You can't study English in Scotland, 'cause you won't understand the accent!

[acroyear]

Story from The Scotsman:

A Russian student refused entry to Scotland to study English was told by Whitehall officials she would have found the Scots accent difficult to understand.

The extraordinary statement was made in documents sent to the un-named women by Foreign Office officials when they refused her entry to the UK last summer.

"You cannot satisfactorily explain why you have chosen to attend an English course in Scotland rather than your options of Oxford or Cambridge, where you should face less difficulty understanding a regional accent," officials stated.

The visa request was refused on other grounds as well (like she hadn't studied english in Russia either, and her financial means were suspect), but still, it shows quite a bit of gaff on the part of London which though they acknowledge was an error on their part, they won't apologize for.

Comments

[kiltboy]

Having gone drinking in Scotland (as I'm sure you have as well), I've found the accent very difficult to understand. And I do a good Scotish accent myself. I'm used to the southen accent in the US, the "common" British accent (monty python mostly), Cockney's a bit easier, but Scotish is a hard one to grasp, and I'm familiar with it.

[acroyear70.livejournal.com]

well, there are actually 3 core accents in scotland, and oddly enough, the highland accent is the easiest to understand. in edinburgh, not too many people still speak burns-ish scots, so its reasonable as well. sterling's touristy enough to have the edinburg accent for the most part, and by then we'd been in the highlands for almost a week.

glasgow, on the other hand? i did have to translate for cyd a couple of times. I've been listening to billy connoly since the 80s, so it wasn't *too* much trouble.

[juuro.livejournal.com]

I used to think I'm reasonably fluent in English. Then, in 1990, I was visiting Edinburgh. Oh, no problem at the receptions and the touristy places (Holyrood, Princess St. (?) and suchlike), but wandering a bit offside... I did have to concentrate quite a bit, and still was asking for repetitions.

[katrinb.livejournal.com]

Reminds me of reading about James Herriot, telling a Russian school teacher that she spoke better English than he did - "Considering my Glaswegian upbringing, it was quite true." (or something similar - I don't remember the exact quote).

Something I actually know something about...

[celtink.livejournal.com]

Seeing as how I process student visa applications for a living....

A LOT of students get turned down now when they request to get a visa into the U.S. *just* to study English.

It may be that England, too, has decided to stop the flux of students coming in just to study it.

How the embassy official word the rejections is really up to them. Some are nice about it, others are mean, rude, and down-right obnoxious. Embassy officials tend to come up with a new reason to reject visas every semester. It's hard to keep up b/c they don't *share* their reasons with the folks preparing and applying for them ahead of time. Makes my job rather frustrating. I don't process any application unless all the *on the books* requirements are met. So when the student goes to apply, they have everything required by federal law to be granted a visa. The embassy officials, unfortunately will sometimes reject them on a whim. Sometimes they reject the student to test them to see how bad they really want to go abroad. The idea being that the kid might just give up and not try again.

Beaurocracy at it's finest.

Re: Something I actually know something about...

[acroyear70.livejournal.com]

Well, getting an education on something is much the same as getting a H-1b visa for a job. There has to be some support for the idea that not only do you need it, but they need you to have it.

For English majors, the powers-that-be have (perhaps wisely) decided we have too many of them as it is. Now if they were coming into the US to study computer science or engineering (things not available in other countries, and can benefit america and the world as much as their home country), that would be different.

Having an open border doesn't necessarilly mean making it easy for others to come in. There has to be a balance somewhere. I'm not saying I know where that balance is, of course...