If you gave out a prize for the silliest letter ever printed in the Oxford Mail, that of Mr Sanders and Miss Dhall (October 7) would win it.

When someone settles in a foreign country, it is their duty to learn the local language, not to mention that it is polite.

If Sanders and Dhall were to settle in Portugal, I presume they would learn Portuguese.

As for “language classes”, have these two never heard of cassettes?

Sanders and Dhall tell us that learning languages expands the brain. So, why can’t the Poles, Asians, Africans and so on learn English?

Recently, there was a case of an Indian who had lived here for 20 years and never learned English. Is this right?

I am sorry that Miss Dhall wants to assist the ghettorization of the females but, in the words of the medieval German poet, “Short of sense and long of hair, Strange enough the maidens are”.

RALPH LEAVIS, Jourdain Road, Blackbird Leys, Oxford