Man stays in Bangladesh despite apparently acing IELTS, goes viral

It is a given that someone who secures a commendable score in the IELTS exam will go abroad, and not stay back in Bangladesh.  

But this simple truth was proved untrue in broad daylight by a middle-aged man as he was spotted effortlessly speaking with a foreigner in English, which he must have learned while preparing for the IELTS, an English language test believed to be designed especially for Sylheti inhabitants.

The man first came to light in a video where he was seen trying his heart and soul to help a foreign YouTuber in the alleys of Kawran Bazar.

Bangladesh is a coveted destination for YouTubers, as much for the country's natural beauty as its 170 million potential subscribers.

The long course of the IELTS ace's assistance to the foreigner started from the roundabout of Kawran Bazar and continued till the Hatirjheel signal. The journey included the greatest "English to Bangla Translation" show, where our man translated "keep the change" to "bakita amare dite koiche". As the IELTS test doesn't have a translation section, people did not bother about his E2B skills.

The long course of the IELTS ace's assistance to the foreigner started from the roundabout of Kawran Bazar and continued till the Hatirjheel signal.

While the foreigner was passing by the BFDC, the headquarters of the Shilpi Samiti where two groups of alleged actors always fight for the most desired chair, the IELTS graduate pleaded with him for some dollars as he was severely disturbed by the incessant devaluation of the local currency.

This Satireday correspondent, in disguise, closely observed the events from a distance and went to the man, who was utterly disappointed after successfully being denied by the foreigner several times.

When asked why he was asking for money from an obscure tourist, he said, "You saw that? We were actually having a conversation as I was testing my English-speaking knowledge. Asking for some money was just an exercise."

As his second interview with this correspondent also went viral, people were desperate to know why such an awesome speaker had not applied to go to the USA, Canada or some European countries yet, despite apparently having a good IELTS score.

Although the man never disclosed his IELTS score or whether he really sat for the exam, people believed that it was not possible that such a fluent speaker would rule out the idea of sitting for the IELTS exam and obtaining a handsome score.

So, the only concern of people, who watched his video on social media, was why he didn't yet join the leaving-the-country brigade.

"If I were him, I would be in a room in Canada now, looking at the snowfall through my window," Tausif, a Canadian visa-seeker, said in despair.

Like the video, disappointment also went viral as we talked to another person. When asked what he thought about the man and his English-speaking calibre, Nazmus Sakib, another seeker of visa to a country dominated by fair-skinned people, said, "Such a treasure should not be wasted in the city of traffic jams. He should be somewhere in the world where snowfall and school shootings occur simultaneously."