Quote Originally Posted by Taunton Blue Genie View Post
There is a difference between the ill-defined concept of self-declared fluency in a language and technical proficiency/accuracy.
Whatever else this chap has been guilty of I think that the situation regarding his language classes is far more nuanced than the headline if you look into some of his other statements.
I worked in Germany for a year and a half speaking only German (and have kept up the language ever since) but I couldn't be effective in high-level government meetings.
By the way, yesterday I was informed by letter that I am a German State pensioner with a monthly pension of 38 Euros!
Yeah, I think for me it's the alledged cost, although the public sector frequently gets ripped off on things like this and you can imagine parliament is the pinnacle of that as providers know the extent of expenses etc.

His defence is thus: https://www.shropshirestar.com/news/...olish-lessons/

What stood out for me is this, and I see his point on this, as I dont think people do care about the reality, they just want a headline to make people angry

Hitting out at some newspapers for their coverage of the matter, the MP said: "Despite my commitment to building more effective international links with Poland and working to improve my Polish language skills to facilitate this, biased and out-of-context reports have been written.

"While the media provides an invaluable service in exposing and reporting wrongdoing, apparent predisposition by several journalists to consistently belittle and condemn politicians as a default mode in attempts to grab sensational and inaccurate headlines is frustrating, regrettable and a public disservice."

There is no suggestion that Mr Kawczynski has broken any rules in taking the lessons, with the Commons offering "training in accordance with their parliamentary duties".