Spanish woman attacked for Speaking Spanish in London

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markwilding
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Spanish woman attacked for Speaking Spanish in London

Postby markwilding » Sat Apr 14, 2018 8:36 pm

It seems that a Spanish woman was attacked for speaking Spanish on the London Underground.She was told that she should be speaking English in England.
Something similar happened to some students of mine last July on the same line but on the Western section A lady started complaining in a agressive way about them speaking Spanish and that her husband would certainly have something to say if he were still alive.
I had to point out that they were actually tourists and London was benefiting financially from their visit.

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Re: Spanish woman attacked for Speaking Spanish in London

Postby katy » Sat Apr 14, 2018 9:03 pm

I find it difficult to believe although I suppose at 3.45 am anything is possible. I go to London quite a lot, was there last week and there are more foreign languages than English, I was in the minority. Probably just an isolated incident. Suppose it will keep the useless police busy whilst the gangs stab each other!

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Re: Spanish woman attacked for Speaking Spanish in London

Postby markwilding » Sat Apr 14, 2018 10:28 pm

katy wrote: I go to London quite a lot, was there last week and there are more foreign languages,
I suspect it is the same in every tourist hotspot all over the world.

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Re: Spanish woman attacked for Speaking Spanish in London

Postby Pamela1 » Sun Apr 15, 2018 9:51 am

London of course is a tourist hotspot but i often wonder how many foreign nationals are actually tourists! To be honest being verbally attacked for not speaking English is quite mild compared to how Spanish treat their coloured residents, there have been a few stories in the Olive Press recently regarding racist insults, one of the stories plus video footage was about a small coloured boy in the playground park with his mother, the Spanish children were very hateful towards him because he wasn't white!...Some might say "oh its children being children"...Well in my view it's what has been bred in by their parents especially when his mother being with them didn't faze them ...In the video some of the mothers were sat around on benches and not one of them intervened..

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Re: Spanish woman attacked for Speaking Spanish in London

Postby peteroldracer » Sun Apr 15, 2018 12:34 pm

It is the other side of what so many say delights them about Spain....that it like the UK 40 or 50 years ago.
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Re: Spanish woman attacked for Speaking Spanish in London

Postby Unicorn » Sun Apr 15, 2018 12:38 pm

I have a German friend who has lived and still lives in North London for 25 years and says she is reluctant to read a German book on public transport.........

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Re: Spanish woman attacked for Speaking Spanish in London

Postby Flexo » Sun Apr 15, 2018 1:45 pm

There has been plenty of instances lately where people have been verbally attacked for speaking foreign languages in the UK. I have heard people that doesn't read foreign newspapers in public anymore.

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Re: Spanish woman attacked for Speaking Spanish in London

Postby katy » Sun Apr 15, 2018 1:54 pm

Unicorn wrote:I have a German friend who has lived and still lives in North London for 25 years and says she is reluctant to read a German book on public transport.........
Oh dear, you always get these stories and people who have rarely visited London believe them. Some public transport will have 95% foreigners. I have seen people happily reading the Quran on the underground. Most are studying their phones. Some of the incidents eagerly reported on fora do not paint the full story and some videos are edited. There are some racists around but most are just tit for tat scraps. According to social media the two black women who attacked the Spanish woman was by body language and hand signs she thought they were taking the mic out of her hair braids but who knows, could have just been the drink.

It hasn't stopped anyone coming, more Spanish came to live here than the year before and there are always lots of large organised groups of them around major tourist landmarks. Why do you think anther 700,000 Europeans came in last year if it's that bad.

Anyway, looks like we are off on one. Perhaps they don't read foreign newspapers anymore because they are too expensive and do what i do read them on the iPhone...or is that too simple.

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Re: Spanish woman attacked for Speaking Spanish in London

Postby Unicorn » Sun Apr 15, 2018 2:49 pm

Oh dear!!!!! Oh dear!!!!! This is not a 'story'. It is someone who used to work for me.

I have no reason not to believe it. If you do not, so be it. I said book not 'expensive' newspaper btw.

Far from being some kind of bumpkin eyeing the big city from afar I lived in central London for many years and saw sporadic racism/xenophobia but it appears to have escalated.

I guess it is doubtful an 'organised group' of tourists would be attacked. A single woman on her own on public transport is a different matter and, in any case, if she feels threatened she feels threatened. She is not the victim type either.

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Re: Spanish woman attacked for Speaking Spanish in London

Postby katy » Sun Apr 15, 2018 3:06 pm

I was also answering Flexos recent post if you read the context. BTW she wasn't a single woman on her own read the story again.

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Re: Spanish woman attacked for Speaking Spanish in London

Postby katy » Sun Apr 15, 2018 3:14 pm

Pamela1 wrote:London of course is a tourist hotspot but i often wonder how many foreign nationals are actually tourists! To be honest being verbally attacked for not speaking English is quite mild compared to how Spanish treat their coloured residents, there have been a few stories in the Olive Press recently regarding racist insults, one of the stories plus video footage was about a small coloured boy in the playground park with his mother, the Spanish children were very hateful towards him because he wasn't white!...Some might say "oh its children being children"...Well in my view it's what has been bred in by their parents especially when his mother being with them didn't faze them ...In the video some of the mothers were sat around on benches and not one of them intervened..
Yes, I speak good Spanish and have heard some really Xenophobic comments. I once witnessed a conversation in Marbella ayuntamiento where couple of British pensioners were mildly complaining and was told by some jobsworth to 'go back to their own country if they weren't satisfied". I think odd incidents happen in most countries, some more openly than others but our media and expat forums seem to like to big them up. Not a word when they happen in Spain, although to be fair most are probably not aware as they don't follow their chosen countries news.

I never saw e.g. "Villagers burn down immigrant chabolas, Almeria news" mentioned on here.

