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Bengali announced as the second most spoken language in London

The Ronin

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Monday 2nd December 2019 09:36 EST

Bengali has been officially named as the second most-spoken language in London, followed by Polish and Turkish - with around 165,311 London residents speaking one of the three as their first language.

Yet less than one in 10 Brits (8%) can fluently speak a second language, which means they’re potentially missing out on friendships, relationships and even partnerships with the many speakers of foreign languages across the capital - especially as 311,210 London residents speak a foreign language as their main language at home.

In order to highlight and celebrate London’s cultural diversity, as well as encourage residents to connect with each other, particularly in the current political climate, adult learning charity, City Lit conducted research to find out the most common foreign languages spoken in boroughs of the capital.

The research identified the main languages that London residents speak in their homes aside from English, allowing City Lit to reveal the l foreign languages spoken most within every London borough.

Bengali is officially the second language of London, with around 71,609 London residents speaking it as their main language. It’s the most common main language people speak, second only to English, across three different boroughs - 3% of Camden residents say Bengali is their main language at home, as do 7% of Newham residents and 18% of those living in Tower Hamlets.

Despite this being the main language of such a large number of Londoners, only a mere 3% of Brits can speak fluent Bengali - meaning 97% of the nation is potentially unable to have an effective, in-depth conversation with people who speak it as their main language

Polish is the second most common foreign language spoken by Londoners, with seven boroughs stating this is the second most spoken main language after English. Again, only 3% of Brits can speak fluent Polish - meaning 97% of people in the UK could be missing out on connecting with 48,585 London residents.

https://www.asian-voice.com/News/UK...-as-the-second-most-spoken-language-in-London
 
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wouldn't it be 3rd if its is after polish and turkish? and where is english?o_O

am i missing something?:undecided:
 
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Do Urdu and Punjabi rank somewhere?

The Pakistani and Indian communities speak different languages. Even Pak community can be divided into urdu, punjabi, mirpuri, pashto, etc. hence probably why not in top 3.
 
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wouldn't it be 3rd if its is after polish and turkish? and where is english?o_O

am i missing something?:undecided:

Yes you are missing a lot ....did you bother reading the article?

English is the most spoken language in London....

Of foreign languages Bengali is the second most spoken language...

The Pakistani and Indian communities speak different languages. Even Pak community can be divided into urdu, punjabi, mirpuri, pashto, etc. hence probably why not in top 3.

Whilst there are lots of ppl of pakistani descent in london...pakistanies primarily settled in the northern cities with textile industries...BDs on the other hand settled in main cities with london obviously the place of choice.
 
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The Pakistani and Indian communities speak different languages. Even Pak community can be divided into urdu, punjabi, mirpuri, pashto, etc. hence probably why not in top 3.

But when ppl say what language they speak they usually just say punjabi, even if its mirpuri/pahari etc. I think there is more second gen Pakistanis in london

I live in east midlands and theres not very many bengalis here
 
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Is this proper Bengali? or Sylheti version. There are very few people in BD who can speak proper Bengali like me. Hence I feel minority among them. To mingle with them I have to use irritating sounding street/village level Bengali tongues. If not used those tongues, they make fun of me. This is world upside down, when you are taken down for speaking proper language. I hope Londoners infuse some new English/Polish/Turkish words into Bengali. Because when I speak and think in Bengali, often I cant find enough words to express my emotion. While those emotions can be easily expressed through English or Hindi/Urdu. Bengali language has many limitations, not so modern science oriented, heavily Sanskritised or full of unusable village words.
 
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Its not Bengali idiot. Its Sylheti.
 
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