January:Test taking for Japanese High School Students

As I was dead tired of having a busy week with my nagging manager, and to top it all off a cold I came upon this story, to summarize it; this is a "small world". Be careful of what you say, especially on Facebook or Tweeter. Or this story might be you...

Twitter user exposes test-taking “geek” to the world, geek sees tweet and turns to confront him

By: Preston Phro

 

It’s January, which only means one thing to Japanese high school students: University entrance exams. These tests can be a source of extreme stress of Japaneses students, and many of them spend hours upon hours every day studying in class, at home, or at cram schools. Substandard test scores means they’re denied entrance–and spending the next year or two studying to take the tests again.

One of the hardest tests is the Center Test, which is used by both public and some private schools to make admittance decisions. Like the SATs or ACTs on steroids, it covers a range of topics and is, by anyone’s standards, really freaking hard. So what does the picture above have to do with the Center Test?

This year’s test was administered over the weekend on January 18 and 19. We’re sure that thousands of Japanese students will now spend the time until the test scores arrive in a state of utter terror.

But it looks like not everyone was out of their minds with stress. The above photo was tweeted by one test taker before the exam began, along with the message: There’s a weirdo here in the Center Test waiting area. LOLOLOL.

Well, that’s not a very nice way to talk about someone–especially behind their back, both literally and figuratively. On the other hand, that’s certainly an…extremely relaxed attitude towards test taking. But if it helps him relax, we don’t see what the harm is. This just seems like unnecessary bullying to us…

Japanese Internet commenters had a little to say about the picture.

If I were sitting behind this guy, there would be no way I could focus! LOL This is certainly a new way of getting rid of rivals.

^This time, they’re attacking visually instead of doing stuff like clearing their throats loudly.

That’s no place to be messing with Twitter!

He brought his wife to the test, huh?

I think this kind of guy actually looks more likely to pass.

He wore his uniform to the battleground!

I bet the guy sitting behind him got…”excited.”

But wait…the story’s not over yet! As you can see in the picture above, the gentleman with the blanket is clearly using his phone. And, as you might have heard, Twitter is extremely popular in Japan. So, what do you think happened?

That’s right, the “weirdo” turned around…and had a chat with the Twitter user who exposed him to the world! The pair later tweeted their handshake, as you can see in the photos below, and the exposer apologized for his insensitive name calling. We’re not sure if they’re best friends now, but we have to say that we were glad to see the apology.

We’re not going to lie: It’s nice to see that the Internet can still surprise us sometimes! Finally, we’d like to wish good luck to both of the test takers and everyone else preparing for non-Center Test entrance exams. Good luck!!! And, you know, maybe try to avoid making fun of people online, too.

Source: Ane ha VIPPER, Twitter
Images: Twitter (1, 2, 3)