Saturday's Letters: The valuable lessons we learn from languages

It is the means by which "dumbing down" has been made respectable. It has used the rather tenuous logic that "all most people want or need is the ability to converse".

As somebody who has prepped countless weak candidates through GCSE oral exams in Spanish – I have to declare that the whole system is merely smoke and mirrors.

The successful candidates today in orals, by and large, are those who have prepared carefully and have learned a certain amount of phrasebook style techniques. These are not freely transferable skills.

In the older O-level days, a substantial grammatical knowledge was the base from which genuine conversational abilities could later develop even though this was not necessarily followed through.

I suppose it rather depends what you want as a society. One examination form prepares pupils to an extremely limited degree for a number of set-in-stone situations and the other creates a base for learning a language properly.

If low ability pupils are forced to do languages, the former cannot be scrapped but it certainly should not be the norm.

We are the laughing stock of the world with our standards of language learning in schools. How many of our "linguists" could offer a positive response to this question found in a number of important job

applications:

"In how many other languages would you be able to conduct the business of this firm?" In many cases a degree is insufficient preparation for that question.

From: Les Arnott, (head of careers and former languages teacher, Handsworth Christian School), Athelstan Road, Sheffield.

From: John Gordon, Whitcliffe Lane, Ripon, North Yorkshire.

IF the Rev Hayward took School Certificate, he must be as old as I am.

He is quite right, the written word carried much more weight than the oral part of modern language exams.

I had to go to France for a year to learn to speak French.

But I'm afraid he and I have had our day. The written word is fast disappearing.

We are now in the age of the spoken word. There is no escape.

I am busy learning to speak Polish and Urdu so that I may welcome the newcomers to our society.

We are all paying the price for PFI

From: Dr Bob Heys, Bar Lane, Ripponden, Halifax.

YOU rightly highlight Norman Lamb's exposure of the financial disaster that is the Private Finance Initiative (PFI) hospital building programme launched by the Tories and later enthusiastically implemented by New Labour (Yorkshire Post, February 17).

My local Calderdale Royal Hospital in Halifax is, as indicated, a prime example of this, as was indeed pointed out by Calderdale Liberal Democrats as long as eight years ago (Yorkshire Post, March 28, 2002).

Since then, the projected cost has risen to 731m (an increase of 46 per cent), which will doubtless be greatly exceeded by 2031-2 when the final cost is calculated and, furthermore, the hospital will still belong to the builders and not the NHS.

No wonder Labour and the Tories are keeping quiet about such facts in the run-up to the General Election.

A deluge of new taxes?

From: John Revely, The Maltings, Bridge Street, Helperby, York.

AT least we know what some of our "snow tax" money is being used for (Yorkshire Post, February 20). Many people will be familiar with similar waste-of-money schemes.

As one of the people who were totally ignored and neglected by North Yorkshire County Council during the recent spell of bad weather, I bitterly resent this extra tax being imposed on us and feel that instead of paying it, we should be given a rebate for services not rendered.

Yorkshire people are renowned for being shrewd, but this is a con. It has set a precedent and I can imagine the attitude from now on will be: "Don't worry about wasting money, we can always come up with a new tax." If it is a nice dry summer, can we expect a drought tax?

Reality and pub myths

From: P Colley, Chidswell Lane, Dewsbury, West Yorkshire.

I REFER to the article regarding the Saltersgate Inn between Pickering and Whitby, (Yorkshire Post, February 16).

In 1961, I stayed at the inn for two nights. The landlords then were Mr and Mrs Terry Besall. I saw that fire grate cleaned out and re-lit three times during my stay. Terry went on from there to keep the Golden Cock at Farnley Tyas and the Peacock in Wakefield. He and his wife were genial hosts but he was at times eccentric. He kept hens but if they hadn't laid eggs on a morning he wouldn't feed them.

Perhaps the fireplace should be excavated now to see if, in fact, anything is buried there.

Myths are there to be debunked.

Never too old to think pink

From: Maureen Hunt, Woolley, Near Wakefield.

SEVERAL years ago, I heard Germaine Greer say on the radio that as you grow older, you gradually become invisible.

She thought this was an advantage as it was then possible to observe people closely without being noticed.

For some time, I have been experiencing this phenomenon and enjoying the anonymity. However, this winter I was encouraged to buy a bright

pink coat, having been assured that it was not too young for a septuagenarian.

