Multicultural Britain
Multicultural Britain
Do the preparation task first. Then, watch the video and do the exercises. Remember you can read the transcript at any time.
This video is part of our Word on the Street series. Word on the Street is an exciting new English Language teaching programme co-produced by the BBC and the British Council.
Do this exercise to check your understanding of the video about multicultural Britain.
Transcript:
This is Southall Broadway in West London. This area has one of the largest Asian populations in London. The United Kingdom is an ethnically diverse country with many different communities that reflects the multicultural nature of Britain. Many British people’s families originally come from overseas. Over the centuries, people from around the world have come to live here.
The first significant wave of immigrants arrived by ship from Jamaica in 1948. The Notting Hill Carnival celebrates this Caribbean culture.
In the 1950s and 60s, Indian, Bangladeshi and Pakistani families made Britain their home. Asian Ugandan refugees fled here in the 1970s. Followed by Somalis in the 90s. And in recent years, Eastern European citizens have arrived in search of work.
This cultural variety makes Britain a vibrant place to be, but it’s not without its problems. Conflicts can arise between cultures and generations. Young people whose parents or grandparents settled here have a very different experience of growing up to their parents.
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Sunny Grewel and his father Avinda live in Southall. Avinda came here from Kenya in the 70s. Sunny was born here.
Nick: Avinda, what was life like when you first came here?
Avinda: It was hard. There was no jobs for, for people like us.
Nick: And what’s life like now, for young people, Sunny?
Sunny: I think we’re very much a part of the communities and government and everything, so it’s a lot more equal for everyone.
Nick: What are the main arguments between the younger and older generations?
Avinda: When they were small, I wouldn’t let him wear these earrings and have a long ponytail. They have to look smart.
Nick: And what’s the best thing about living here, Sunny?
Sunny: The food, the different cultures that come in and bring their spices, their experiences and even their rituals, so you get a taste of the world within this small community.
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In the past, differences between communities have led to violence. But new community-based projects have brought different generations and cultures together.
Here at St Mary’s School in Cardiff in Wales, more than 20 languages are spoken. It’s one of the most multicultural schools in Wales. The school was involved with a project called 'Open Cities'. It helps migrants, people from other countries, become part of the community. The schoolchildren took pictures of people and places to show what it's like to live in Cardiff.
Some of the kids are featured in an exhibition called Open Cities Faces.
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Mercy and Joy and their father Derek are originally from Zambia. They have lived here for six years.
Nick: Derek, tell me why you came to Cardiff and why you took part in this project.
Derek: I am an Engineering Consultant. I came to Cardiff because I was offered a job here. This project was a good thing because it was trying to show something positive about migration and integration.
Nick: Why is Mercy photographed by a window?
Derek: Because the photographer wanted to find a way to show the hopes for our future – the better life that we look towards.
Nick: But there’s a lot of shadow in that photograph, as well.
Derek: Yes, the shadow is deliberate to try to show our past, where we’ve come from.
Nick: And do you consider Cardiff to be your home now?
Derek: Yes. We are part of the local community, we have settled down and we think Cardiff is great.
Projects like ‘Open Cities’ can bring people in the community together and give young people hope for the future.
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Language level:
How many different languages do students at your school speak? Do you speak different languages at home and at school?

Comments
The students at my school don't speak others languages (at least the persons I know).
I don't speak differents languas at home and at school, but my aunt and I ,sometimes, talk in english.
First, I would like to say thanks for this video.
Refer to the question, my answer is only one language, bahasa. I live in Jakarta, and most of people who lives in Jakarta speak bahasa. But people who lives in another province, they speak local language. For example people who lives in West Java speak Sunda language, in North Sumatera speak Batak language, etc. Indonesia has 33 provinces and each province has its language. And it's surprised because each province has more than one languange. For example north sumatera has batak toba language, batak karo languange, etc. My parents came from North Sumatera, in their young age, they live in Medan (the capital city of north sumatera) and school in Medan. In the school they spoke bahasa, but when they back to their home, they spoke batak language.
I can speak little Batak language. I sometimes speak Batak when I met people from north sumatra.
I will let you know to say hi to people who from north sumatra, you just say "HORAS"
Primary students speak spanish and english, middle and high school students at my school speak spanish, english and french (I am from Colombia)
In Ukraine we have a second unofficial language - Russian language. So 70 % of the people can speak it, but unfortunately only 40% of the population speaks Ukrainian language. So it's a kind of weird indeed...but nevertheless at home we speak our national language.
When I was a student, we only spoke Spanish, but now, there's a lot of people who speak another languages like arabic, english, russian and french.
At my school students speak around 8 languages.For example italian,arabic,albanian,french,german,moldovan,finnish.
