January 31, 2011: Senior Oral Exam; Poetry Contest Update

January 31, 2011: Last Saturday night I was sitting in my chair in my living room watching a movie a colleague had lent me when I felt a strong shake moving my chair up and down one time. At the time I thought "That felt like an earthquake," but I dismissed the thought after I realized I was here in Hungary and not in California where such occurrences happen from time to time. Then, at lunch today, Fekete Kati asked if anyone at our table had felt the earthquake last Saturday, so I guess it is not my imagination after all. She said that it was a small earthquake -- only 2.7 on the Richter Scale. Kati said that earthquakes occur in Hungary from time to time but so far, none have been serious. Knock on wood.

Today was the senior oral English exam that I agreed to help Mária give to her 13D students. Before the exam I happened to bump into the English teacher who is in charge of the poetry contest second and final recitation. I asked her to remind me of the date (February 16th) and she said that we would have to sit down and discuss my role in the contest as the host of the event. There are several schools participating in this contest and each will send five students to recite two poems in the contest. One of the poems must be from a standard list of poems that the contest organizers have selected and the other is a poem in a topic that the organizers have specified. Among various things for me to do (so far) is to welcome everyone to the contest and introduce the principal of our school to welcome the contestants. She also mentioned that this contest is a big public relations event for the school because it will be televised and newspapers will be taking pictures and reporting on the poetry reading. I guess I'll have to get a haircut before I have my "closeup". 

Starting at 7:45 a.m. Maria and I met with each of the boys in her class to test them on their oral English. Each boy met with the two of us for 20 minutes and after I talked with each boy to ask him how he was doing (e.g., did he eat breakfast, get a good night's sleep, etc.) in order to settle his nerves, there were three tasks that we had to go through. First each boy selected a paper from a number of papers that were spread out on the desk face down. After he read off the number of the paper, I would read a number of questions based on a certain topic and speak with each boy as in a real conversation. For example, one topic was on whether the boy believed in astrology, superstitions, etc. eventually asking him if he believed in predetermination or free will. So, you can see that the topics dealt with "light" questions as well as pretty philosophical ones. It was interesting to hear the boys discuss their beliefs about these "heavy" issues -- almost like talking with an adult, but of course at a condensed level due to the time constraint. 


The second task was for the boy to read a controversial statement which of course he could agree with or disagree with. After he decided whether to agree or disagree with it, it was my job to take the other point of view and debate the issue. This proved to be a difficult exercise for the examiner (me) since I had to come up with suitable arguments for my point of view -- even if I didn't agree with the position I was supposed to support. For example "Only women should be the primary caregiver of children at home; men are not suitable for being caregivers of children." This topic was selected two times and both times I had to argue the pro side of this statement! It was funny that in many instances, the boys would concede that I had won the argument even if I was presenting a point a view I did not agree with! In many instances, after the debate was over, I instructed the boy that I didn't agree with the arguments I was presenting, but made them only because I had to argue the opposite of what I felt was true. For example, "Richer countries should stop providing aid to poorer countries". Can you imagine an American arguing that he agrees with that statement? 

The third task was for the boy to look at a series of pictures and compare and contrast the pictures and speak thoroughly about the topic depicted in the pictures. For example, one picture was of a canary in a cage (obviously a pet) and the other was of an eagle landing on a lake in the wilderness ready to pounce on a fish. The boy was supposed to discuss whether it is right for humans to keep animals in cages -- is it right for humans to take advantage of animals in this way? Was it better for the animal to be in captivity or out free? What are the advantages/disadvantages of each scenario, etc. 

At any rate, it was a very interesting day questioning the boys in the above. And I can now see how important it is that I continue giving the topics I've been giving my ninth grade students. The topics I've had them prepare so far have been very consistent with the ones that we tested the 13th grade students on, but if my ninth graders hope to pass the oral exam in four years, they are going to have to work much harder at being conversant than they are now, or they will be in serious trouble later on.

Based on the 13D oral exam I see that I have my work cut out for me for the remainder of the school year.