Why does the BBC/Foreign Office finance this?

28 replies

Imdunfer · 23/04/2026 20:24

I get this BBC output on my news feed for some odd reason. I find I can always understand it easily.

It follows, for me, that if it was written in English that people who speak Pidgin would understand the English

So just why do we spend money on this?

www.bbc.com/pidgin/articles/cq59xn5w95no

OP posts:

MyThreeWords · 24/04/2026 09:05

As well as providing a more readable text for people whose first language is Pidgin, isn't it also about encouraging and respecting a language that is spoken by relatively few people (and thereby helping tomaintain all the cultural goods associated with a thriving language)?

Do you also think that Welsh-language and Scottish Gaelic programming is a waste of money?

HermioneWeasley · 24/04/2026 09:01

Absorbing a British viewpoint on the world sounds like an Imperial project.

i have no idea why there is a BBC world service or Persian service either. None of the audience are contributing financially to the cost of running the BBC. It’s v strange.

GasperyJacquesRoberts · 24/04/2026 08:59

It's about accessibility and making people want to use the BBC as a trusted news source and, in doing so, absorbing a British viewpoint on the world.

If I took a news article written in English and used an AI to translate it into Mandarin and back again, you could probably still understand it. But reading it would be hard work, the sentence construction would feel off and you probably wouldn't want to read other articles like that if you had a choice. That's how Pidgin speakers feel about reading UK English. Offering news in a language that people actually speak and understand gives them that choice.

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