At the weekend we went for a walk round Burnham Beeches (west of London, not far from Slough). I was surprised to come across this sign:
In Wales we’re used to seeing signs in both Welsh and English, and similarly in other countries where there is more than one official language. Here’s a sign in English and Polish. The Polish bit says (thanks to Michal for the translation):
Attention!
Mushrooming within Burnham Beeches reserve is prohibited.
Does this mean that Polish is the official second language of England now?!
I’m curious how someone decided that the sign should have a Polish translation but not other languages. Is this based on the demographics of the Slough area, or did they survey visitors to Burnham Beeches? Or does this mean that of the foreign visitors to Burnham Beeches, Poles are least likely to be able to read English?
As far as I know, when it comes to local government, there are no official languages. But of course the government should be seen to be providing a good and useful service for its population.
In Luton airport you can see bank adverts in polish (entirely, no english), and the recycling bins are labelled in Polish as well as English.