Reply #30: I have a worse story - I had to take the TOEFL as an undergrad!

[daveskilt]

Since I was an international student (from Scotland) they made me take the English speaking literacy test. The girl giving me the oral portion of the test was not a native english speaker and nearly failed me for being a smartass (I was 17) - read this please (page says see john run, I say observe John perambulate at high velocity. etc - "no not correct answer")

Of course while I got the fun negatives of being an international student (only legally working 20 hours on campus for 5 bucks an hour, paying 8 bucks extra federal tax - leading to a first US paycheck of negative 3 dollars, not getting to vote etc) I did not get any of the perks. When I tried to register for the multicultural American civics class (another requirment) apparently I was not multicultural enough for the easy section (being as my skin tone is a traditional scottish pale blue) Absurdly students who grew up in the US learning high school civics were in the class where the questions were in the "what colors are on the US flag?" range while nonmulticultural non american students who had never heard of US civics as a course were being asked to discuss details of american history and constitutional law they never knew existed.

brilliant.