POLICE officers are learning Cantonese to get closer to Manchester's Chinese community.
Many people who live and work in the city's Chinatown - the second biggest in Britain - speak little or no English.
Phrases
Ten city centre neighbourhood police officers and police community support officers are learning simple phrases in Cantonese, the language of southern mainland China, Macau and Hong Kong.
They are being taught at the Wai Yin Chinese Women Society in Chinatown. During the first lesson of the six-part course, officers learned introductory phases, such as `Hello', `How are you?' and `My name is'.
'Relationships'
Neighbourhood Inspector for Manchester city centre, Joanne Marshall, said: "This is about building stronger relationships with the local residents and businesses in Chinatown.
"It is important that they see a visible police presence in their community, a friendly officer or PCSO who can say a few words of their language.
"Neighbourhood policing in the city can be difficult, as many of the people that populate the area don't live here, but through this kind of engagement we are able to identify the communities that do live here so we can establish how to deal with the issues that are important to them.
'Understand'
"Hopefully Chinatown residents will see that the officers and PCSOs do care enough to want to understand more about the people there and find out what more they can do to help."
As reported in the M.E.N, business chiefs have denied there is a crisis in the area following the shock closure of the upmarket Yang Sing Hotel on Monday.
Reports have also suggested that visitor numbers to the area have fallen by 40 per cent in recent years.
Comments
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Wouldn't the resourses be better used teaching these people simple phrases in English (something they could use throughout the community) rather than teaching the Police Cantonese which is only of use within the Chinese community?
Should the Chinese not learn English if they want to live here and leave the Police to do the job they are paid to do?
Officers should not be learning chinese. The chinese should be learning English. Integration not seperation is what it should be about.
That's right the police have time to learn other languages. Forget the rest of us.
Im sorry but once again its the tail wagging the dog? surely if these people come to britain to live and work they should at least speak our language ."ITS CALLED INTEGRATION"No wonder we have a problem in britain and we have problems resourcing the funds for our already overstreeched police force.
I am guessing this is costing money?, That community paying for it?, unlikely!. What a laughing stock this country is!, Immigrant communities should adopt the LANGUAGE along with the country, at their own expense. They would find learning the language easier and faster if they were forced to integrate instead of being allowed to isolate their community in the "little country's" inside a small one, May make the inhabitants not seem racist too. A message to ex pat Brits also, who pay exactly the same insult to their adopted country, though I don't believe they would be granted their own policeman/force who take time and money from all tax payers to learn English specifically to communicate with British immigrants.
Another major move towards achieving a fully integrated society then. I would have thought that the onus was on the chinese community to learn English.
It beggars belief
Can you imagine all the French and Italian police rushing to learn English because of the large British colonies in their countries? No of course not. It's just another pathetic, politically correct, platitude; another boxed ticked towards some Investors in People accreditation crap.