County police learning Polish
Tuesday 28th April 2009, 4:00PM BST.
Police officers in Shropshire are being given language lessons to help them communicate with Polish people in the county.
Up to 15 officers and police staff who have regular dealings with Polish communities have asked for tuition in some simple key phrases.
They will start a course which will feature 10 weekly sessions at Shrewsbury’s police station.
Sergeant Ed Hancox, said: “There is an emerging Polish population in these areas and a key part of our community engagement plan is to make sure we can communicate with all sections of the local population.
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An excellent idea, and money well-spent. Most Polish workers are making efforts to learn English, and if the Police are being given lessons in Polish too it can only aid communication and reduce the costs of employing interpreters.
Anything that improves the typically poor British record in learning to speak foreign languages can only be a good thing.
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Surely our money should be spent on teaching the Polish our language. . .English!
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Excellent!
Nothing like a ‘community engagement plan’ is there?
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What??????????
How come the Polish are so special? Did we get the police to learn Hindi/Urdu/Bengali/Punjabi/Arabic when the respecitve speaking immigrants came to Shropshire in years past? No!
What the taxpayer should be doing is paying for and forcing the immigrants to speak English. If they want to stay here.
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Surely it would be more cost effective, less of an abstraction to teach the Poles to speak some basic English. With the excellant radio communication,availability of interpreters to the police this seems a waste of resource and finance particularly in this economic climate.
With the diverse population domiciled within the West Mercia area many who have been here for a long time why only teach Polish? What about the other minorities? i.e Pakastini, Indian, Welsh etc
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I thought people coming to this country, must learn to speak english,!!!!!!!!! Just more of the taxpayers money, being used for immigrants.
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Just another expense for the taxpayer to fund, for the open door policy of this government.
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Waste of time and money. Not everyone has an aptitude for learning languages especially a complicated one like Polish. Employ some dual nationality speakers is the answer. Then again perhaps our Polish friends could make a bit more effort themselves with the basics of English.
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Efforts should be made in teaching the polish residents here to speak english, not the police to learn there language, even small bits of it.
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I think this is disgusting. We are paying our taxes for police officers to learn polish, what a joke!!! If they want to be part of the British community they should learn the language!
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This is a joke,if we go to foreign country and get in trouble its tough if we dont know their language. The immigrants should learn english as its their choice to come here!!
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This is a joke right ???
Shouldn’t everyone CHOOSING to live in our country learn to speak English BEFORE they arrive ???
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I think there are some positive sides to this idea – as someone else says, why shouldn’t an effort be made to speak another language? Lots of foreigners already speak decent English, but how many English people speak a word of French or German etc?
My concern is that – at a time when the police are constantly asking for more money in their budgets – that schemes like this lead to the employment of yet more civilian ‘non jobs’ to administer them. More and more money is being poured into “community engagement plans” while front line policing is less visible than ever.
Instead of politically correct box-ticking exercises like this one, the police should be engaging with their community by getting out and about more and doing what we PAY them to do. And lets be honest, there are one or two coppers who need some basic manners in how to deal with normal members of the public on a daily basis from what I have seen!
Of course, THAT sort of community engagement is not the sort the police want to practice.
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Another example of the tail wagging the dog!!
When will the majority have a say?
Bring on the revolution!
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Another joke by the government, these polish chose to come here so they should learn English. If we go abroad and get into bother then its tough if we cant speak the language. Before long us British will be expected to speak a foreign language to just live in our own country
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Jeepers. Do us a favour move to Poland if you love them so much. This is England and we must keep our identity or it will be lost for ever.
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“These Polish”? Not that you have a problem with Polish people, eh Laura?
Where’s the harm in learning other languages if it helps improve communication?
And who is suggesting this is for those who “get into trouble”? Can Polish people not be victims?
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I’ve just been helping out an Englishman who’s lived on the Costa for nearly 30 years and hardly speaks a word of Spanish – and he’s typical of so many Brits out here. We need to apply to ourselves what we prescribe for others.