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Re: Spanish woman attacked for Speaking Spanish in London

Postby markwilding » Sun Apr 15, 2018 4:07 pm

To answer how many people are tourists, well, at the last count, over 17 million overseas tourists last year which is well over 1 and half times the population.
My experience is not hearsay because I witnessed it happening and the fact that there are racist Spanish does not make it right to racially intimidate children back in the UK. I can complain about racists from other countries but racist British embarrass me.

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Re: Spanish woman attacked for Speaking Spanish in London

Postby katy » Sun Apr 15, 2018 5:02 pm

You shouldn't be taking your students around London if you find it so racist. As I said you would be lucky to find any brits in London's tourist areas to act racist. I was there Thursday and from leaving Victoria to coming home I never heard an English voice except Australian and American.. I have taken Spanish friends and relatives, French friends, Caribbean friends around London and never once have we experienced anything. I was in Portsmouth yesterday and most of the baristas were Spanish.

How do you know the two black women who were racist (allegedly) weren't tourists?

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Re: Spanish woman attacked for Speaking Spanish in London

Postby Pamela1 » Sun Apr 15, 2018 6:32 pm

Yes Mark i understand that there are many tourists in London, what i mean or should have explained is that if the tourists were not there how many foreign nationals are there living in London..From my own experience i feel i'm in a different country..

BTW the incident regarding the little coloured boy in the play ground happened in Bilbao...not as they say uneducated Andalucia...Not to say that it wouldn't or couldn't happen in Andalucia..

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Re: Spanish woman attacked for Speaking Spanish in London

Postby markwilding » Sun Apr 15, 2018 7:03 pm

katy wrote:You shouldn't be taking your students around London if you find it so racist. As I said you would be lucky to find any brits in London's tourist areas to act racist. I was there Thursday and from leaving Victoria to coming home I never heard an English voice except Australian and American.. I have taken Spanish friends and relatives, French friends, Caribbean friends around London and never once have we experienced anything. I was in Portsmouth yesterday and most of the baristas were Spanish.

How do you know the two black women who were racist (allegedly) weren't tourists?
Maybe they were but unlikely. Wouldn’t you say?
You can kid yourself all you like but racism exist in London.
I didn’t say that it’s so racist either. I pointed out that i have seen it, not allegedly and my students have experienced it as well. I’m not sure why you think I should not take students to London because of a few idiots. That sounds like the same attitude as those Spanish we complain about who say if you don’t like it, go back to England. In the end two wrongs don’t make a right.

Try being around victoria from about 5 till 7:30 iModay to Friday in the evening. All those miserable people not talking in any language are the commuters heading back to the commuter belt of Hampshire, Kent, sussex and Surrey.

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Re: Spanish woman attacked for Speaking Spanish in London

Postby Flexo » Sun Apr 15, 2018 8:10 pm

katy wrote:I was also answering Flexos recent post if you read the context. BTW she wasn't a single woman on her own read the story again.
I know more than 10 foreigners in London, several of them stating that they avoid using foreign language publicly while in London today, compared to not at all 10-20 years ago. I know at least 10 foreigners in Spain, none of which claims they would do so here. Don't understand your point at all. I am not claiming some locations are racist free, not even claiming it necessarily is racism. Just saying London today isn't the cosmopolitan trade center it used to be, it is turning into some uneducated hobo slum. Getting rid of educated foreigners isn't the best way to raise the standard.

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Re: Spanish woman attacked for Speaking Spanish in London

Postby Pamela1 » Sun Apr 15, 2018 10:01 pm

On a slightly different note.....i was in Laura Ashley with my little grandson about 2yrs ago when he was in his buggy, shop assistant who i guessed to be in her 50's started chatting and making a fuss over him...He pointed to a cushion with a horse on and said the word in Japanese..she was a little confused and i explained that he is bilingual because his mother speaks to him in Japanese...Oh no! she said she should be just talking to him in English! .. :wtf: :lol:

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Re: Spanish woman attacked for Speaking Spanish in London

Postby katy » Sun Apr 15, 2018 11:35 pm

Flexo wrote:
katy wrote:I was also answering Flexos recent post if you read the context. BTW she wasn't a single woman on her own read the story again.
I know more than 10 foreigners in London, several of them stating that they avoid using foreign language publicly while in London today, compared to not at all 10-20 years ago. I know at least 10 foreigners in Spain, none of which claims they would do so here. Don't understand your point at all. I am not claiming some locations are racist free, not even claiming it necessarily is racism. Just saying London today isn't the cosmopolitan trade center it used to be, it is turning into some uneducated hobo slum. Getting rid of educated foreigners isn't the best way to raise the standard.
I know lots of foreigners too, all perfectly happy in uk. Infact I once knew a foreigner who danced with the Prince of Wales :lol: scraping the barrel when we are discussing I was talking to someone who said.......anyway I am out of here, when we are discussing anecdotal stories it gets a bit boring. We are all capable of making it up as we go along :yawn:

Some people see racism everywhere especially in a place they want to slag off, such as a country that has given homes, jobs and benefits to 10 million immigrants in a decade.

BTW she wasn't a single woman on her own and probably not a tourist given where it happened.

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Re: Spanish woman attacked for Speaking Spanish in London

Postby Flexo » Mon Apr 16, 2018 8:02 am

I think this is a relevant reality check for both UK and Spanish residents: (immigrants being non-EU immigrants): https://i.imgur.com/xfEtEBE.png

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Re: Spanish woman attacked for Speaking Spanish in London

Postby Unicorn » Mon Apr 16, 2018 8:37 am

We must all bow to those who know far more than the rest of us. Those who know everything and are right on everything. Those people whose superior knowledge trumps everyone else's where everyone else's is merely 'anecdotal'.


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