Hi Konstantina,
Wow! That's a lot of languages! Can you speak all those languages as well as you speak English. That's great! Congratulations to you and your classmates!
Jo (LearnEnglish Teens Team)
Hi Konstantina. How are you? You have very beautiful name! I have one friend with this name. Are you from Greece?
at school we speak english and albania :P
We speak
english
italian
albanian
spanish
and now we will learn CHINESE
This video shows how the Welsh immigrations live. Many people from different countries such us Jamaica, Zambia arrived in Cardiff many years ago. They live in the capital of Wales for a long time. The immigrants have different traditions which make the life in the city more interesting.
Thaks for video!
I don't know who speak different laguages at my school. And I don't speak another languages, except for on English lessons and at home with my mother we speak English sometimes.
This video shows how immigrants live in UK. Sometimes immigrants has a really hard life for a first time in new country. For example Sunny's father - Avinda can't find job. But such people try to be a part of new society in new country. I think immigration is not bad progress, because some people forced to leave their country and citizens should help to those people and be more tolerant.
Hi! I would like to tell that it was really great to see this video and to know more about British coulture. In my school all students are speaking Russian and English at the lessons. Sometimes people of other nationality are starting to speak their language, but it's really unusual situation, and nobody anderstand them. But I know one russian girl, who moved to Britain when she was 7. At first, it was very hard for her to speak English everywhere, so she where talking Russian at home with her mom. Now she is happy to live there and when she came to Russia 2 years ago she understand that she has forgotten a lot of russian words and that it's easier to her to talk in english.
It's very interesting video for me/ Now I know that there are a lot of immigrants in Britain but the other people think that immigrants are citizens of UK. I think people from UK very friendly and can communicate with the other peiple with help of different languages. I want to know 3 languages but now I know 2 languages: english and russian. I commenicate with people with help of English language on English lessons and with help of russian language on the other lessons and at home.
Hello NASTYAP! It's great you're interested in languages. So, which other language would you like to learn, and why?
Jonathan (LearnEnglish Teens Team)
At first, thanks for this great video. I found much information, really interesting for me. I like a story about multicultural and multinational school. It`s an amazing school! Pupil here study not only subjects, they study to be more friendly, don`t pay attention on appearance of other people and make some unfair judgments of this. Nowadays, schools, like this, are really important.
Thanks for this interesting video!
I don't know students in our school who speak foreign languages except English and Russian. I speak English only in our lessons and sometimes with my friends. To my mind, it is exiting to speak foreign language.
At my school all students speak Russian, excepting English lessons of course.
Sometimes I speak English at home, for example when I need to practice for oral examination, but in the rest of the time my family and me speak Russian.
This really interesting video. I learned more about multicultural Britain and about some reasons of migration to this country.
I'd like to say thanks for this useful video.
Students in my school have really different roots from Tatars to Armenians. Ofcourse everybody of them has their national language. if I'm not mistaken many of this people know it very well and sometimes use it to communicate with their relatives. However in every day life all people speak russian independently of their nationality.
This video was very informative for me. I knew some interesting facts about British people.
In our school, all students speak on Russian, except for the time when we have English lessons, in which we of course practice English. At home, I also speak on native Russian. Soon I'm going to study German.
Thanks for this video).
There`re some pupil in my school,whom speaks on another languages,like French,English and other.
I know only 2 languages:Russian and English.And I try to practise my second language everyday)
Welcome to all the new users from Russia who have watched this video! :) Thanks for your comments. Did you watch the video together in your English class or are you using LearnEnglish Teens at home?
Jo (LearnEnglish Teens Team)
Thanks for this video, it's interesting as well as informative. In my opinion, multinational school is a great idea. In my school students study Russian and English, I think that maybe some of them try to learn third language. Last year I tried to study German, but words from two languages mixed in my head, so I decide to stop for a time.
Hello, Jonathan! I'm glad that you answer me :) I want to know French language too because I like French accent. And do you know languages other than English?
we learn just english ..but i like to learn many other languages as chinese language german language and spanjoll language
I speak Serbian at school and at home. I lived in Spain for 8 years, and first year I came to Serbia, my home country, I went to one school where I spoke Spanish the whole time, until I was ready to join to Serbian school. I got used to Serbian, and it's not a problem for me at all to follow the classes. Student here speak mostly English and French, because we study them at school, and Serbian is our native language. Some schools offer Italian, German, Spanish, Russian and Chinese, but I speak English, French, Spanish, Turkish and Serbian. I've started to learn Arabic, and the most popular language in Serbia is English.
In my school students use only Russian for talking, but sometimes we must use Ukrainian language and English for special lessons. At school and at home I use Russian language, but when we have guests from the UAE - my cousins - I use English language.
Hi, tasmania ;) I am from Ukraine as you are. How old are you?