Raj Feridun wrote:
> On Mon, 08 Dec 2003 20:30:41 +0900, Scott Reynolds <sar@gol.com>
> wrote:
> 
>>On 12/8/2003 11:59 AM, The 2-Belo wrote:
>>
>>>I had to (1994). But what's the big deal? Unless they give different tests to
>>>people depending on the region you're in, I got the impression that anyone with
>>>an accelerator toe and three working synapses could pass the halfhearted test
>>>they give out. The answers to the written test were so sock-you-in-the-jaw
>>>obvious it was almost laughable. And all you had to do during the written test
>>>was sit upright, look determined, and be comically overcautious to the slightest
>>>movement of cars on the opposite end of the course, and you're in. I got a
>>>perfect score.
>>
>>From the way Raj described it, they may indeed give different versions 
>>of the test in different parts of Japan.
> 
> I took the test in May, 2002 and the written part was as Declan
> declared it.

??? I've never taken the written test. For me getting the drivers 
licence (something I didn't bother to do until 96) was as easy as 
picking my nose. No written or driving test, just translation of 
(Australian) documentation and an eye test.

The biggest joke was the eye test. My eyesight is still 20/20 despite 
the amount of time I spend in front of the monitor, but I'm red/green 
colour blind (on army exercises I wasn't permitted anywhere near 
explosives). I can tell red from green (or at least what I see as red or 
green) everywhere except in those dot diagrams used in the testing. 
There was a long queue, and I knew that if I failed I'd have to join 
another long queue for the lightbox test. When I was about 3 spaces from 
the front, I noticed that instead of the dot diagrams using numbers, it 
was hiragana. When I got to the front I could see hiragana sometimes, 
nothing but a bunch of dots on other pages. The official asked me if I 
could read, I lied, and he then pointed to a piece of paper taped to the 
desk about 30 centimeters away from the books. "What kara?" he asked 
"reddo, reddo" I replied. He pointed to the next "What kara?" "guri-n 
da, guri-n". "OK. You pass. Go number 6" or something.

Hirabari (Aichi) is a big center and crowded, so the officials can't 
know if the gaigin who spoke Japanese quite fluently downstairs 
(explaining away how my Australian licence was for 5 years, despite it 
not have an expiry date on it - my explanation was accepted), is the 
same deaf and dumb mute taking up valuable space and time in the eye 
test line.

> The road test was a different matter altogether. On my first attempt
> they failed me because at one point I almost imperceptibly scraped a
> curb in one of the very tight turns they have on the course. At least
> down here they informed that anything less than 100% is failure. I
> felt lucky to pass it on the second try.

Some of my staff have taken the test (Columbians, Czech, Taiwanese, 
sepponian) and most have needed to spend a fair amount of time preparing 
for the written component (all of the above since 2001). None have 
failed the driving test (yet).




-- 
In heaven the cooks are French, the police are British, the mechanics 
are German, the lovers are Italian, and everything is organized by the 
Swiss. In hell the cooks are British, the police are German, the 
mechanics are French, the lovers are Swiss, and everything is organized 
by the Italians.