France Forum

Grumps
Joined 2010
Posts: 2

13 years ago

Official information leaflets in languages other than French … (?)

13 years ago

During the recent elections in Britain, the electoral authorities in my constituency stated:
Electoral Services has applications to register and vote by post and information leaflets “It’s Easy to Vote” in the following languages: French, Gujarati, Punjabi, Welsh, Arabic, Bengali, Hindi, Latvian, Lithuanian, Polish, Portuguese, Urdu, Spanish.

I’m not eligible to vote in France, but as a matter of interest I inquired at the local Mairie. Here the attitude ran along the lines of: “If you are eligible to vote in France then you’d better learn to speak French.” No such concessions seem to be granted (even for Arabic); the same applies to information about the health service. (The UK NHS offers leaflets in Gujarati, Urdu, Mandarin, Polish, French, Farsi and Spanish.) My understanding is that if you need information in a language other than French, you need a friend to help you or pay for an interpreter or translator.

I must say that I do approve of the French attitude and would prefer to see any public money invested in language courses rather than in translation services.

Can someone pse confirm that my interpretation of the position is correct?

What are the views of members of this forum to the above?

G

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