Judge Joaquín Aguirre has identified a problem: many Senegalese etc can’t speak their national language, French, to a level that would enable them to understand the information given to them. But his well-meaning solution – translating into Wolof or whatever – is actually worse: state education in for example Dakar is conducted in French, and the prayer schools flog the holy book in Arabic, so men who can read Wolof or other regional vernaculars are actually far harder to find than the 50% or whatever who are literate in French to primary-leaving standard. It would surely be far more intelligent to give more encouragement to the unofficial use of bilingual inmate-mentors to aid the illiterate.
With the South Asian languages he may have a point, but even there the broader question needs to be raised: these simple lads have reached adulthood without acquiring the skills which we expect here of 11-year-olds, so what on earth did they hope to do anyway in Spain, unless it was collect scrap metal from the streets?
Similar posts
- All our pupils go out from Sil School with really high linguistics skills
If Colegio Sil in Barcelona wants to sell its foreign language provision to any but the stupid it might want to - Wurst is German for sausage
Wrust is a Spanish speciality and a Botswanan all-black metal band: Did they intend to call themselves sausage? How strong is - The English School, Barcelona struggles with English
I liked this bit about the school spelling competition: Obviously, spelling in our three languages causes problems, but these are gradually overcomed - Shock horror! Madrid employs native speakers to kick-start bilingual education programme!
I’ve met quite a lot of English teachers in Spain, but of the native speakers I only know a couple who - “The failure of bilingual education”
That’s the thesis of Primitivo Abella Cachero, Podemos schoolteacher from Avilés, Asturias. His segue into fluent Caracas vernacular in para. 2
Can't they just translate it to Catalan?