Supikingu Tesuto

Last week I spent a day administering a Speaking Test to allll the first years (7th graders) at one of my Junior Highs. Because this is the first year that they're having formal English education, the test itself was extremely basic. I simply asked each student 5 questions and graded their responses for each on a scale of 1 to 5.

Behold the dreaded test of doom!

1. Is this a pen? (and upon asking I held aloft the mighty ballpoint)
Ideal response: "Yes, it is." You'd be amazing at the number of incorrect variations students can come up with for this, but like I said, they started less than a year ago; so I wouldn't dare fault them.

2. Are you from America?
Response: "No, I'm not. I'm from Japan." Often the children would switch to "No, it's not. It's from Japan." I thought it a tad odd that they would call themselves an "it" but I suppose it's technically correct if you throw out the intent of the language and stick to the rules. Is using "it" to refer to a person technically incorrect or only impolite? I was under the impression that it was the latter, but it could be wrong.

3. Do you play Golf?
Response: "No, I don't. I play (insert sport)." I found it interesting that many students would answer with whatever extracurricular activity with which they were involved. Piano, percussion, and "I don'to pray sporto" were among them.

4. Do you come to school by bus?
Response: "No, I walk/come to school by bike." No one rides the bus. Not a single child. In fact, I've never even seen a school bus in this country; I don't think they have them. There are local Junior Highs and Elementary schools so everyone just walks or bikes to the closest one. Makes perfect sense.

5. What's this/that? (I would then point to a desk, chair, or window.)
Response: "It's a desk/et cetera." This one I kept extra easy to give them some filler points. Honestly, I much prefer to give high scores than low ones. Frankly, I'm not sure what kind of monster wouldn't want to give good grades to a kid. Then again, maybe American kids aren't as adorable.

Speaking of good grades, there's a half-American girl in one of my classes. This isn't too terribly odd since Misawa has the airbase and all, but it certainly makes for interesting testing procedures.

Obviously, the questions that I had to ask were very simplistic as the students are just learning, and so it makes sense for them. But when I asked her the same ones, it just felt very silly (which would be really tough for the kids to say).

Indeed, near the end I began to laugh a bit at the audacity of the situation. Here I am, asking a girl with better English than many of the English teachers if the thing I'm holding is a pen. The best student otherwise would have gotten out a clear but warped, "Yesu, ito isu." Whereas she answers in an almost "accentless" accent as though she had just moved from Anytown, USA.

Needless to say, she got a perfect score.

JetSetArnett Out.

Universally speaking, I win in the long run