Koreans: Really good at cheating on tests.

I had the Japanese placement exam this morning, which was really, really easy with the exception of the last fifth or so of the kanji questions and a few of the grammar questions. It was so easy in fact that I'm worried about how this thing works in terms of placing people; It seemed like it should have been much harder than that. Because I definitely have a LOT of Japanese to learn.

The group of foreign students, which looked to be about 100-150 strong in the placement exam today, was mainly Chinese, Korean, and European with a few Africans sprinkled in. From what I could tell there were either 2 Americans in the room other than me and UCSB professor Stuart, or zero. Not sure if those dirty, oddly-dressed white people were frighteningly dorky Americans or your typical batch of smelly Europeans.

I noticed as I was nearing the end of the exam that the Korean girl in front of me was definitely cheating by typing characters into her cell phone to figure out the correct Chinese reading on the Kanji part. Cheating. On the placement exam. That is ridiculous. The one test where getting an accurate score is in your best interest, and she's cheating. It was pretty funny and it made me stop and admire how, man, Koreans are really good at cheating. From what I've heard, people in Korea sure like cheating their way into American colleges, doing things like paying other people to write their application essays. And anyone who went to high school in LA or OC(particularly Sunny Hills) know how good those Korean kids are at cheating and then doing things like getting kicked out of NHS for it, or murdering people (watch Better Luck Tomorrow). But placement tests, that's an achievement. Koreans, I salute you for your unparalleled ability to cheat. The sheer ingenuity you bring to the table refreshes the entire genre of cheating (with apologies to every Korean and Korean-American I know, especially Hyunjoo).