The result was unexpected. The coat was a "wow" and compliments flew.

So, ladies, if you feel that you have joined the ranks of "The Invisibles", leave your black, grey and brown garments in the closet, shake off the winter blues and step out from the shadows in shocking pink.

Travesty of low turnout

From: N Bywater, Airedale Terrace, Morley, Leeds.

THE Leeds City Council by-election for Woodhouse and Hyde Park was a travesty for democracy, with just 14.6 of the electorate voting.

The result that the Labour candidate was elected.

I would like to see more Green Party candidates elected, and with possible turnout so low in the next General Election, any candidate that campaigns well may have a good possibility of success.

Of course, I believe that the Greens have the interests of the general public at the heart of their policies, but it may take the present distrust of politics to allow people to see that that is important.

Progress made on promoting best of British meat

From: F Henley, Seaton Ross, York.

AT last there seems to be real progress on labelling pig meat – something pig farmers have been wanting for more than 10 years (Yorkshire Post, February 24).

Over that period, pig output has halved, probably three- quarters of pig farmers have gone out of business and more low welfare pig meat has been imported.

Others, especially the Yorkshire Post, have also helped. I wonder if the new policy is just for the retailers' own brand product. On my last Pork Watch survey, Walls bacon (which many would believe to be British) still did not say where the meat came from.

It looks like real progress but it is not the time to sit back and say "job done".

It will be easier to promote British with clear labels but price is still very important

to many.

Other countries with lower welfare rules will still have a price advantage allowing retailers to make more money by selling imported meat.

From: John Roberts, St John's Court, St John's, Wakefield.

I FULLY agree with Bob Crowther (Yorkshire Post, February 20) about the scandalous amount of food waste. A pernicious culture of waste has grown in the last 15 years or so. It is a silent scandal that a third of all food (much of it quite edible) ends up in landfill. It does not say much about us as a nation in 2010.

Mr Crowther is correct about the effect of the "buy one, get one free" offers, although I don't believe that this should necessarily produce too much waste – the resourceful use of a freezer can avoid this. There used to be a subject in schools called "home economics" – which was about exactly what it said. Sell/use by dates are a major contributor of waste.

Most foodstuffs today are produced to highly exacting standards, and the "use by" date tends to be on the ultra-cautious side (particularly with tinned food, which can last a long time). We used to employ common sense – look, smell, taste, to test if food was edible.

Insulting interest rates

From: John Garnett, Moorcock Lane, Darley, Harrogate.

I HAVE received a letter from Barclays advising me that the interest rate for my agreed overdraft was increasing from 16.9 to 19.3per cent.

Fortunately, I have no agreed overdraft but I do have a deposit account, yielding 0.61 per cent interest.

This gives a margin for the bank of 18.69 per cent when interest rates are at their lowest ever level. At a time when the banks are supposed to be supporting the economy, how can they possibly defend these increased rates?

If I could lend money at these rates, maybe I would "earn" a large bonus. It is no surprise that banks are so unpopular.

Future tense

From: C Shaw, Barnes Hall Road, Burncross, Sheffield.

HOW has Gordon Brown got the nerve to use the election slogan "A future fair for all" when, as both Chancellor and Prime Minister, he has taken this country into a complete mess?

The country will, no doubt, be suffering from this for many years to come. Is this fair?

Let us hope we do not have to cope with him for any longer than this short period before the General Election.

If we do, I dread to think what the consequences could possibly be.

Counting sheep

From: Derek Hough, Richmond.

I WISH to comment on the letters from David Nortcliffe and Simon Wood (Yorkshire Post, February 23).

School friends from Swaledale had told of their grandfathers using this system of counting, this in the 1960s.

One point Mr Nortcliffe got wrong – this counting dialect has nothing to do with the Celts. The Celts were well driven out by the Anglo Saxons. Then most of the East coast of England was under the Dane Law. I wish to point out this series of numbers is, in fact, Norse.

Political passion

From: David Pickering, Gloucester Road, Stonegravels, Chesterfield.

ALTHOUGH I don't totally condone the "damp rag" speech by Ukip leader Nigel Farage (Yorkshire Post, February 25) when he launched an attack on the EU's new president, Herman van Rompuy, I can see where he was coming from. The passion and love we have for our beloved country is sadly lacking from our present MPs.