Latvia has ordered 841 Russian citizens to leave the country by Oct. 13, citing their failure to meet legal requirements, including proof of Latvian language proficiency and passing a national security screening, Politico reported.
With Russia using the “protecting Russians inside other countries” argument as a pretext for invading sovereign countries, Latvia’s actions make perfect sense to remove the basis for that argument. Essentially “show you want to be Latvian by learning the language and obtaining EU long term residency or go back to live as a Russian in Russia.”
And, the Latvian language test is hilariously easy.
I have learned Latvian and listened to the test material.
In listening comprehension you hear a phone call to a bus station. The worker answering articulates more clearly than anybody ever would.
And then the multiple choice question is:
Where did the caller call?
His workplace
Bus station
A clothes shop
(I don’t remember the other two variants, but the point stands: the question was super easy to answer)
And then, you need to write the first verse of Latvia’s anthem, in Latvian. That means having to learn a series if sounds as horribly long as 28 words.
The only way to fail that test is to have a strong principle not to want to learn Latvian or wanting to NOT know the anthem’s lyrics.
There are a few more exercises, but all of them are identically ridiculously easy.
It’s made so that russophiles will be unable to make themselves fill the test and everyone else will pass with flying colours.
It’s the only exam I’ve ever seen where you need to make an effort in order to fail.
Reminds me of the floating/swimming qualifications in the USN. I failed the first attempt because I decided to get in and out as quickly as I could and used my butterfly stroke. Apparently the USN doesn’t recognize butterfly as an official stroke so I had to do a lap using either American Crawl or Backstroke.
I had literally placed 13th in the nation the a couple years previous swimming butterfly. That’s my jam, man.
With Russia using the “protecting Russians inside other countries” argument as a pretext for invading sovereign countries, Latvia’s actions make perfect sense to remove the basis for that argument. Essentially “show you want to be Latvian by learning the language and obtaining EU long term residency or go back to live as a Russian in Russia.”
And, the Latvian language test is hilariously easy. I have learned Latvian and listened to the test material.
In listening comprehension you hear a phone call to a bus station. The worker answering articulates more clearly than anybody ever would.
And then the multiple choice question is:
Where did the caller call?
(I don’t remember the other two variants, but the point stands: the question was super easy to answer)
And then, you need to write the first verse of Latvia’s anthem, in Latvian. That means having to learn a series if sounds as horribly long as 28 words.
The only way to fail that test is to have a strong principle not to want to learn Latvian or wanting to NOT know the anthem’s lyrics.
There are a few more exercises, but all of them are identically ridiculously easy.
It’s made so that russophiles will be unable to make themselves fill the test and everyone else will pass with flying colours.
It’s the only exam I’ve ever seen where you need to make an effort in order to fail.
Reminds me of the floating/swimming qualifications in the USN. I failed the first attempt because I decided to get in and out as quickly as I could and used my butterfly stroke. Apparently the USN doesn’t recognize butterfly as an official stroke so I had to do a lap using either American Crawl or Backstroke.
I had literally placed 13th in the nation the a couple years previous swimming butterfly. That’s my jam, man.