English Language exam for public workers?

[ericmark]

As to road signs

the Welsh reads "I am not in the office at the moment. Send any work to be translated." See this link this is a really good example of what happens when public sector workers can't read the countries language. This

is the sign for no pedestrians except on public roads where this

is the sign any wonder that people get it wrong?

 

[misterhelpful]

That's just too funny!

 

[D_Hailsham]

But ask a native to the UK. "Haven't you been driving today" and often one will get the wrong answer. Yes means you have not been driving, no means you have, but so easy to forget about a double negative specially when one is in a hyphenated form.

There should be a ? at the end because it is a question, i.e. "Haven't you been driving today?"; and there is no double negative, or hyphen, in that question. "No" means you have not been driving as you are agreeing with the negative in the question - it is a contraction of "No, I haven't been driving"; so "Yes" means you have been driving.

Ask any kid "Haven't you finished your homework?" and they will reply "No" if they have not finished, and "Yes" if they have finished.

How you ask a question can suggest the reply you expect. For example:

Asking "Will you come for a drink?" is implying that you are hoping for the answer "Yes". While asking "Won't you come for a drink?" is hoping for the answer "No" - the questioner is just being polite.

 

[ericmark]

Yes you are correct I made errors. This of course is my point, I have lived in Wales most of my life yet still make errors with the English language. Even the inflection in ones voice can change the meaning.
The famous phrase "Give it to him" from the last hanging in the UK is a good example of how once one removes the inflection in the voice it is near impossible to decide what was really meant by the phrase.

Take some one from their own country and bring them to the UK without any English and place them in a typical English group and they will learn English better than one who learnt English before he left. Also putting people in groups of others from the same country means they learn English from the start with an accent.

The problem is that accent be it Welsh, Scottish, Irish or Asian does not mean they can't converse fluent with others from the same area in English. Yet they can still have problems when they are placed outside that group.

As to the words them selves "hogget" I thought when I first heard it was Spanish I was in the Falklands and there were a few Spanish words which had been integrated into the language "Camp" referred to countryside for example. But "hogget" is an English word for a female sheep which has not yet born young. In New Zealand it is a common word and the shearers came from New Zealand. I really had a problem back in 1980 working out USA words for car parts. OK boot and trunk we all know but push-pull bar? It was a track rod.

So back to question how can one decide the point where the spoken language is good enough?