Can the Philippines become an English-exempt country in the Future?

suzanne4, RN · Apr 5, 2007

Just a note: I emailed cgfns regarding VS renewals and they said that renewal requires a fresh set of english exam(s) for the non-English exempt countries which include the Philippines.
I wonder if Philippines will ever be an English-exempt country sometime in the future...

English exams are only good for two years, so they need to be renewed if the VSC needs to be renewed.

I seriously doubt that the Philippines will become English-exempt for the exams, too many do not pass the exam when they take it. The main language in PI is still Tagalog, and not English.

Some are taking it three and four times, if not more to pass the exam.

lawrence01 · Apr 5, 2007

Just a note: I emailed cgfns regarding VS renewals and they said that renewal requires a fresh set of english exam(s) for the non-English exempt countries which include the Philippines.
I wonder if Philippines will ever be an English-exempt country sometime in the future...

Yes, that is correct. The VS Certificate itself is good for 5 years and renewable but the English exam is only good for 2 years. So, if you need to renew it (VSC) after it has expired after 5 years, needless to say the English exam has to be renewed as well because that expires after 2 years.

john83, BSN, RN · Apr 5, 2007

I seriously doubt that the Philippines will become English-exempt for the exams, too many do not pass the exam when they take it. The main language in PI is still Tagalog, and not English.

English-exempt countries enjoy the process of renewal without having to take another exam(and paying for it).:smiley_ab Is there anything else that we can do other than take up BSN again in the English exempt countries to allow for English language exemption? :cool:

jonRNMD · Apr 5, 2007

Just a note: I emailed cgfns regarding VS renewals and they said that renewal requires a fresh set of english exam(s) for the non-English exempt countries which include the Philippines.
I wonder if Philippines will ever be an English-exempt country sometime in the future...

according to the IELTS data, 67% of Filipinos who took the Academic part of IELTS had 6.5 (passing band score for Visa Screen) or higher....the HIGHEST percentage among test takers in Asia. If that 67% changes to 98% then CGFNS might reconsider us as an English speaking country :lol2:

Although English is the medium of instruction in schools in the Philippines, we still suffer from a dearth of students/graduates who are conversational in English outside of major cities in the Philippines

http://www.ielts.org/teachersandresearchers/analysisoftestdata/article237.aspx

Hathaway · Apr 6, 2007

HuH?

The thread was started with the English-exemption, not the immigration news.

Anyhow, here's my take on the original issue.

NEVER.

Hathaway.

john83, BSN, RN · Apr 6, 2007

HuH?
The thread was started with the English-exemption, not the immigration news.
Anyhow, here's my take on the original issue.
NEVER.
Hathaway.

This thread was originally a response to another thread; the moderator deemed it better to move it(and start it as a thread)I guess. Sir Lawrence01 can tell you more about this.

Oh well, if not then, until we can have the immigrant visa, we'll have to take the English exams and pay for it everytime we renew the VS certificate...

FutureUSRN · Apr 7, 2007

The Philippines CAN, but I doubt it will ever be.

While I believe that Nursing and other medical fields need skill in English Language, I also believe that other professions also need the same treatment. If the US is requiring Nurses, PTs, and Doctors to get certain proficiency in English, why don't they require the same from Lawyers, Engineers, etc? Lawyers can make or break one's life just by using wrong words. Engineers can cause industrial disasters, if they made wrong decisions due to wrong English comprehension.

The very reason why Filipino-Americans are earning more than the average native Americans is because we have good command in English. We move faster and up the corporate ladder because we can construct good english sentences and paragraphs and reports than the average native Americans.

While native English speakers are polluted with wrong grammars due to their up-bringing, we, Filipinos, learn the correct grammar from the English textbooks written by no less than American grammarians.

Going back to the topic, has anyone or any study conducted how average native english speakers fare in IELTS? I wonder if they can get an average of 6.5....or their average is also 6.5....

FutureUSRN · Apr 7, 2007

btw, we should be proud that our average in IELTS is 6.5...see table in the link:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nonnative_speakers_in_TESOL

You can see that 6.5 in IELTS is equivalent to Higher (BEC & CELS Exams), Higher intermediate (Pitman ESOL), and Level 4 (scale of 0 to 5 on ALTE levels).

suzanne4, RN · Apr 7, 2007

And something that you are all forgetting about:

Passing of the IELTS exams or the TOEFL series does not say one thing that a nurse has good English skills in communicating with their patients, or even other nurses and physicians. Many times I have seen nurses that have had excellent scores on their exam, but their skills have been horrible and they have been let go from their jobs. That is the reason that you are seeing more and more interviews being done over the phone before the nurse is hired, no matter where they are from.

And this does not matter which country that they are from. If you look at other statistics, you will find that PI has actually lost something like 200,000 jobs that have gone to India and Pakistan because of the English skills there. There have been many issues where the skills are not the same as they used to be, more are speaking Tagalog and not English when away from work.

And just the usage of idioms...........are very different and can cause major issues with patients in different areas of the US. And we do not use the word grammarian here in the US, it is just not used. There is no such thing here. What you learn from a book is not the same as what is spoken on a daily basis.

lawrence01 · Apr 7, 2007

And something that you are all forgetting about:
Passing of the IELTS exams or the TOEFL series does not say one thing that a nurse has good English skills in communicating with their patients, or even other nurses and physicians. Many times I have seen nurses that have had excellent scores on their exam, but their skills have been horrible and they have been let go from their jobs. That is the reason that you are seeing more and more interviews being done over the phone before the nurse is hired, no matter where they are from.
And this does not matter which country that they are from. If you look at other statistics, you will find that PI has actually lost something like 200,000 jobs that have gone to India and Pakistan because of the English skills there. There have been many issues where the skills are not the same as they used to be, more are speaking Tagalog and not English when away from work.
And just the usage of idioms...........are very different and can cause major issues with patients in different areas of the US. And we do not use the word grammarian here in the US, it is just not used. There is no such thing here. What you learn from a book is not the same as what is spoken on a daily basis.

I am w/ Suzanne on this as far as Filipinos coming from the Philippines is concerned. Don't know about 'Filipino-Americans' born and raised in the US. If they are born and raised in the US then there should be no difference.

I think Filipinos can speak English in a way easily more understandable compared to others but when it comes to comprehension I honestly think we are lagging behind and when there is a choice, most Americans would rather choose some one speaking English w/ a certain accent but can comprehend what he is saying as oppose to someone that they can easily understand but cannot comprehend what they are saying w/c is why off-shore call centers are still the forte of India and many are not aware that there are more call center hires in Malaysia than in the Philippines.

john83, BSN, RN · Apr 7, 2007

Thank you very much for the facts that you have all presented.:) I'm learning a lot from this thread.:typing