English Central Blog – Page 11

Posted on April 15, 2019 by Nicole

Female foreign students face sexual harassment

The Vancouver Sun reports that there are many female international students, particularly from the Punjab region of India, who are dealing with sexual harassment from landlords and exploitation from employers. These women come from a poor region and in many cases their family has sold everything they have to send them to Canada. While here, the money they came with often turns out to be insufficient and they feel the need to make additional money. They therefore often work more than their work permits allow, offer sexual services to landlords and get involved in the drug trade (this is true of male students as well). Afraid of being deported, they do not report these problems.

New app uses AI and voice recognition to improve pronunciation

Apparently Vietnam is a new hot spot for tech investment and one company which has received millions of dollars of investment is Elsa. Launched in 2016, it boasts over 4 million users in over 100 countries. Van Vu, a Vietnamese woman now living in the United States, is a co-founder and the CEO of the company. She struggled with being understood when she first came to the US and that was part of the inspiration for coming up with Elsa.

Indian students now outnumber Chinese on Canadian campuses

Last year, there were 172,000 Indian students with study visas in Canada while there were 142,000 Chinese students. The number of Chinese students last year was up by 30%, which points to the incredible resent surge of Indian students. The cheaper Canadian dollar helps, but more important is the greater ease in receiving work permits and a path to citizenship. Canada has Donald Trump to thank, partly at least, as the US is proposing stricter issuance of foreign-worker visas.

Relying on international students is dangerous, says professor

With the recent diplomatic spats with China and Saudi Arabia, Canadian post-secondary institutions are increasingly aware of how vulnerable they are to global affairs. A professor at UPEI says that with 25% of their student body being international students from China, an escalation of tensions threatens the finances of the institution and the local economy. He makes the sensible argument that diversification is essential so that should one nation should cease to send students, universities and the local businesses that serve them will not be threatened.

Posted on February 12, 2019 by Nicole

Thousands of new English teachers being recruited by Taiwan

Taiwan’s prime minister has the goal of making Taiwan bilingual (Mandarin and English) and as part of this goal, the country is looking to improve the English of its teachers as well as to recruit more native English speaking teachers.

Inlingua schools in Florida abruptly close

In November, nine Inlingua schools abruptly closed due to bankruptcy of the local operator. Over 500 students were stranded and staff was left unpaid.

Diplomatic tensions caused by arrest of Huawei executive cause concern at Alberta universities

The University of Alberta and, to a lesser extent, the University of Calgary, have deep ties to China and even Huawei itself. There are concerns about the future of funding and flow of Chinese students as a result of the recent diplomatic tensions between Canada and China, though there is no indication as of yet that China plans to retaliate by blocking funding or students.

International students more vulnerable to sexual assault than their domestic peers

MOSAIC, an immigrant services organization in Vancouver, is working to improve the support available for international students who are the victims of sexual assault. The CEO of the organization believes that international students are more vulnerable because they are more likely to be isolated, lack a social network and are navigating a different cultural context.

International students who can’t find jobs turn to soup kitchen

Cape Breton university in Sydney, Nova Scotia has seen a huge increase in international students this year. The unfortunate side of this story is that many of these students are unable to find part time work and, worried about their dwindling savings, have turned to a local soup kitchen to eat.

Indian students fastest growing group of international students at UBC

While Chinese students are still the largest group of international students at the University of British Columbia, Indian enrollment grew 263% from the school year of 2013/2014 to 2017/2018.