Gcse's

[Caran]

Learnt something today. Article in paper said immigrants take the exams in their own language.
It's not something I had ever thought about but it surprised me.
Would English people be allowed the same privilege if they lived abroad I wonder.
I'm not being racist it just took me by surprise.

[Cloverjo]

I'm surprised as well. Which newspaper did you read that in?

[woofgang]

Link please?

[Caran]

I don't know how to do links but it is in the Daily Mail, page 21.
Heading Rise in migrant languages.

[EDDIE51]

It means Polish people can take O level Polish for example. Or a German could take O level German. They would not need to study. This actually happened when I was at school back in 1968, we had a Polish boy in our class he sat O level Polish and of course passed. There was also a girl who's Mum was French and spoke French at home, she got a grade A when she sat O level French .
It does not mean that a Polish student can take O level Geography in Polish!

[jno]

are you sure it wasn't that more immigrants are studying other languages?

Near the end of this story

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/education/2016/08/25/gcse-grades-expected-to-fall-due-to-rise-in-retakes/

[jno]

...like Eddie said

[Caran]

I thought it meant the Polish student could take maths or chemistry I polish.

[Cloverjo]

Thanks, Eddie. That clears it up.

[Caran]

^^^ in Polish!

[Caran]

I apologise if I got it wrong. I really thought it meant what I said.

[Quizproquo]

To be honest it makes sense to me that they take the exam in their native language. Apart from during an English exam, how else are examiners going to know how good a student is at something if the student is not only made to do the exam, but also translate it into a foreign language. That would slow them down and disadvantage them.
Of course, we could always insist that exams are taken in English and have mediocre doctors who are good at languages...

[Cloverjo]

Quiz pro. How many languages would we have to translate the exam papers into? How much would that cost? And the translations of answers? It's not feasible.

[jno]

true, Cloverjo, there are supposed to be 300 languages spoken in London alone. That's an awful lot of translations.

Quizproquo, I'm generally relaxed about what languages people speak - as I say, there are 300 of them round me - but I do want doctors to speak good English. I still remember the Bulgarian GP I saw who mixed up "arms" and "legs", which doesn't inspire confidence. It's not an either/or: they need to be good doctors as well as good English speakers.

[woofgang]

I agree.....a friend of mine had a problem with her (now late) elderly Dad in hospital. The doc told her that he was dementing because he had said odd things and been aggressive to one of the nurses....she had asked him for a urine sample and he had told her she was talking nonsense. When she visited him he was quite upset because one of the nurses was talking like a mad woman.....the true situation was that she had asked hime for a “specimen” in a heavy foreign accent.....what he heard was that she was asking him for a “spaceman”

[jno]

oh dear, and he thought she was taking the pee?

[woofgang]

I know...it does sound funny....but he was genuinely distressed.....I was shocked by the fact that the doc had made a diagnosis of dementia on the basis of it and no one had thought to ask him if he had a problem with that nurse.

[EDDIE51]

Quizproquo , The problem of poor English language skills in doctors is because we accept foreign qualifications. A doctor could qualify in Poland and speak only Polish but the qualification is accepted in the UK.