Letters to the Editor: English Proficiency
Letters to the Editor
In response to the article ‘Proficiency Exam Lost in Translation?’ published on October 15 in Issue 6.
Dear Editor,
When I first arrived in Bologna as an international student I was also surprised to learn about the English proficiency exam requirement. I, too, heard many variations of the “at worst, you just lose a couple of hours” or the inevitable “but it fulfills your language proficiency!” reasoning mentioned.
What these justifications do not address is the underlying sense that we are collectively not being treated as responsible, trustworthy adults or that any objective examination other than the SAIS examination is insufficient; or worse, we have been less than honest in our applications.
An international student with an undergraduate education from a top US university, great GRE scores, who has lived and worked in an English-speaking country is forced to jump through another hoop — one that calls into question previous qualifications. It is irrelevant whether it is an easy hoop to jump through or not.
Melissa Paredes
SAIS Washington ’14
More Stories
Sec. Blinken describes coalition-based diplomacy in inaugural lecture at 555 Penn auditorium
Secretary of State Antony Blinken delivers the first speech in the Brzezinski Lecture Series at SAIS’s new building at 555...
A Talk on The Politics of Food Security: Is Food a Human Right?
Ishani Srivastava Edited by Alexandra Huggins On April 24, 2023, visiting professor Michelle Jurkovich hosted a discussion titled “Is Food...
Smoke and Mirrors: COP27 and The Agreement on Loss and Damage Funding
Ishani Srivastava Edited by David Forner At the 27th Conference of the Parties (COP27) to the United Nations Framework Convention...
An Interview With Laurel Buck: MAIR Student, Policy Nerd, and Steadfast Center Back
Stuart Grosvenor Laurel Buck, a second-year MAIR student and #12 on the Johns Hopkins Women's Soccer team, spoke to us...
Professor Adam Szubin’s “Yachts & Sanctions”
Hans Faye https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zdPbEUxqL4Q Professor Adam Szubin is no stranger to sanctions. Though he currently serves as a Distinguished Practitioner-in-Residence at...
Battling Gender-based Violence in Contemporary China
Haoning (Zoe) Guo In the historian Jonathan D. Spence’s magnificent work The Death of Woman Wang, the woman known only...