um and an ah
2007-08-15 8:26 p.m.
today is the first time i picked up the newspaper, ignored the life section and zoomed in on home and straits times, because somehow i didnt think the o level oral exam would be anyhow related to matt damon.
i was so intently reading the newspaper because i was told i could use examples from there in the conversation part to make myself sound well-informed.
this is to explain things to all those people who were laughing at the newspaper i brought into the exam room.
for those of you who are young at heart but not in body and have already forgotten the oral format, each candidate is given 10 minutes with the passage and picture for preparation.
while waiting for my turn and watching others prepare, 10 minutes seemed like such a long, lovely time that just dragged on and on.
when i actually got the paper though, 10 minutes felt like 10 seconds.
and so with only 10 seconds obviously i faced the 2 examiners with only half my preparation done.
there was good cop and bad cop, though in this case it should be good examiner and bad examiner.
bad examiner was the poker-faced guy who greeted me with a robotic-sounding 'hello dawn' which blew my rehearsed greeting to pieces.
not sure whether i should reply with 'hello' or 'good afternoon' i fumbled for a while before saying 'good afternoon hello examiners.'
an excellent start.
during picture description poker-face struck again. instead of saying 'you may begin describing the picture' he asked 'what do you think is happening in the picture?'
obviously i was obliged to answer the question which once again blew my carefully prepared speech to pieces.
halfway through i ran out of prepared material and started making things up as i went along. my description sounded something like that:
'....behind the man is a pair of legs whom im sure belongs to somebody but i cant see who; however it is quite dark-colored so i assume it belongs to an indian.'
good cop was the one who had nodded and smiled encouragingly all the time, but this time she made a strange cough-snort sound and covered up her face.
oh, heck.
conversation wasnt all that bad though.
one of the questions was 'have you ever been in a situation made dangerous by the weather?'
obviously someone as unsporty as me wouldnt have.
and so with my tutor who had given me a mock test the day before's words ringing in my brain 'LIE TO ME PLEASE' i made up an elaborate story about a friend of mine who went canoeing in the sea and almost capsized because of stormy weather.
it was all very perfect storm-ish.
on the plus side i finished earlier than dionne and saw her making some funny hand gestures as she spoke, ha.
it just occurred to me this is the last oral exam i will be taking in my secondary school life.
YA.
