Langauge barrier Langauge barrier

UK flunks own English test announcement

Post on test for migrants seeking UK citizenship misspells word ‘language’

By Lee Gancman 24 January 2016, 6:35 pm

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Lee Gancman is a breaking news editor at The Times of Israel.

Migrants walk at a site dubbed the "New Jungle", where some 3,000 people have set up camp -- most seeking desperately to get to England, in Calais, France on September 19, 2015. (AFP/ PHILIPPE HUGUEN)

A misspelling of the word “language” on an announcement for an English test for migrants has left the UK Home Office embarrassed after it was widely reported in British media Friday.

The post, put online by the Home Office, bore the awkward headline: “New English langauge [sic] test for family route migrants.”

In response to the embarrassing incident, a spokesperson from the Home Office said “This was a regrettable typographical error that has now been corrected.”

Spokesman for British Prime Minister David Cameron also gave a statement saying that everyone is “open to mistakes”, adding that he is “fully confident” of his civil servants’ grasp of English.

Following widespread exposure of the mistake and subsequent ridicule in the British media, the headline was changed to “New A2 English Requirement in the Family Route.”

Home Office staff fail their own ‘langauge’ test https://t.co/ew1P1ASNYG pic.twitter.com/gCeM43IdTe

— Steerpike (@MrSteerpike) January 22, 2016

The Home Office is a ministerial department of the UK Government, responsible for immigration, security, and law and order.

Many of those currently interested in settling in the UK, or gaining citizenship, have to pass an English test issued by the Home Office.

Last Monday, David Cameron wrote in The Times newspaper that more needs to be done to help Muslim women learn English to tackle discrimination and gender segregation in their communities.

The Conservative leader launched a £20 million ($28.5 million) language fund for women in isolated communities as part of a drive to build community integration.

And he said migrants would be forced to improve their English fluency or risk their ability to stay in Britain.

Cameron said new figures showed that some 190,000 Muslim women — or 22 percent — speak little or no English despite many having lived in Britain for decades.

Some 40,000 of these women speak no English at all, he added.

“So it’s no surprise that 60 percent of women of a Pakistani or Bangladeshi heritage are economically inactive.”

AFP contributed to this report