CAE part 4

 Speaking Part 4

Key words

Cover people’s basic needs     create cultural diversity    encourage tolerance towards other ways of life            help them integrate    live side by side      open up people’s minds                    Provide housing    make the transition to a new society     make society a richer place People from different backgrounds with different outlooks

Questions

1. What are the benefits of a multicultural society?

2. Should people who go live in another country adopt the culture of that country? Why not?

3. How can governments help immigrants?

Laura, what do you think are the benefits of a multicultural society?

I think it encourages understanding of other cultures and tolerance towards them and towards other ways of life, other religions perhaps, and that can be very educational. I think it  can open up people’s minds to experiences that they might not be able to have otherwise. 

And Daniel, do you agree with Laura?

Yes, and also I personally think it can make society itself richer by having diversity within it and lots of people from different backgrounds, with different outlooks, different ways of doing things and different cultural experiences. 

Laura, should people who go to live in another country adopt the culture of the country where they go to live?

That's a contentious issue. Not necessarily. It's possible for different cultures to live side by side and I think with most cultures there's a certain overlap of similarities and I think people should be allowed to have some of the elements of their own culture as long as they're not detrimental to the good of the majority. 

Daniel, what do you think?

Well, I'd go along with that. I think it's a question of sensitivity. It's unreasonable for immigrants to give up all aspects of their culture, but they do need to be sensitive towards the culture and the people in the country where they are choosing to live. 

And Daniel, how can governments help immigrants?

What they need to do is provide lots of information at the beginning so that people can make the transition to a new society. Housing is something I think they should be providing, so they're covering people’s basic needs to help them integrate as quickly as possible. Also, I think there should be offers of tuition in the new language, tuition about the new culture, possibly. I don't know if that should be compulsory, but at least it should be offered. 

Some other question to talk about

1. Many companies expect their employees to be ready to move to different places and countries to work. Do you think everyone should be ready to move for their job? Why?

2. How has your  country changed in recent years as a result of immigration or emigration?

3. Some people suggest that immigrants should be obliged to learn the language of the country they go to. Do you agree?