Natural English

I had a teacher ask me today if I would help her out by editing an English listening test that she was writing. In Korea, the kids are constantly getting tested, but it isn't just any test... they are being tested all over the country at the exact same time. When I say exact same time, I mean that the English listening test is broadcasted to ever classroom in every high school across the country at the exact same time. That's why my co-teacher will occasionally give me a schedule that does not even slightly resemble the schedule that I should have on a Wednesday or a Thursday or whatever, because the girls have a "test". He'll give me a schedule and say something to the effect of: so all your classes will start 15 minutes early and end 10 minutes late, but your fifth period will actually be sixth period and your third period will be twenty minutes late to class. And I of course nod my head, smile, and say, "Oh. O.K." So today, another English teacher revealed to me that she is writing one of these national tests, because the school board asked her to, and would I please help her with it. Of course I said yes, but I didn't realize it meant she would hand me a stack of forty pages worth of English dialogues that do not resemble the way "real" foreigners speak. It took me two hours to read through and correct the language to make it sound like a real conversation, which is what she was aiming at. Here is an example of a dialogue that was among the many which I had to edit:

John: Congratulations! I heard that you acquired the driver's license at last.
Amy: Thank you.
John: Amy! But why the long face?
Amy: Nothing. I'd rather not talk about it.
John: Come on, I think you need to let off some steam. And you shouldn't keep such
feelings to yourself.
Amy: All right. Yesterday I was driving my car to the school, and I saw a stopped tractor in the middle of the road.
John: In the middle of the road?
Amy: Yes. And I thought I should put on the brake immediately, but in panic I stepped on the accelerator instead.
John: Oh my god. Your car crashed against the tractor. Are you O.K?
Amy: I'm O.K. Fortunately, I managed to press the brake just before the crash, so my car slightly collided with the tractor. But I got a large dent in the front bumper.
John. It was lucky for you to be safe.
Amy: Yeah, I think so. I should be more careful.

One thing this dialogue could definitely use are a few more explanation marks! I was certainly amused to read what Koreans consider "natural English."

On another note, I will post some pictures from my classes soon; we played telephone, where the girls are broken up into three teams and have to whisper the phrases to the person next to them until it gets all the way down the line. Then the last person has to run up to the board and write it correctly. They were competing for stickers, and I really had to keep an eye on them... these girls are not messing around when it comes to competition; they don't have a problem cheating a little to get ahead. They were really cute though, especially in their fall uniforms (they just switched this week). The fall uniforms are made up of a pleated plaid skirt that hits mid-calf, a white button down, navy tie and navy vest. It was also kind of funny because about one in ten of the girls didn't realize that it was the day to switch their uniforms, so they are still wearing their summer ones. I will post pictures of them soon, but blogspot was giving me some problems when I was trying to do it earlier.