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ahowitt
Community Member

English 4

I am getting a warning that I do not have the English skills required--an English 4--for many of the legal jobs that I am applying for.  I am trying to understand what the warning means and why it is present. I have am a native speaker, have taken the basic English spelling test and passed with 4.9 out of 5 and the Basic English skills test, with a 4.6 out of 5.

 

How can I fix this?

 

Thank you in advance for your help!

 

Audrey Howitt

6 REPLIES 6
kmaccart
Community Member

I am getting the same thing. I am a native English speaker and have a master's degree. I find it absurd that they have arbitraily decided that my English skills are not up to Upwork's standards. I have no idea where this rating came from or how to change it.

ahowitt
Community Member

I have looked all over the site for a way to address this and cannot find any helpful references to the term, nor any way to address it.  I have three advanced degrees, all at US colleges and am  a native speaker. This is frustrating and absurd.

 

 

Audrey

brittany-dunlap
Community Member

I am also a native English speaker, in the USA, and am seeing the same warning. I wonder if potential employers see this warning and are disregarding fine candidates because of this upwork malfunction. It should be addressed immediately.

janarze
Community Member

Having the same problem. I'm American and have taken the vocab & spelling tests, among others, but I still have that "English:4" showing in red. I'm not sure which test needs to be taken to clear that requirement. Please clarify! 

 

Thanks,

 

Jana

brittany-dunlap
Community Member

Per customer service we need to edit our profile and choose "Native" instead of "fluent" as our language choice for English. I do not see that option, only "masterful."

 

editlanguage.PNG

 

The following is from Juliezel (CSR):

Hi Brittany,

Thank you so much for reaching us out here in Upwork Support! I'll be glad to assist you with this.

The job post you may be applying to is requiring a English Verified freelancer or a Native English. You are right, it may seem strange for a native English speaker to take the test just to verify their English fluency. Some clients want to hire native speakers, and the test can't verify native fluency - those clients will always hire native speakers. That said, the test is available for native speakers to use if they would like to. We're working on ways to improve our English verification and verify native fluency as well.

Checking on your Upwork Profile, I see that you set your English Language to Fluent, what I can recommend is for you is to set it as Native.

To change this:
1. Please click on Find Jobs tab.
2. Then click on Profile.
3. Then please click on the Pen icon under Languages section
Please see snapshot: xxxxxx
4. Then select Native.
5. Then click on Save button.

You may then proceed with applying to the job post you are interested in and meets the qualification needed for the job, it would still be up to the client to review your profile and see that you are a native English speaker. Also, clients can rate your fluency when they end contracts.

I hope this information is helpful. If you have any further questions or need additional assistance, please let us know. Have a great day!

Regards,
Juliezel
Upwork Customer Support | support.upwork.com

dammysphere
Community Member

DOES THIS APPLY TO ENGLISH SPEAKING COUNTRY LIKE NIGERIA?