h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

Thing is, sometimes people get others to make their phone calls and write their letters and nobody knows they aren't competent in the language until they are already enrolled and attending... I can see why they want this, but I would like to think that you should be able to prove your competency with your experiences etc. Ah well

Unfortunately tests don't tell everything.

I've had colleagues from abroad passing all required language tests and still been completely incompetent to communicate with patients and staff.

On the other hand I've met people more or less fluent in my native tongue who never have been near anything like formal language training or even less tests.

Maybe they'll have social skills testing one day

actually, that's not funny sorry...

Might be an idea for everyone, yes

And I agree, letter-writing alone isn't proof; I had to write my boss's business letters for him often enough...

But the good news is that I appear to have finally gotten through to someone who's not so bureaucratic. (I thought they were meant to be less uptight in Scandinavia, but they're worse than Germans!) If I can provide proof of my having gone to all those schools in the US (and, most likely, an explanation for why there were so *many* of them ) they'll let that count, pending a final decision by the architecture department.


But this reminds me: My uncle recently became a German citizen. They told him he'd forgotten to indicate on the form whether he spoke any German. They apparently didn't read the bit saying he has a PhD from a German university

I remember going through great pains to acquire certificates etc which proved I could speak German. I don't think anywhere I applied to was ever bothered about it in the end. They were all so delighted I could speak English (which I didn't have to prove to them at all) that they took me on anyway.

bureaucrats like the forms filled in nicely.
To be fair, it's not up to them to add the 'obvious' bits.

I once wrote an address on a form (using the *actual* postal address). Nope, wrong. Yes, I'd put Hiroshima city in Hiroshima Prefecture (but had omitted to put the sub-prefecture... yes also called Hiroshima)

But there wasn't a place for it on the form, he was just expected to write that under "other comments" or something

Form in German I assume.....

This is inappropriate.

http://icanhascheezburger.files.wordpress.com/2008/05/funny-pictures-inappropriate-cat-purple-bear1.jpg

RF

I dunno, a purple bear is like just asking for it, eh.

jwf