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]]> This one barely allows people to copy and paste text, and its suggestions are based on weak and cliched views of the complexity of the English language. If you manage to paste in a text, which is not that straightforward, it may manage to give you a suggestion or two, but it is very far from turning a non-native learner's text into a native's text.]]>Learning to read again in your fifties is a humbling experience. And one I have enjoyed. I wouldn't be able to read a novel, but I have moved beyond decifering words. Lao isn't that simple a language, and when I went to Japan a few months ago, I felt much more confident about being able to work out their symbols. Learning beyond the way you write naturally is a step well worth taking.
]]>At the moment, it consists of a listening and a reading test. It's quick- it takes about 15 minutes. The test is mostly aimed for higher levels- the results a beginner would get from the current test would largely be irrelevant as they could easily be the product of chance. I think it could grow into a worthwhile tool. I don't see EFSET replacing IELTS and TOEFL, but I think that they could develop this into something useful if they continue to work on it and expand it to a number of levels.
It's free, you can take it any number of times, you can post the results to your Linkedin page- there's quite a lot going for it. I hope this does go somewhere.
]]>I can see why people want to post in a number of forums, but I would suggest that you don't do it simultaneously- post in one, see what answers you get and then think about posting in another. Also, don't post questions that have a single answer in more than one place. If you follow these simple steps, you'll get better answers from a broader and more friendly base than if you simply slap the same question in ten places in the space of ten minutes and hope for the best.
]]>Many thanks and good luck to people taking this, or any other, English language examination.
]]>If you want more on ESL and football, you could also visit LanguageCaster, a site dedicated to Learning English through football.
]]>The box for password is blank- we have no idea what it is or how many characters it uses, and we have no way of seeing it. We can enter a new password, and occasionally do when someone is having problems logging in or sorting out a new password. However, the second we save it, the box goes blank again.
If you're emailing or sending us a Private Message about your account, please don't send us the password- the username is enough.
[Edited by the webmaster to add...]
Since we use the leading brand of forum software (vBulletin) to manage our forum membership lists, these passwords are stored in a secure way and we have no possibility of retrieving them from the database. For those that are more technical, the actual passwords are salted with a random three character string created on registration. The actual password is stored as md5(md5(password) + salt).
]]>How do you ask a taxi or tuk-tuk to turn left when they cannot hear you? You have to tap and point. One friend thought I was trying to whisper a secret message when I arrived at his door with a porter, when I was just trying to say hello. It's easy to carry a pen and paper, and your pointing and signalling get better, but it's harder when you have lunch with a friend you haven't seen for a couple of years and communication is very limited.
You do realise that some people you deal with think you're stupid- friends will find workarounds, strangers are different.
I knew that it was a temporary state, and it only lasted a couple of months, but it did give me an idea of what it is like to be deprived of one aspect of language completely- it's horrible, but the good thing is that most people I came across were willing to try and help. Some thought I was a bit thick, which must be very frustrating long-term, but I only came across one complete and utter jerk. I might have been lucky and there may be more than him in real life, but I did get the impression that if people don't think you'll infect them, they'll try to help. It's complex, frustrating and takes adapting to, and I only had to do it for a couple of months.
Explaining for the third time that you don't need a return ticket when you are heading somewhere you have a residence visa for is difficult when you can make no noise, and want to explode with frustration at someone unable to read this who wants to stop you getting on a plane. I used to think that being deaf or mute were nothing compared to being blind. Having experienced one of these sensory losses, even for such a short time, I am no longer so sure. When the next course of treatment started working, I found that I could make odd, random noises, then speech started coming back. It was a miraculous thing, but one many don't get.
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