this post was submitted on 08 Nov 2025
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The only people who are likely to take such a test in an anglophone country are immigrants ...
Would be interesting to see how native speakers score, though.
I wouldn't expect Scandinavian countries to move much. Most of them learn it to fluency as part of primary education.
Thanks. I was seriously wondering about Italy and Turkey, but that explains it.
If they don't immigrate (i.e. aren't in anglophone countries), they might still take the test for domestic purposes like proving their ability to deal with tourists or other international customers to their employers. But the test takers are definitely self-selecting, some rural greatgrandmother who barely learnt to read her native language isn't taking that test.
If you immigrate as an English speaker to Canada you have to take an English proficiency test even if it is your first language.
I'm guessing you could take French as well, regardless of where you're going, right? Language equality is serious business.
Yes, unnecessary documentation is very our style. And no guarantee you won't have to do it again for some other entity. Somehow we're still one of the easiest destinations to immigrate to.
I’m an immigrant in Germany, and they offered me an integration course when I got my spousal visa. I’ve taught those classes for the same city. They did waive my language requirement because of my master’s degree in German though, so that was nice and unexpected.
There is a lot of very similar vibes between the Canadian and German government, I've noticed. They even both love faxes the same.
Germany finally got rid of faxes in the government recently.
But many of our health insurance companies still use them
Yes, we believe in degrees.
To be fair, it’s a master’s in German language education, so it should really apply to the integration course as well (it’s basically a language class that focuses on things like siezten/dutzen, bureaucratic language, holidays, navigating the workplace and shared housing, and cultural quirks like not jaywalking and quiet sundays).
On behalf of Germans, sorry for that. It's hard to go against the rightwing propaganda machine, but lots of people are trying.
Come to !ich_iel@feddit.org if you want to learn some new idioms Ü
Yes, I think you just have to show proficiency in one of the official languages.
I can't comment for the whole Anglosphere and I certainly won't comment on NI, Wales, and Scotland, but for England:
Pick any point on the map and move in any direction. As you move, if the average wage increases, English proficiency increases and vice versa.
I'd say at the lowest level equivalent is France and the highest level equivalent is Denmark.
I have a hard time believing that there are regions in England where native English speakers are on the English proficiency level of France. Unless you classify any dialect as "bad English".
You haven't been to enough regions of England mate. I'm only slightly joking when I say it can get bad. Not "it's a difficult to understand dialect" but "how the hell did you even make it through the state school system?" bad. Genuinely some of the first generation immigrants speak better English than some of the locals.
Source: grew up in one of these regions.
I mean, the King's English is technically a dialect too. It's just the one on top.
Yes, that's what a dialect is. Well, thanks for clearing up what you meant.
Also, I'd assume even the heaviest dialect speaker will usually be able to write perfectly understandable sentences in a written test.