To everyone’s utter dismay, they were served with the same familiar sermons regarding their English test results.
“Learn from Class 20! Just look at their scores!”
Even the teachers themselves had to admit that Class 20 had exceeded their expectations. After all, more than 85% of their class had passed the exam.
As such, no one could really blame them for feeling so disappointed with the other classes.
“What, did you find the questions that difficult?”
“Practically everyone in Class 20 passed this test, and more than a dozen scored higher than 120 points. Meanwhile, there are five of you here who didn’t even make the passing score! Do you realize how embarrassing this is?”
“You are currently at a critical stage of your education. If none of you are willing to study hard this early, then you’d best forget about getting into college. You should try and do what the students from Class 20 are doing.”
The students could only listen in bewilderment. Most of them could barely process what they were hearing.
85% of the trash class had passed? And some of them had even scored more than 120 points? Just what was going on? How was this possible?
Perhaps the English exam was too easy. That should explain the scores from Class 20…
But as the papers were distributed one by one, they quickly realized that the test was not easy at all.
Class 20 had truly improved, and tremendously so. In fact, the other classes lagged by an astoundingly wide margin.
At this point, it became clear that Class 20 was among the top in terms of the class average.
The students hung their heads, dejected at this cruel twist of fate.
“Don’t be discouraged,” one of the more compassionate English teachers said. “It isn’t entirely your fault. The progress of Class 20 can be attributed to the fact that they conduct their lessons in English.
I know you think that the students from Class 20 are all scumbags based on their poor grades, but that isn’t the case at all. They are actually very eloquent and well-spoken.
Their English teacher is a foreigner, so they agreed early on to have their lectures purely in English. She also informed me that her students have strong communication skills, and can converse in fluent English without difficulty.”
And, as luck would have it, this foreign English teacher had been assigned to Class 20 since their first year of high school.
The students now looked more shocked than ever.
Although it was expected for English teachers to use the language during their classes, the reality is that it was used sparingly. Everyone still reverted to Mandarin for the most part.
It was even more inconceivable for them to communicate fluently in English, whether with their teachers or other people outside the school.
In recent years, the school had arranged for a weekly remedial class in English, and appointed the foreign teacher to take charge of it.
The aim of this extra class was to develop the student’s communication skills by engaging them in casual conversation.
Sadly, the project wasn’t as fruitful as the school administration was expecting. No one had ever been able to speak fluently with the teacher, even though she always initiated the conversation and would always feed them cues.
Eventually, students stopped coming to the remedial class.
Now they learn that the students from Class 20 could fluently converse in English?
They began to see the trash class in a new light.
Maybe the kind teacher was right. Maybe that bunch weren’t as stupid as everyone had initially thought them to be.
Unbeknownst to them, while the oral skills of Class 20 were impressive, their written English was simply horrible.
It was all thanks to Yao Tangthat they were able to polish it in time for the exams.
“Teacher!” a student called out, raising her hand. “What is the highest score for the English test?”
Their teacher put down the chalk and answered calmly, “150 points. Full score. Still Yao Tang.”
And just like that, everyone was stunned all over again.
