first piece of legislation passed by the Commonwealth Government in Melbourne in 1901.

By: Jane Simpson

Jane Simpson — Fri, 22 Dec 2006 10:06:05 +0000

If you go to DIMA’s websiteyou learn

“The following categories of people are eligible [for "free English classes"]:
–newly-arrived migrants or humanitarian entrants from overseas;
–migrants who arrived in Australia after 1 July 1991;
–temporary residents who hold a gazetted visa class;
–people who have been granted permanent residence in Australia since July 1991.”
But what they don’t mention is that, according to the NSW AMES it is NOT
exactly free – spouses get in free, but skilled and business migrants must pay “the English Education Charge (2nd Instalment) of approx A$ 2630 to DIMIA”). Looking through the website finds other little gotchas like:
“Visa charge 2nd instalment Only relevant for dependents aged 18 years or over with less than functional English $2,765″
OK it’s still a lot cheaper than paying full AMES $10/hour for 510 hours.

Oh, and of course if you are living in the community waiting for refugee status to be determined you aren’t entitled to any free English classes – that’s why some religious and social action groups have been running voluntary English classes for such people.

By: Wamut

Wamut — Fri, 15 Dec 2006 00:48:04 +0000

Sometimes articles i read at uni stick in my mind and one of those was a very interesting study done in canada of two migrants English acquisition – two middle aged women, one polish, one vietnamese – one of the findings was that implicit racism in canadian society impeded the vietanmese women (and her family’s) English acquisition. As the racism wasn’t as evident for the polish women she didn’t have the same difficulties.

So another tactic John Howard could take would be to be more actively in eradicating racism in Australia in order to foster a positive atmosphere for migrants to acquire English. Unfortunately, I don’t quite see Mr. Coward embracing this philosophy.

Also, migrants do receive a lot of free English tuition courtesy of the government – something like 500 hours.