Tuesday, December 07, 2004
Nihongo exam whaling on my brain
Damn, that Japanese exam was HARD. Harder than trying to kill an elephant with a drinking straw.
Maybe I should have studied more; maybe I shouldn't have stayed up the night before the exam, watching the last six episodes of 24, season three. I'll know when I get the marks, I guess.
The whole ordeal wasn't without its comic moments, though. Getting ten minutes' shut-eye in the last part of the exam (reading and grammar) then going back through the paper and changing half of my answers was a good one.
My favourite part though was the first paper of the day: writing and vocabulary. Before they handed out the test papers, the proctors were good enough to give us the full list of yellow and red card offences, which lead to exam disqualification.
"You are not allowed to (-te form of verb, plus wa ikemasen) speak. You are not allowed to leave the room. You are not allowed to open the question sheet before the start of the test..."
Then they handed out the question sheets, ALL of the Chinese students opened theirs straight away and two of them were yellow-carded within 15 seconds.
The Japanese Language Board were evidently well prepared for the communist threat this year.
Maybe I should have studied more; maybe I shouldn't have stayed up the night before the exam, watching the last six episodes of 24, season three. I'll know when I get the marks, I guess.
The whole ordeal wasn't without its comic moments, though. Getting ten minutes' shut-eye in the last part of the exam (reading and grammar) then going back through the paper and changing half of my answers was a good one.
My favourite part though was the first paper of the day: writing and vocabulary. Before they handed out the test papers, the proctors were good enough to give us the full list of yellow and red card offences, which lead to exam disqualification.
"You are not allowed to (-te form of verb, plus wa ikemasen) speak. You are not allowed to leave the room. You are not allowed to open the question sheet before the start of the test..."
Then they handed out the question sheets, ALL of the Chinese students opened theirs straight away and two of them were yellow-carded within 15 seconds.
The Japanese Language Board were evidently well prepared for the communist threat this year.
