English Listening Practice-Speaking Without Prejudice Ep 749

How do we talk about disadvantaged groups with respect? The English language and how people use is always changing, it may just be the ‘things’ we talk about, 100 years ago we probably talked about horses, now we talk about about smartphones and EV’s. But today we’re talking about people from different backgrounds, and the huge effort taking place in the UK to remove prejudice from our everyday language.

• Sensitive: Easy to harm or upset.
• Prejudice: Judging someone before knowing them.
• Offensive: Likely to upset or hurt people.
• Disadvantaged: Having less money, education, or opportunities.
• Label: A name or term given to someone, often unfairly.
• Criminal: A person who breaks the law.
• Mafia: A group involved in illegal activities.
• Benefit: Money from the government to help people in need.
• Community: A group of people living in the same area or having common interests.
• Inclusive: Including everyone, no matter their background.

Hi there. People often like the UK because we are a tolerant society. We work against prejudice or we try to. But did you know that native English speakers struggle with their own language around this topic? Well, it’s true. Today, let’s talk about how sensitive we are around the language that we use when describing people. This sensitivity can make English challenging. But understanding it can also give you deeper insights into British culture. The word ‘sensitive’ is an adjective, S-E-N-S-I-T-I-V-E. And if something is ‘sensitive’ in this context, it means ‘easy to harm’, ‘easy to get it wrong’. And the noun to go with that is ‘sensitivity’, S-E-N-S-I-T-I-V-I-T-Y. So I’m talking about particular sensitivity around adjectives or describing words when we’re talking about people or types of people. In the UK, we try to work against prejudice. That’s P-R-E-J-U-D-I-C-E. ‘Prejudice’ is when you judge people before you know them. You ‘pre-judge’ them, in other words. It could be because of their age, their gender, their race, their religion, or some other characteristic. And we strive to use language that reflects this. So we’re very careful with words. Let’s explore that in this podcast.

For you as an English language learner, well, the English language is hard enough if it’s not your first language. But these are things that English speakers struggle with. Trying to use language that isn’t prejudiced. So this is useful up to the minute British culture. British culture is not just about ‘cups of tea’ and ‘red telephone boxes’! It’s about discussions like this. The current way that people think, what informs our conversation, and important for you too. You don’t want to offend people in English, especially when you don’t intend to! So today in this podcast, it’s your usual English language listening practice, but with an insight into prejudicial language, the language of prejudice, and how to avoid it.

So, with a very good intention, the Camden People’s Theatre Company put out a job advert. And they said that they welcome applications from a number of disadvantaged groups, groups that might face prejudice, in other words. They said that we welcome job applications from people who are working class, benefit class, criminal class, or underclass. Ah, that makes me cringe. What’s wrong with this then?

Well, it’s British class system stuff! If you were born ‘working class’ in the UK, it means that your family didn’t have very much money, were possibly not well educated, and you didn’t live in the nice area of town. That’s ‘working class’ in short. And what they’re saying is this theatre company, if you are ‘working class’, don’t be put off. Please, we encourage you to apply for our jobs. Now, I would include myself as working class. It’s not my life now, but it certainly was my life growing up. And I don’t think I take offence at the description ‘working class’. But the next term, ‘benefit class’, what does that mean? This means ‘the class of people who exist on state benefits’. That’s B-E-N-E-F-I-T-S. The state pays for these people, and they don’t work, in other words. And sometimes this is throughout a particular community, particularly in poor areas, where there are a lot of social problems usually as well. So it’s a real phenomenon. And it’s said with a sort of criticism because there’s the idea that people ‘choose this as a lifestyle’. You can get work in the UK. There are job opportunities, so you don’t need to choose this lifestyle, you might say. So that’s what we call a negative label.

It goes on to say ‘criminal class’. Now, ‘criminal class’, if you’re ‘a criminal’, it means ‘you break the law’. So these words describe communities of people or families where people are into petty crime. Usually they don’t work, but they steal things. They might deal in drugs, or they might do ‘benefit fraud’, defrauding the state over their benefit payments. They might steal cars to do robberies, or they may have some type of mafia-like activity going on. That’s ‘criminal class’. So basically they do illegal things to make money, and ‘underclass’ really describes this as well. So these terms, ‘criminal class’, ‘benefits class’, ‘underclass’, they describe a real phenomenon in British society.

The problem is, if you use these terms to define an individual, we call that ‘labelling’. These terms or labels imply a fixed negative identity, which the person can’t escape from, and which are often inaccurate. They’re not true. They fail to acknowledge the possibility of personal growth and potential for change. So just because you were born into a disadvantaged background like this, your struggle is being recognised without it defining you. That’s an important distinction. So there’s a difference between recognising somebody’s disadvantage, recognising that they’re part of a group that face prejudice. That’s not the same as labelling them. What the theatre company are trying to say here, ‘We don’t care if you’re working class, criminal class, underclass, benefits class. We encourage you to apply for our jobs anyway. Those things won’t go against you.’ So you can see here that the spirit, the intention, is good. People from all of these backgrounds can apply. Especially important as theatres are often associated with posh, rich or well-educated people. So the theatre company are trying to be ‘inclusive’. They’re trying to include everyone, in other words. So you might say, well, surely that’s a good thing. Why is this wrong? And I agree with you, their intention was positive. So how did they get it wrong? Well, their mistake was quite a subtle one, but it matters. Let me explain.

I’ll put aside working class for the minute. Although being working class has been a struggle for people in the past and continues to be, it’s not in itself an offensive term anymore. Working class people face a little less prejudice than they used to. But to say that you are criminal class, underclass or benefits class, these are definitely labels and it makes it sound as though this negative defines the whole person. If you said that someone is from a background, which is one of these, that ‘from a background’ way of putting it at least acknowledges the possibility that the person has moved beyond where they started out. They’ve made different choices in their life. This is how they started out, but they have chosen to live differently.

Subtle differences, but important. I think that if the Camden People’s Theatre Company had done two things differently, there wouldn’t have been a problem and they would have sent the positive message that they intended. Firstly, it would have been better not to use these negative descriptions when talking about specific individuals. So, criminal class, benefits class, underclass, these do exist, but it’s better to talk about whole communities. It would have been better if they said, “We encourage applications from people from a disadvantaged background,” meaning that’s part of your history, not the whole of you. And if they just said working class, most of the people who you might term ‘benefits class’, ‘underclass’ or ‘criminal class’, would also see themselves as ‘working class’, the more positive term as well. So that would have been inclusive enough.

I feel sorry for the Camden People’s Theatre Company. Actually, in being specific, they were trying to be open and honest about what they mean. They were trying to open up the conversation about these things, but instead they were condemned. I do kind of get both sides on this.

Solve The Maths Problem To Download Podcast & Transcript

Now, a more complicated quote for you to practise on, Lee Elliott Major, who’s a professor of Social Mobility at Exeter University, he said, “We need to carefully consider the language that we use when promoting opportunities for people who have faced extra challenges in their lives.” He added, “I would certainly avoid terms like criminal class, benefits class, underclass, which immediately position people as inferior when they often have a lot to offer.” So it’s easy to get the language wrong, even if you’re a progressive organisation, trying to do the right thing like the Camden People’s Theatre Company.

Let us know what you think. Did you understand this idea from my explanation? It is a really difficult area of English language, but at Adept English, we do the difficult areas as well, all to help you. Enough for now.