So… You’ve Decided to Bring Back the Language Test.
An article was released that informed me Australia has announced that overseas partners will have to take a language test before they can come into the country.
Ironically, a comment below this article stated:
“What couples have been waiting years for there visas to be processed and have not even bothered to learn the language of the country they will live in.”
If you didn’t pick up the mistake, it’s okay. There, their and they’re, it’s a confusing concept. Any Facebook post would tell you that. But honestly, I’ve never laughed harder.
I’ve also never been angrier.
I always want to say one thing to people who demands everyone speak ‘the language.’ Live abroad for five seconds. Don’t travel for a holiday where everyone caters to your beck and call because you’re from a Western society and have money. Live somewhere where English isn’t the official language. And just watch. Watch as righteous English speakers complain about not being understood. Observe as you see people in their own country trying to make your life easier.
Watch as no one judges you for screwing up a few words. Watch as an older lady grabs your arm to keep you out of harm's way when you didn’t realize that there was a fight occurring in the street. I couldn’t speak one word of Vietnamese at that point but her gentle touch told me everything. She patted my hand softly as police swarmed the street. I didn’t have my passport on me, my heart wasn’t in my chest, I wasn’t scared of what being around police would mean. That woman was a godsend and that country, even with its flaws, never made me feel like an outsider. I worked in their country, used their resources, got paid more than them and all I did was a job that someone in their country could definitely do. Sound familiar? Yet I was absolutely embraced.
Australians are incredibly righteous when it comes to the English language. The fact that we abbreviate everything, that we use slang on a daily basis doesn’t make us better than anyone. Hell, as a country, we speak one language and one language only. I don’t know how we can claim to be better than anyone who speaks two languages and who is brave enough to make the mistakes sometimes. You aren’t smarter for speaking the language you grew up with.
And it isn’t as simple as one might think.
I used to be proud of Australia. Truly, I did. We were an extremely multicultural country that was accepting of everything. As a child, I really believed that. I watched my friend speak Chinese with her mother and wished I could do that too. I learned where Croatia was because a friend of mine was from there. I had a Muslim boy in my class and his mother made the best cakes, honestly. I loved growing up like that, it made me so curious about the world.
Now I see articles like the one today. Ones that state that multiculturalism is what made Australia or Melbourne vulnerable to COVID-19. Articles that demand foreigners be worth something before they can come here. Articles that criticize people for escaping a place that left them with scars and demons that they have to work through. I have to ask. Why isn’t being a person enough?
And don’t get me started on the fruit picking policy. Don’t sit there and say that they have to do it. They don’t. But they’re willing to do that work to stay in a country that will criticize them for not being able to write using our messed up grammar system when they themselves can’t even capitalize a sentence in an email.
I’ve been complimented for doing the bare minimum. I try to always say hello in the official language in another country and I’ve seen people light up. Yet here? It would be met with scorn because it was said with an accent.
People will sit there and screw up their nose at other cultures but will wolf down a yiros when drunk. Just a heads up, that came from immigrants. Those street tacos? Immigrants. Hell, the fish and chips you get at the beach. That isn’t Australian, my friend. That’s from England. You know, the first immigrants? Oh, don’t like that statement? It’s what they were.
There just wasn’t a language test to keep them out.
This is a country built on multiculturalism. We used to be proud of it and I don’t know when it changed. So, yes, I’m against the language test. And I will be until all Australians can use the right ‘there.’
