100 year old sprinter

wow 100 a Sprinter and planning to do a marathon. Good on Him!
but could do with learning English whilst he at it.
 
Well done to that man and good luck to him in his quest to become the oldest marathon runner although potentially he's got to wait until he's 101 if Buster Martin's claim at that age is to be believed.

cheets64 said:
How can you be classed as a British citizen if you cant speak the language, surly that is one of the clauses of getting citizenship.
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You can argue that perhaps it should be a requirement for citizenship but I don't think it's vital, if anything it makes it more difficult for the person not speaking English than it does for anyone else.
 
semi-pro waster said:
You can argue that perhaps it should be a requirement for citizenship but I don't think it's vital, if anything it makes it more difficult for the person not speaking English than it does for anyone else.
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Why do you not think it is vital for a British citizen to speak English?

As for it being awkward, what about the wasted millions on translation costs?
 
OldCoals said:
Why do you not think it is vital for a British citizen to speak English?

As for it being awkward, what about the wasted millions on translation costs?
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I don't think it is vital because I don't want to put arbitrary limits on how well they need to speak the language to live here - it's in a British citizens interests to learn enough of the language to get along I'd agree but if they don't want to or cannot then the principle person they're affecting is themselves. Personally I'd always try to learn the language of a country I intended to spend a lot of time in because frankly it's inconvenient to have to rely on other people to translate for me but that's just me and my desire not to become dependent on others, I can't say that any other approach is utterly wrong because I realise that people are different to me.

Could you define wasted in context for me? If by wasted you mean that the money has been spent on translating and getting understanding between the person and recipient of the product or more likely service then I think we'll have to disagree about whether that constitutes waste - I'd say it was a fairly vital part of getting informed consent about things that affect people.
 
D.P. said:
And Scots speaking gaelic. And of course, not forgetting the deaf & mute who are clearly dirty foreigners because they don't speak English.
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oh if only they could speak that combination of French, Italian, German and half a dozen other languages that would make them English :(


I hope they at least worship our great British Christian god and not one of those despicable middle eastern religions....wait a minute!
 
OMG HE CAN'T SPEAK ENGLISH THAT MEANS HE'S NOT REALLY BRITISH PLUS HE'S NOT WHITE THAT MAKES HIM A FOREIGNER AND THEY TAKING OUR JERBS.

Really? I mean come on. Just because he doesn't speak English doesn't make him not British, or any less British than you or I. There is so much dross on these forums these days. There needs to be some sort of test.
 
He probably understands it, he just can't speak it very fluently. My grandparents are the same. They'll speak in punjabi all the time unless they absolutely have to speak english. As he is old he is most likely old fashioned as well and would rather not make a mistake with his comments and so has someone with him who can speak fluently.
He may have been in this country longer than some of you aswell ;)

Anyway, SINGHS *** :)

edit: I can't type for the win??
 
If his surname is Singh he is more than likely a Sikh and may of fought for the British at one time.
If he didn't fight he was definitely part of the British Empire at one time so is deserving have the title British.
 
I hate discussions like this, because it's easy to be portrayed in the wrong way. However I really can't see any valid reasoning why anybody without any disabilities should be allowed to call themselves British without speaking English.

I'm all for multi-racial integration with society, however being 100 and showing 0 attempt at integration into the country you live in is inexcusable in my opinion.

Admirable effort with his fitness however, he deserves recognition for that atleast.
 
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m4rk84 said:
I hate discussions like this, because it's easy to be portrayed in the wrong way. However I really can't see any valid reasoning why anybody without any disabilities should be allowed to call themselves British without speaking English.

I'm all for multi-racial integration with society, however being 100 and showing 0 attempt at integration into the country you live in is inexcusable in my opinion.
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Because when we were awesome and we went around conquering everybody we gave British titles to the people we conquered.
He is fully deserving of the title.
 
Gackt said:
OMG HE CAN'T SPEAK ENGLISH THAT MEANS HE'S NOT REALLY BRITISH PLUS HE'S NOT WHITE THAT MAKES HIM A FOREIGNER AND THEY TAKING OUR JERBS.

Really? I mean come on. Just because he doesn't speak English doesn't make him not British, or any less British than you or I. There is so much dross on these forums these days. There needs to be some sort of test.
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Apart from you, who else has mentioned his skin colour?
 
dmpoole said:
Because when we were awesome and we went around conquering everybody we gave British titles to the people we conquered.
He is fully deserving of the title.
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Its more funny that English is an official language spoken in India.

Thread derailed a long time ago.
 
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