Earlier last month, when I worked as a manager of a practice examination, I kind of got interested in that job, and today was the third time to work. Today窶冱 examination was a test for English proficiency known as 窶廢iken窶� in Japanese, one of the most famous tests in Japan. Today was the secondary testing day: examinees have already passed the first paper test, but they have to take another interview test. Today窶冱 my job is to facilitate and assist the interviewer.

The examinees for the pre-second grade had the interview during the morning, and in the afternoon, the examinees for the third grade had the test. Even though it窶冱 called pre-second or third grade, and it sounds like very high grade, actually the vast majority of the examinees was the high or junior high school student. I was also the one that took this test when I was a junior high school's student.
Looking at the examinees, I reminded of the day when I had an interview. I guess it was December and was so windy. My examiner was a man, and he and I were supposed to have an easy daily conversation before having the interview. I thought I should talk about the weather first, but since he asked before I talk to him, I wasn窶冲 able to talk about it eventually. The test was held at my junior high school窶冱 class, so he just asked me if I was the student of that school :-(
Another thing that I remember is that there was one word that I didn窶冲 know at that time in the examinational text. The unknown word was, interestingly, 窶彙orrow.窶� I didn窶冲 even know how to read it, but since the word wasn窶冲 related to the questions, I was able to get passed the exam. I wasn窶冲 really nervous somehow, I wasn窶冲 confident though. Maybe it was because most of the students, my classmates, had the same test on the same day at the same place, and it wasn窶冲 difficult.

It was also kind of funny to watch the examinees getting into the testing room. Literally every examinee said 窶廴ay I come in?窶� I thought it is too 窶徇anualized,窶� because many students own a textbook for this interview test, and maybe students were taught to say that phrase. But I think it doesn窶冲 really fit to the situation. Rather, I would say 窶廢xcuse me?窶� or just 窶廩i.窶�
Or maybe it is one of the Japanese 窶彡ultural窶� things to say something to be considered polite. But it is difficult to tell what kinds of phrases are truly used among natives, and what is worse for learners is that the language is changing. There is definitely a trend whatever the language is, and that bothers the learners a lot. Since I was also bothered with the changing and flexible native English, I do understand the difficulty. But I don't think it's a good way to be "manualized."

Another thing that I thought funny is a bag that each examinee wears. The bag is used in order to prevent examinee from using cell phones. The use of cell phone is a huge problem all over the world, and the use during the examination is at stake without any questions. Today, every examinee was supposed to put their cell phone into their special bags and wasn窶冲 allowed to even open it at the test site (the test was held at a private school close to my college). That is very strict, actually. It could be too strict. I don窶冲 know if it was too much, but in order to keep it fare, the cell phone shouldn窶冲 be allowed, so that cannot be helped.

Today窶冱 pay was 8000 yen. I am supposed to have worked from 8 am to 16 pm, so it was 1000 yen per hour. That might be enough and reasonable. It wasn't really very hard job, sometimes I got so sleepy though.

An incentive to earn money is ski. Skiing is the best sport I like and is the only one sport that I am good at. In order to enjoy my winter vacation, I have to work more and more :-)