Thanks to Mr. Bachchan, we as a country know English is a funny language. Nevertheless, it is an important language in our lives as we are a part of the commonwealth nations and an average Indian takes pride in his knowledge of English.
However, in what can be a rather embarrassing situation for many hardcore linguists in the country and a whole community of international students who flaunt their heavy accents right from the day they decide to migrate to study abroad, a court in the US found students with high IELTS scores were unable to answer the questions by the judge when they were produced in court.
Like loads of Indians in tier 1 and tier 2 cities, the youth were trained in institutes that ‘promise’ high scores and subsequent passage to Canada, from where the students will then be imported into the US. In this particular case, the students who were produced before the court had IELTS scores of 6.5 and 7. Despite this, the court had to use translators to help them communicate.
All four students produced were caught off a sinking ship in Saint Regis River in Akwesasne, US, close to the Canadian border. While four are from Mehsana, two are from Gandhinagar and Patan. Incidentally, the US Consulate General in Mumbai sent a mail to Mehsana police to find out how the students had managed such high scores.
The students had appeared for the IELTS exam at a center in south Gujarat’s Navsari town and went to Canada on a student visa before they were caught at the US-Canada border. It was found that the CCTV was switched off during the exam in Mehsana, and the Mehsana police are looking into the matter.
