Monday, February 16, 2009

EXAM SHOCK !!!

Getting a Chinese driver’s licence is a culture shock for foreigners.(an interesting post from AFP)

IF someone’s intestines are protruding from an open abdominal wound, should you:

A. Put them back in place.

B. Do nothing.

C. Cover them with some kind of container and fasten it around the body.

The above is not from a first-year medical school exam, but is one of the 100 questions that locals and foreigners alike could find on China’s written driver’s licence exam. (The answer, by the way, is C.)

Road to success: Vehicles stuck in heavy traffic in downtown Beijing. To get your driver’s licence in China, you need to answer tough questions concerning spitting, and intestines spilling out of one’s belly.

Test candidates are given a booklet of 800 test questions, 100 of which appear on the actual exam. While the questions dealing with traffic signs are universally understood, others have singularly Chinese characteristics.

Sometimes two of the three answers could be equally right, or the answer that is considered right is obviously false.

Take the following example:

What should a driver do when he needs to spit while driving?

A. Spit through the window.

B. Spit into a piece of waste paper, then put it into a garbage can.

C. Spit on the floor of the vehicle.

Answer? B.

On one recent morning, a group of Americans, Russians, South Koreans and French nationals waited for the test at the Beijing Traffic Management Bureau, in a room reserved for foreigners behind the toilets.

A series of gory images flashed across a flat-screen television: a badly injured person lying in a car’s back seat, covered in blood; a dazed driver sitting on the ground after an accident; mourning relatives in tears.

Nikita, a Russian who works for an aviation company in the Chinese capital, was the most confident person in the group, after spending four days revising the multiple-choice questionnaire. Nothing could go wrong, or so he thought.

The 20 or so candidates took their seats, each facing a computer screen. The test began.

They had to write their ID numbers, pick a language, and click their way through the computerised test: A, B, or C. True or False. Yes or No.

All 100 questions had to be completed in 45 minutes, with a candidate needing 90 or more correct to pass. Results were given immediately.

A group of US Embassy staffers left the room, mostly in a jubilant mood – all had passed except for one man, who only got 82% correct.

“We spent the entire weekend cramming,” one of them said.

A woman tried to console the candidate who had failed. “It would’ve been an even bigger pity if you had scored 89,” she said.

Nikita, for his part, was utterly devastated. Despite all his hard work, he only answered 45 questions correctly.

“I couldn’t understand a word of the Russian used on the test,” he said.

Once the written test is over, foreigners who have a driver’s licence in their home country are not required to take a practical test, unlike the Chinese.

But they do have to have their eyesight checked, and this seemingly simple exercise also holds its fair share of surprises.

At a nearby hospital, a nurse asked the latest candidates to read letters from a lighted panel, covering the left and the right eye in turn.

But they have to read the panel in a mirror. And the letters listed do not exist in any known alphabet.

A backwards E? One that is upside down? How do you pronounce that?

Somehow, the candidates passed the sight test, and most left the traffic management office a short time later with licences in hand.

But reality will soon set in.

At the entrance to the parking lot were two cars crumpled like accordions, and on the streets of Beijing, no one seems to pay attention to the rules of the road.

Drivers routinely overtake on the right, taxis breeze through red lights, cyclists ride against the traffic and pedestrians jaywalk.

Last year alone, 73,500 people were killed and 304,000 injured in traffic accidents in China.

Welcome to China’s roads, among the most dangerous in the world.



Friday, February 6, 2009

Latest Up Date of Me.........

LATEST UP DATE OF ME


1) This few months are crucial in coping with works and meeting up the date line.....due to the heavy load of works, i find myself can't concentrate on teaching in class..i need to left those incomplete jobs and rush to the class to face the students..so every lesson is very rushy for me n sincerely speaking i can only give my 60% in class...i feel very sorry for this..

2) Few days ago i 'rejected' few groups of students who intent to pay me a CNY visit due to my tight schedule ..thanks but sorry for Kai Loon, See Theing, Mei Huoy n gang for the effort to contact n trying to get all your friends to come.. will meet up with you all later,that's for sure !!

3) I rejected again an offer by the ministry of education to lecture at kolej matrikulasi as the DG48 physics + mathematics lecturer...of course i will receive a higher pay from it, my decision was based on deep consideration of my personal interest n the freedom offered by my current environments...just wish that i had made the right decision..

4) Beside the normal routine of works from 7.40am till 2.40pm, there are other duties like:

a) stand for sport duties in the afternoon n sometime during the school hours..there are pack schedule for sports this year...im sure everyone in SDHS feel the same..haiz...

b) updating EMIS data in department, this stuff required lots of patience,energy n times to make sure each data being presented to the superior in ministry is error free...another problematic matter is the difficulty to obtained the accurate and up to date data from the staffs..i need more coperation to carry this duty...haiz

c) cracking my head to arrange the schedule of classes so that the complain from colleagues are minimum...there are lots of request from the staffs n every single view need to be consider so this has make this job tough..

d) my non routine works in my centre are tight too !!..coping up with several groups of students needs lots of tough and tiring hours per week !!...started this month, i have to use the bigger room to accommodate more students and this had added more responsibility n need more efforts to fulfill the demand from every student of mine...i pray to God that i will be healthy n has eligible times + energy to fulfill the need from all my 'clients'........thanks God !!


e) i have been working very hard to meet the date line (31 march 2009) to complete the two books im writing now..my plan is to complete 1 chapter in every 3 days...writing isn't difficult but the follow up works like checking the solutions, check for typing errors, setting up the tables + diagrams required lots of accuracy n times..anyway i thank God because i manage to seek help from an ex-student of mine..she's an excellent student, she's a perfect scorer n she's very capable on doing this job ! i wish i can pay her more...thanks !.


Times is running out so i only manage to drop a few lines here..will update later..Bye !