Sometimes it isn’t even the government. I’ve worked in the US:
summer of '89. No “English exam” per se required, but the interview was run by a Spaniard, mostly in English. Makes sense, since most of the jobs offered by that agency required working with the public. You could still be a cook’s aide if you didn’t speak English (most of our cook aides couldn’t cook before getting the job), but not a receptionist, au-pair or camp monitor.
august-94 to august-98. Part of the requirements from the Uni where I spent the first three years were the TOEFL, but they’d said so from the start.
january-02 to march-04. I had been working with a team of “internal consultants” for a year already at the time fo my transfer; out of 200 people in the team, only six of us spoke Spanish. Most of the work was in English. Still, the company’s policies say that anybody who’s been transferred from a country where English is not the official language must take 80h of English lessons and their families are entitled to 80h, also paid by the company. The lady from HR was personally offended when the Frenchman, the Spaniard and the German (sorry, we’re not having a joke) declined. Workers transferred from India not only didn’t have to take English lessons, they weren’t even offered the chance. Gee, guess we were having us a joke after all! The big joke, though: the language school got paid for all 160h of classes whether we took them or not and whether we had relatives who took them or not.
I can see the point of offering language lessons to your employees (although at that point I would rather have taken French, Portuguese or Italian), but mental flexibility and bureaucracy are just in separate universes.
Don’t you see why exactly she’s so pissed? People who attended the same school in the nursing program don’t have to take this proficiency exam. Nurses, who will have to deal with English-speaking patients, and medical terms in English. She won’t be dealing with patients for the most part (lab work). It’s not a fair system in place.
Most people who come to the US can’t leave the country for around a year. The length of time varies, but in my case it was until my application for ‘advance parole’ ($110) was approved, while my application for permanent residence ($485) was in the works. I also had to pay double as I had my Canadian son’s status to apply for as well.
And as Canadians, at least we speak the bloody language.
Well, I for one am very impressed by the quality of English spoken by our Canadian fellow posters! There must be an excellent online translater available.
Whoa there, Ms. Overconfident! You’d better get to studying! There are some subtleties that might trip up a person whose only spoken the language since childhood but who lives in a place where they unfortunately insist on speaking French as well.
Yeah, I know I’m bitching. I composed that post after yet another setback, when I was feeling especially down and upset. Sorry if I offended you.
I know immigration isn’t a walk in the park. Hell, I’m glad that countries have procedures in place to make sure not just any yahoo can waltz in.
But, well, from what I was told at the beginning, the process was supposed to be a lot easier. This isn’t even a work visa - I’m trying to qualify for TN status so I can work there for a year as a med tech. I’ll need to go back to the border every year to be let back in. The officials at the border were extremely insistent that this is not a visa… but then I needed a visa screen anyway. Then the visa screen company tells me I’m exempt from this English stuff, and then they change their minds. Getting paperwork form the program chair is like pulling teeth from a rabid yeti. Meanwhile, the hospital in the states who said they’d hire me is still waiting for me, but I don’t know how patient they can afford to be if they need to fill that position. And, of course, I’m madly in love and every extra day this process takes is one more day that I’m not with my boyfriend.
I know I need to “suck it up”, as you say, and I am - but that doesn’t mean I’m not frustrated and hurt by each new setback. This one was enough to make me want to post and get it off my chest. I’m envious of the emotional fortitude you must possess, to have gotten through everything without ever feeling discouraged, anu-la.
Mrs. Map is a native English speaker, who happened to be born in Malaysia. However, in order to study in the U.S., she still had to take the TOEFL (Test of English as a Foreign Language). Many institutions are still stuck with the silly idea that political boundaries are contiguous with household L1 (first language) distinctions. This has never been true, and never will be. Chalk it up to typical institutional ignorance.
I’ve immigrated all over the world, to Canada and then to the US so don’t patronise me. Delays and a sense of unfairness about the system is par for the course, that IS life as immigrant. You can always choose not to leave your country of citizenship. I think it’s completely unfair that I attended an American law school, and was actually naturalised (as in I swore the Oath) but was prevented from obtaining a passport on account of an administrative fuckup. I am sorry that administrative fuckup cost me the chance to see my grandmother before she died and that it put a crimp in my job. Having to take a TOEFL is small potatoes compared to what many immigrants go through-they give Canadians a way easier time. Antigen would probably collapse from shock if she tried it more than once.
