SIR – I just received a leaflet from the NHS in 16 languages, half of them Asian. Is it unreasonable to expect residents in Britain to learn English?
In these days of cutbacks, falling incomes and rising taxes, much of our money goes to pay for translators, interpreters and the cost of running the courts, since a case requiring an interpreter can take four times as long.
I can see a danger in requiring residents to understand our language: they might actually integrate instead of segregating themselves.
From experience, I can say that we all speak one language and it is perfectly possible to learn another.
L A Hobsbaum, Willow Crescent, Bradford
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