English Test : Cambridge ESOL vs TOEFL
Hello there,
At 8:20 in this morning, with my family, I drove an hour to Taipei, my elder daughter Kelly attended TOEFL. TOEFL is abbreviated from Test Of English as a Foreign Language, which is most common requirement for U.S. university admission. The test fee of TOEFL is US$150, very expensive to Taiwanese. It is equivalent to 3 day-wages of Taiwanese.
There are many kinds of English test in Taiwan, which are:
1.TOEFL: America system. Fee = US$150
2.Cambridge ESOL ( KET/PET/FCE/CAE/CPE): British system,
FCE fee=US$100 (Approximately)
3.TOEIC (Test Of English for International Communication): International use.
Fee= US$50 (Approximately)
4.GEPT: made in Taiwan. Fee = average US$50(Approximately)
5.FLPT: made in Taiwan, Fee= US$58(Approximately)
We need to go to Taipei to attend TOEFL, the test started at 9:30 am today, till 14:00 pm. there was only 10 minutes break in the middle time, the examinees had their lunch after 14:00 pm (Taiwanese usually have lunch between 12:00- 13:00).
During the TOEFL test, 9:30 am till 14:00 pm, we (my wife Wendy, my daughter Kitty, and I) had a 4.5 hours Taipei trip. Taipei is the capital of Taiwan, 271.7997 km², 2,622,933 populations. Nowadays, smoking is restricted more and more, therefore, it is very hard to find a trash can on the street which is attached with an ashtray box, I today found one on the Taipei street. Let me show you a photo of it.
( trash can + ashtray box)
Best wishes.
James Wu (Wu Zhih Cheng), Taiwan.
Comments
Hello James! I read this entry with great interest. If we compare test fees in Taiwan and Slovakia, it is quite amazing how different they are. When my daughter took IELTS exam (International English Language Testing System) we paid around 5500 SKK (144, 7 EUR) in 2005. The minimum wage was 6 900 SKK/month (181, 5 EUR) in Slovakia at that time. (Conversion rate 38 SKK/1 EUR) The minimum wage is 8 100 SKK (268, 9 Euro)/month in 2008 (which is one of the lowest in the whole European Union) and the fee for the IELTS test is 5580 SKK (185 Euro). Here are the fees for the ESOL exams: KET, PET-115 EUR, FCE-170 EUR, CAE-180 EUR and CPE-185 EUR. (Conversion rate 30,126 SKK/ 1 EUR) So, as you see we have to work more than 3 days to be able to pay our children’s exam fees. Would you mind if I ask you how much the minimum wage per month is in Taiwan? I hope, Kelly get the results she want in her exam. By the way, do you speak in English with Kelly at home? Finally, are you a smoker, James? You do not have to answer if you do not want to. Best wishes,
THank you !
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