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The Polish people in our neighbourhood all speak really good English. How many Brits who move to other countries actually bother to learn the language?
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Yet another engineered good news story from the monkmoor media machine. I wonder how many commendations they’ll wring out of this one?
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Chris Packet – if you bothered to read all my post, you’d see that I’m NOT really that supportive of this scheme. I’m merely trying to see both sides of the argument.
People like you need to keep a sense of proportion – people’s concern here should be the cost of these schemes and the benefits that they bring to crime fighting. Probably few, if we’re honest.
Your point about us ‘losing our identity’ (to Polish people? Get a grip!) is just over the top nonsense.
I’m NOT in favour of this ‘community engagement scheme’ because at the end of the day it brings few benefits or improvements to what the police SHOULD be concentrating on. This is just a PR-led, box ticking initiative led by the useless Home Office.
The average police officer who does his job diligently will just be sighing in despair(again) and counting the days to retirement…..
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Grant: You beat me to it! We must asume that they are all fluent in Hindi/Urdu/Bengali/Punjabi/Arabic.
I presume that you missed off Yiddish as the Police have spoken this for years?
By the way, I have been told that there are more Welsh Speakers in Shropshire than Polish.
If the police want to get community support, why don’t they just do a proper job?
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discgraceful , we must make foreigners learn english not the other way round, the EU is at fault for all the immigrants in this country, conservatives will get them out
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I once suffered one of the greatest “put-downs” of my life in a foreign country over my ignorant, arrogance.
Many, many years ago before Greece became the Blackpool of the Med, when tourists were unknown and and it was all like Zorba the Greek, I casually walked up to a couple of immaculately smart and dignified Greek coppers with a query, I said “excuse me do you speak English” and immediately, I knew I had done wrong. The friendly face became as dark as thunder and very unfriendly and his voice had a tinge of contempt that only someone in a superior position can do. As if speaking to a flea, he said in perfect English, “excuse me can I ask if you speak Greek”, he then broke into a tirade of Greek of which I knew not a word. He then spoke to me in perfect English, answered my question, gave a laugh, doffed his hand and went on his way. He taught me the lesson of my life, ie when in Rome do as the Roman’s do or at the very least try.
But for all that, well done the Police, I had a lot of respect for that Greek copper. oh! that people had respect for our own scruffy lot.
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I have lived in Cyprus now for six years. In that time I have worked hard to learn to speak (& write) fluent Greek. Because most Cypriots have a good command of the English language it’s not vitally important to learn Greek here, but due to the fact that I have chosen to come here to live, and to enjoy all the benefits of a wonderful climate, good fresh food and thank God no ‘community engagement schemes’(we don’t waste money on them whatever they are) I consider it only right to respect my host country by learning its language. Our police don’t do a great deal of worrying about whether they are being politically correct or not. Instead they keep crime very low indeed, and not by juggling and manipulating figures, but by seeking out those who choose to offend, bringing them before the courts and if found guilty locking them up. NO we don’t change the Greek language day by day in order to introduce new and trendy words and phrases to cover your tracks of incompetence.
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Asolutely disgusting. What a complete and utter waste of taxpayer’s money!!
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Shocking!!! I moved to Spain for work 7 years ago and I learn’t the language!!! I worked hard at being a part of Spanish life!! Utter rubbish that this is being done in Shropshire!
You want to live somewhere else? You learn the language, abide by there rules and law and respect there culture!
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How about learning welsh a great deal more Welsh people live in the Marches than Polish
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It’s a shame that our Police officers have been reduced to this type of activity to reach the next higher rank instead of being assessed on their ability and effectiveness as a Police officer and a leader of men. These are the sort of activities I expect our Community Support Officers to be coming up with and arranging, not a serving copper.
