There has been much talk of immigrants, racism and
xenophobia in the news and on social media recently. Much of it has been
unpleasant and much of it has shown that Britain has come a long way since the
days of ‘no blacks and no Irish’. Thoughts, opinions and viewpoints seem to
have very much divided the population during this referendum as well as uniting
those who feel the same way. My aim when writing this blog entry is not to cast
aspersions over anyone, brand anyone a fascist or declare someone else’s
feelings as incorrect or inferior to my own; my aim is to simply deliver my own
experiences and leave you to come to your own conclusions should you have been
inquisitive enough to decide to click on the link and read.
I am an English
language teacher and as such have met a great variety of people from a variety
of places as a result of my work both in and out of the UK. I have taught and
been taught by (because teaching is a two way street) Europeans, South
Americans, Central Americans Far Easteners and Middle Easteners. I have yet to
teach those hailing from Africa but hope that we will cross paths one of these
days. I have taught citizens of the world who get up in the morning thinking
about coffee, Jesus Christ, Ganesh, beer, Allah their kids, their plans for the
evening, their homework for school, the big fight they had with their parents
last night, an upcoming wedding, a recent breakup, bills that need paying, cars that need MOTing, council tax, their husband or wife, a new
hijab, food, an ailing parent and nieces and nephews. You name it, they’ve all
experienced it in one way or another. I don’t always agree with them and
sometimes I have to bite my tongue, but more often than not I find many more
similarities than I find differences. I find our foreign visitors to be
generally very respectful of the differences we share because the most
important thing is that we respect each other as people and not allow what we don’t
share to come in-between us.
I began my morning in
a room comprised of 6 nationalities. There was me, the British one along with seven
Arabians, two South Koreans, one Brazilian, one Frenchman and one Spanish lady
and we all had a good chat about how to use comparatives and superlatives. I
said that the prettiest beach in my view is in New Zealand near to Nelson – no one
got upset that I thought something different to them. We all agreed that the
tallest building in the world is the Khalifa Tower in Dubai because it is and facts are facts.
Everyone (except me) said that they believed London to be one of the prettiest
cities in the world and one guy commented that he prefers England to his
homeland because he likes it more here. We share cultural differences as well as
differences of opinion too; my non-drinking students aren’t offended by the
drinking ones and it works the same way around. In our classroom we have
developed a whole new culture and it’s called respect for who we are as people
- it works for us and we really do enjoy our mornings together. I care about
each and every one of my students and I know that they care about each other
and will remember the time they have spent conversing in English, learning a
new skill and upping their level of understanding of the wider world before
their time to return to their home comforts comes knocking at their doors.
My point is that we
just don’t have to be the same, we don’t have to be different, we don’t have to
be in agreement all the time and we don’t have to speak the same first
language. What we do have to do is to reduce fear of what we don’t understand
and just let it be because it will be whether we choose to let it or not and
our own lives are much improved and enhanced by freshly made pizza from Italy,
gorgeous ricey things from the Middle East, noisy Spanish people, double
kisses, soy sauce noodle things from the Far East, Oozo, small tapasy things
from the Mediterranean, tequila, sweet and sour meat, Guinness from Ireland, crepes from France, waffles from Belgium, and
Bem Brasil restaurants. Maybe the guy down the road from you doesn’t speak
English and he’s been here longer than you feel is acceptable for him not to have
learned yet – I get it, it’s frustrating. But I’ll bet he’s frustrated because
he might be doing his absolute best to get his head round the language but
people aren’t patient with him so he’s too shy to speak or he could be finding
it much harder to learn than he thought it was going to be. What I’m saying is
that you can’t brand people as all the same because they aren’t. Everyone has a
different reason for doing something and the person you’ve decided isn’t doing
as you think they should just might having a really hard time and could do with
a smile. It costs nothing, it’s universal and if you don’t do it then you’re the
one not speaking my language. The person you smile at could become a friend and
you could find yourself feeling really glad that the world is a connected place
now, which doesn’t only connect the mythical benefit tourists to England, but
it also connects you to a wider community with so much for you to submerge yourself
in and enjoy being part of. No situation is perfect and the UK is a small place
with many inhabitants and I agree that is isn’t ideal, but it is the way it is
and I shall be smiling at my fellow men and women because I want to and if they
want to smile back then that’s okay, if they don’t want to then that’s okay too
– I’ve already accepted that you can’t be everyone’s best pal and some people
just don’t want to be yours for reasons they don’t divulge and you can’t fathom.
I’ll still know I’ve been doing what I can to be positive in a country which needs
as much good will as it can get, between everyone at a divisive and uncertain time such as this one.
