I want immigrants to come to the UK interested in participating in it, whatever "it" really is. Sometimes they give the impression of only having come to escape war, disease and famine, which isn't really on. If you are not here because you really want to be, you are never be committed to making the country function properly.
Language is irrelevant although I am against too much time spent on native minority languages (e.g. our guidelines to taxation are also available in Urdu).
But while many natives are lazy parasitical morons, I don't see why the onus is on newcomers to set an example.
Ryan, I do not have an inferiority complex. England needs to be seen as the homeland of English for quite obvious economic reasons. Being seen to speak the correct English makes you more employable and people come to England to learn English, which they might not do if they think it is a peripheral dialect we speak here. Also, unlike many other speakers, we do not have another language to call ours. Americans seem to attach importance their roots and a non-English language they speak or their ancestors spoke. English is our folk language. That is why it is important. Other people have contributed to the story and it is now theirs too but that doesn't change the fact that it is still ours.
Some people think the English have no culture. But the world's most popular sport and most widely spoken language are from England.
Simon, that is interesting. My family are attached to the old world by tradition and language; and the language is English (from England). So I am like one of those Americans you talk about. My ancesttral language is the language of England, and my native language is a slight different version of my ancestral language!
Yes, this is kind of what I meant: for us it is functional tool and cultural/sentimental language whereas for a Welsh person English is probably just a tool and Welsh is the sentimental/cultural language.
My sentimental language is English. But even if I was not English, I think I would still think that English was my sentimental language because it is my native language. But then again, if English was not my ancetral language, I would be a different person.
Re: "Hythloday, do you think that only English people are the rightful "owners" of the English language?" Of course not, I'm just trying to get a discussion going. I do object, however, to notions of correctness. No form of English is better than any other in my estimation.
Hythloday, I have said that for the longest time; no version of English is any better than the other. There are of course, personal preferences, but that does not mean one is better than the other.