[defrost]

English speakers are notorious for not bothering to learn local languages, eg:

    Migrants failing to assimilate, 200-year-study finds

    Migrants to Australia have displayed an inability to assimilate with local values and refuse to speak anything but their native tongue, a study covering the last 200 years has found.

    The study confirms a popularly-held belief in parts of the country that migrants simply refuse to fit in.

    Boat people from as far back as 1788 didn’t bother applying for passports or visas, were set on introducing their own laws, and, in many cases concealed criminal records, according to the damning report.

~ https://www.theshovel.com.au/2023/01/26/migrants-failing-to-...

[onethought]

This is about non English speakers not learning English. I’m missing some sarcasm?

[robocat]

It is referring to English colonisation of Australia a few hundred years ago. The English did not learn the indigenous languages there, and they brought English law with them. It also refers to the fact that a lot of convicts were sent to Australia.

Joke: An Englishman gets off the plane, and immigration asks him if he has any criminal convictions. He replies “I didn’t know you still needed one”.

[izacus]

Yeah, not sure if attitude of english speakers toward natives in Australia is something to be widely joked about or satirized.

[defrost]

Bit late for that now, don't you think?

    "There's nothing I would rather be
    Than to be an Aborigine
    And watch you take my precious land away.
    For nothing gives me greater joy
    Than to watch you fill each girl and boy
    With superficial, existential shit.

    Now you may think I'm cheeky
    But I'd be satisfied
    To rebuild your convict ships
    And sail them on the tide.

    I love the way you give me God
    And of course the mining board,
    For this of course I thank the Lord each day.
    I'm glad you say that land rights wrong.
    Then you should go where you belong
    And leave me to just keep on keeping on."

~ Jimmy Chi, Bran Nue Dae, 1990

[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bran_Nue_Dae

[2] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZTiXSmQET2E

[defrost]

If you're curious here's a map [1] of the language groups that the English speaking immigrants mostly didn't bother to learn.

To their credit a rare few migrants picked up a couple - but today fewer than 30 original languages are still used.

[1] https://mgnsw.org.au/wp-content/uploads/2019/01/map_col_high...

[DerSaidin]

theshovel.com.au is satire