The Sound of Testing

December 25, 2006 on 12:00 am | In Culture, Other | | Email This Post

I heard from a ex-JET friend that one thing he noticed is that the sound of test taking in Japan is very different than that in the US.

The reason for this is that when writing Kanji, it is necessary to lift the pencil off the page and make many quick strokes. This causes a “gata gata gata” sound.

However, when writing in English we tend to use cursive with continuous long strokes. This gives the test taking sound move of a sliding sound with occastional thunks for periods and punctuation and such.

I have never proctored a test in Japan, has anyone here done so? Would you agree with this observation?

- Harvey

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  1. Gravatar

    That is actually interesting, hadn’t thought about that. Always hated proctoring tests, but now I think I want to do a Japanese one, just so I could check. But aren’t most multiple choice?

    Comment by Anders Bogsnes — December 26, 2006 #

  2. Gravatar

    Hi Anders, actually NO! on the multiple choice stuff.

    I heard that most of the tests for kids in Japan are handwritten stuff.

    No bubble sheets for them!

    Though, this is hearsay, I have never taught in Japan!

    Comment by harvey — December 27, 2006 #

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