Entrance exams

Since the seniors done been graduated, my schools feel kind of empty. The third-year teachers, having spent most of the past three months working even longer hours than normal, are taking full advantage: several are taking vacations, and the rest are visibly relaxed and easygoing. All the teachers, however, pitch in to help with the entrance exams for prospective students.

Middle-school third-years (ninth-graders, in other words) must pass an exam to enter high school. Exams for public schools are only given once per year, on the same day throughout the prefecture, which means students can only apply to one public high school. They make their decision at some point early in their third year, and spend the remaining time in middle school studying for it.

Testing this year was split over two or three days, with the high school students sent home to study (and given homework due upon their return). There are five sections: Japanese, math, science, social studies, and English. Each section is worth a maximum of 100 points. Again, the test is prefecture-wide--everyone in Nagasaki takes the same test.

The English portion consists of, among other things, a listening section. For this, a recording is broadcast over the school P.A., and students must follow along and answer questions. Both years I've been here, the speakers have been the head ALT and his supervising JTE. The script has been the same both my years and, according to other English teachers, for several years back. "It is spring. The birds are singing in the trees..."

After the testing, the students met with teachers for individual interviews. The teachers asked them about things like their hobbies and why they chose Tsushima High. Kamito-sensei tells me the responses have no bearing on the decision to accept the students; I imagine it's simply a way for the teachers to gauge each student's character and identify any potential problems.

As the teachers were returning from the interviews and milling around in the staff room the other day, they were gossiping about the interviews. Kamito-sensei was in on it, so she helped clarify. Tsushima High--and, I gather, high schools in general--pride themselves on drilling students on formal etiquette. That means they pay a lot of attention to the way students greet and address their elders, which includes teachers. A couple of teachers were highly amused by a few boys' untidy uniforms.

The story that got the biggest reaction, though, was about a couple of students who, after finishing the interview, excused themselves from the room with a mere "otsukareshita." That's roughly the functional and contextual equivalent of ending a job interview with a "See ya." (A more appropriate version--a "Thank you very much for your time"--would have been more on the order of "arigato gozaimashita. otsukaresamadeshita.")

Sometimes I feel like I live in Pleasantville.