(no subject)

[winterbadger]

pisica, what did I tell you?

Dear Sir,

Thank you for your email, please note we can not provide comparison
information on emails, you will either have to apply to us and we can
check your certificate or contact one of our information officers by
phone, and they will be happy to assist you

Kind regards

UK NARIC

They know damn well that (a) I don't have the certificate yet and (b) I live in the US, so calling them is not a feasible option. I'd return a rude reply, but I'm still waiting for their review of my BA...

Plus they can't punctuate correctly; these are the people judging how well educated we are?

Comments

[dativesingular.livejournal.com]

I saw a "than" instead of a "then" somethere on the UKBA site once.

Anyway, would it be possible to install something like Skype to call overseas? I use that to call "real" phones and it's really not horribly expensive.

[winterbadger]

I have Skype. But then I have to spend time on the phone during their office hours (which will be when I would normally be trying to sleep) and you *know* what they're going to tell me! "Oh, you'll have to send all the paperwork in, with a cheque, and we'll assess it." Which of course I can't do, since I'm asking them a prospective question.

I mean, come *ON*, how is speaking to me on the telephone going to provide them with *more* information than I can provide them by email? It's not; it's a bureaucratic dodge to pretend they're being helpful when they ain't. Note that they keep saying "send us the certificate" when I've told them twice already that I don't *have* a certificate yet.

I want them to provide an explanation of what "further specialisation" means, and they are refusing to do so, while attempting to look as if they're not. Because, bottom line, if they provide an explanation of what it means, a lot of people are not going to bother sending them £40 (or £75, or £90, or £210) to have a degree vetted because they'll be able to see themselves that it won't meet the criteria. And NARIC wants those £ses! They're a commercial entity that's been given a monopoly by the government, and they're going to squeeze every penny out of it that they can.

[lostinarden.livejournal.com]

Typical British customer service, and the worst instances I've encountered have been within academic institutions.

[schizokitty.livejournal.com]

Maybe there's a forum somewhere that has folks that know, from experience, what this "further specialisation" is? I can't imagine how to search for it, but Google is a wonderful thing.

Sorry they're being such rectal pores. Hang in there.

*hugs*

[winterbadger]

Maybe there's a forum somewhere that has folks that know, from experience, what this "further specialisation" is?

I think it's called the NARIC lunchroom. Seriously, even experienced immigration advisors have no idea how this is determined. NARIC are the only people who determine it, and UKBA are the only people who apply it, and none of them will explain it to the rest of us. And since none of the people who care are, obviously, UK ratepayers, that's probably how it will stay. >:-(

[silme.livejournal.com]

Lack of communication via email is all too common with the British government. (I don't know how well the US government handles it as I left the US in 2000.)

Unfortunately, comma splices are very common here. When I first started teaching here, I thought they must be acceptable in the UK because so many students -- and even colleagues in the English department -- constantly were using commas to link two independent clauses. Nope. I checked. It's wrong in the UK also -- it's just very common. The problem is that teaching grammar went by the wayside here in the late '70s. I'm serious. Students here really only learn grammar if they study A-level English Language. And then they're overwhelmed because they really don't know anything -- most of them don't even know a noun from a verb. (I once received a note from an English department colleague where I used to teach. She wrote 'thankyou Ellen'. 'Thank you' as one word and no comma before the noun of direct address. I was appalled.)

Is further specialisation something like how I had to give them a copy of my (then) valid Colorado teaching credentials? You'd laugh at what they said in their evaluation of them -- that I had valid credentials to teach in Colorado. Thank you, Naric.