International Education Matters

A Forum for Issues Pertaining to
Intensive English Programs

Catch-22

by Peter Thomas
Immediate Past President
American Association of Intensive English Programs

August 2003

Imagine this situation. You want to visit Spain, and because of your ongoing interest in learning Spanish, you decide you'd like to take a few hours of classes on your trip. Let's imagine you live in, say, Minnesota. But you find out that Spain has just instituted a new policy whereby any visitor intending to study, no matter how few hours, needs a student visa. And that, in order to get that visa (the application for which is $100, non-refundable, of course), you have to have a personal interview at the Spanish Embassy in Washington, DC. And that, in order to set up that interview, you'll have to make a toll call which, notoriously, keeps you on hold for quite a while. And that the Embassy is short-staffed, so the interview will have to be close to your planned departure-date. And that you are, by Spanish law, presumed by the interviewer to be intending to move permanently to Spain -- and it's your job to disprove this. And that, after that long, expensive trip from Minnesota, your interview will take less than five minutes. And that there's at least a one in twenty chance your visa will not be granted.

Oh, and I forgot: you will find it virtually impossible to get any educational institution in Spain to give you the document you need in order to even apply for a student visa -- because you can only get this document if you intend to study full-time, and you don't want to study full-time. So the Spanish Embassy will tell you that, unfortunately, you are inadmissible to their country. Would this make you re-consider your idea of visiting Spain? Well, that's the situation now faced by any Spaniard who wants to visit the U.S. and study a few hours of English. And it's getting to be that way in more and more countries. It would be hilarious if it weren't so shockingly arrogant and short-sighted.

from Catch-22 by Joseph Heller:

There was only one catch and that was Catch-22, which specified that a concern for one's safety in the face of dangers that were real and immediate was the process of a rational mind. Orr was crazy and could be grounded. All he had to do was ask; and as soon as he did, he would no longer be crazy and would have to fly more missions. Orr would be crazy to fly more missions and sane if he didn't, but if he was sane he had to fly them. If he flew them he was crazy and didn't have to; but if he didn't want to he was sane and had to. Yossarian was moved very deeply by the absolute simplicity of this clause of Catch-22 and let out a respectful whistle. "That's some catch, that Catch-22," he observed. "It's the best there is," Doc Daneeka agreed.

This file was updated on November 8, 2003