The U.S. Citizenship Examination

Greetings!

A relative visited us yesterday.  He said he had submitted an application for U.S. Citizenship a month or two ago.  He expected to receive a letter with the time and date for an interview soon.  He asked me to go with him for the U.S. Citizenship examination.  He had lived in U.S.A. for over 20 years, and was qualified to take the Chinese version of the exam.  He said he had studied all the questions and answers.

Today I went online to download the Chinese and English versions of the exam.  Our relative was the one to take the citizenship examination, but I must know both versions so that I could translate correctly.  Some Chinese who did not speak English assumed those who spoke English could easily translate English into Chinese or vice versa.  It was not the case at all.

Once I was in a formal setting where an appointed translator was present.  The translator (An Asian who spoke many Asian languages) might have graduated in USA with a nursing degree, but she was neither proficient in English nor Chinese.  Her translations were totally wrong.  Eventually, I had to speak up.  It was then the Asian woman confirmed what I said was true, but she was too embarrassed to admit she could not translate the languages.  It was the most awkward situation I was in.

I fully understood I was far from proficiency in the English language.  For instance, before I came to U.S.A., I did not know anything about cars.  I knew neither the components of a car in Chinese nor English.  When our first car kept stalling at traffic lights and crossroads, we brought it back to the dealership.  However, after many visits, the problem remained.  One day, I read an article about car problems and maintenance in the newspaper.  I learned the problem might be caused by a crack in the carburetor (a new word to me).  We went back to the car dealership and asked them to check the carburetor.  There was indeed a hairline crack.  They said they did not check the carburetor earlier because there should not be any crack since it was a new car.  After that visit, the problem was fixed.

Our relative told us his wife took the English version of the exam. a few years ago, but she failed twice.  She now resigned to wait a few more years so that she could qualify to take the exam. in Chinese.  It was then I recalled I had offered to help her, but she declined.  She spoke some English, and worked in a place where many of her coworkers were Americans.  She said her coworkers had promised to repeatedly ask her the questions on the exam.  She was sure she would pass with flying colors.  It might be she had come across an examiner who was very strict, or she was very nervous at the time of the examination.

Our relative was surprised to hear that my husband passed the exam. in English on his first trial.  Even back then (30+ years ago), many of those who knew my husband were surprised.  Well, lots of hard work were involved, and it also had much to do with my husband's determination to bring his side of the family (his siblings and their families) to USA.

Every night, my husband came home from work around 11 pm.  After he ate, we went to work.  I taught him English from the basic lower and upper case letters.  Then we moved onto simple English words such as car, cat, house, drive, walk, and work.  I had a list of 108 questions.  I repeatedly asked him 8 to 10 questions at a time.  I used different wordings to ask him the same questions.  Later, I recorded the questions with a recorder.  I wanted him to pay attention to the question or what he heard.  I came up with the possible sentences that he might be asked to write.  For examples, I drive a car to work, I live with my wife / family in a house, and I am a good cook.

I did not go with my husband to his citizenship exam. interview.  I stayed home to take care of our sons.  Two of his friends went with him.  Later, I learned his friends had to stay outside of the room.  He was alone in the room with the examiner.  He said the examiner was kind and patient.  He had no problem answering the questions that we had worked on, but stumbled a bit when the examiner asked him to answer the questions on the application forms.  (I did not expect that.)  When the examiner said a sentence and asked him to write it down, my husband was relieved he knew the words!

After our relative left, my husband said he had forgotten almost everything that he had learned for the examination.  Like him, I forgot some of the questions and answers too.  I definitely needed to go over them before I went with the relative for his appointment.

It snowed on Sunday.  Today is sunny and bright.  Wherever you are, may you feel joy and peace!

Many blessings,
Q of D

P.S.  Every time the relative came to our place, I asked him 8 to 10 questions.  He passed the citizenship examination with ease.