Perhaps lollipops to drunks instead of arresting them on a Friday or Saturday night, or flip flops to drunken women will be on the horizon
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Y Mab Darogan,there are no pre-promotion brownie points awarded for such matters,they probably have a whole dept probably called dream-land at the station.
Resources and courses are only ever directed towards problems,the Welsh are no longer a problem just an aggravation.
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Peter’s comment (#1) is absolutely right, as is Stuart’s (#24).
Most Poles, who I have met locally, speak very good English, and have made great efforts to fit in and work hard.
The course will give police officers enough to break the ice with, and that is surely something which all of us should welcome, as mutual respect flows from mutual understanding.
And who knows? Learning a little Polish might just lead on to an interest in other languages. There’s nothing wrong with that.
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Huw, Have you not contradicted yourself? First you say its a good idea, then you say most Poles speak very good English. So whats the point?
As for the Police ‘breaking the ice’ with Johnny Foreigner, not sure if thats why they join the police? I’ve yet to meet one that started a friendly chat with me.
Now if they were like the New Zealand police, now that would be something. Short story is I was stopped by Kiwi police driving a pals truck because he recognised the car and knew I wasn’t the owner. Now that’s community policing!
Nevertheless I have myself learnt several languages, English, American, Australian, New Zealand and Western Canadian.
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Lucy W – That is nothing I speak 5
Welsh
English
French
Spanish
German
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It’s called ‘meeting people halfway’, Lucy W.
Demonstrating mutual understanding.
Exchanging small talk.
Mutual respect.
As a fluent American speaker, I would have expected you of all people to have understood Barack Obama’s call for people to seek ‘common ground’ a couple of days ago.
What do you find so threatening about the idea that the police are interested in improving their understanding of Polish people’s language and culture?
This is an unequivocally positive move.
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Huw: Well I have met them half way language wise. Germany is about half way between England and Poland and I have picked up a little German, even though champions of the English Language, such as Gordon Ramsey, make it unnecessary.
As an example, I very often find my self in a bar trying to enjoy a quiet drink on my own when a voice next to me will say “Iche finde Sie sehr attraktiv”.
Fortunately the ‘F’ word is universally understood so I don’t need to reach for my phrase book.
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Y Mab: And no doubt you can see Sca Fell Pike, Mont Blanc, Malhacen and Zugspite, all from Snowdon? ;o)
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Lucy W – i can see everything huni ;o)
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Im sure everyone on here with negative remarks has an understanding of the language of every country they visit..!! So none of us expect a policeman in Spain, Italy, Poland, to speak English !
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confused might be interested to know that the police on the Costa del Sol have a 24-hour English speaking emergency contact number.
When reporting a crime to the Spanish police, you can make it in Spanish AND English.
According to the website of the Greek Ministry of Tourism, the Tourist Police is ‘staffed with specially trained, foreign-language speaking personnel’.
Italy also has English-speaking police, though you are right to say that Poland does not.
All of the above is simply common sense. The police have made a sensible decision, which is going to make their work much easier.
No doubt, there are some who do not agree with these measures, but they are surely in the minority, because these countries want foreigners visiting them to have a positive experience and to come back again in the future.
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Huw said”.. these countries want foreigners visiting them to have a positive experience and to come back again in the future.”
Dear Huw, our police don’t need to learn Polish for Johnny Foreigner to want to come and visit us – just go to Calais and there are hoards of them trying to come over, regardless of our police’s liguistic skills!!!
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Lucy W, are you going to berate the Spanish, Italian and Greek police for teaching themselves English?
What is so threatening to you about the idea of people understanding, trusting and respecting each other?
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Huw, I’d ignore Lucy W and not rise to it. She’s pretty much rent-a-rant on here.
And I agree with you, can’t see how it’s a bad thing to make the effort to learn a few words in another language to improve communication.
As I indicated before, people on here seem to be assuming this is to benefit “bad” people, assuming that Polish people must be breaking the law and couldn’t possibly be a victim. It’s quite worrying.
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