The Wrong Code

Dear friends,
This Wrong Code's author is an 18-year old Hakka girl,a daughter of my very dear friend. She was born in the US went backto Taiwan when she was 3 years old and came back to the US four yearsago. She starts her college education this summer.
I hope that you enjoy the article also.
Yueh-mei 7/13/2009
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The Wrong Code (Final Draft)

“How could you do something so thoughtless on a test like this!”my mom yelled at me once she heard what I’ve done on my TOEFL exam. Iput down that code on my scantron sheet. Now what could I do?
Last year, I took the Test of English as a Foreign Language,also known as the TOEFL exam, with my old ESL English class just tosee how my English abilities were. I also thought it would be abenefit for me when applying to Penn State if I got a good score. Sothere I was, sitting in the classroom waiting for the test to start.On the information section, we were suppose to fill in the code forour native languages. I started looking for the word “Mandarin”because I knew Taiwanese wouldn’t be on there, but it wasn’t thereeither. Then I saw “Chinese” and felt sick in my stomach. There was noway I was going to fill in that number, no. I don’t call my nativelanguage “Chinese”, we call it “Mandarin” in Taiwan. No, I don’t callit “Chinese” because people tend to think I’m Chinese when I say that,and I hate it. Suddenly, I saw a friendly language called “Japanese”and thought “Well, I do know a little Japanese, so why not? Thisinformation is not important anyways, they just want to know whatstudents are taking the test.” So I bubbled in 331 for Japanese on myscantron instead of 315, which was Chinese. The test was easy, and Ifelt confident about getting a good grade.
That night, I got an e-mail from Mrs. Barton, the ESL Englishteacher at that time. She said they hand-graded the tests andapproximated our grades. Mine was a 603, which was very high,considering that Penn State only wants a 550. Even though it was justan estimate, I got so happy I told my mom, and also handed her thetesting booklet to show her what the test was like.
After my mom was finished with the booklet, my brother Tim tookit over and read over the language code page just for fun. He said tous, “I knew it! They only have Chinese on here!” Right then, I decidedto announce my clever act of putting down Japanese as my nativelanguage. My mom got so upset when she heard it and accused me fortrying to be a smartass. “Are you serious? How could you do somethinglike that on a test? You think that’s smart? Well it’s NOT!” I toldher I didn’t think they’d put that on the grade report… or would they?
That’s when I flipped out and started to cry. I sat there on thesofa with the booklet in my hands, not able to say a word, justcrying. I couldn’t believe what I’ve done! What if they wouldn’t admitmy grade because of false information? What could I say to Mrs. Bartonwhen she asked? Was I going to tell her I did that because I hatedthose Chinese kids at school?
I couldn’t stop crying, but I went online and try to find apicture of a TOEFL grade sheet. Finally, I found one posted by a guywho took the test in Taiwan. And it says on there his native languageis Chinese! Not able to believe what I saw, I searched for what wouldhappen if you “accidentally” fill in wrong information. No help, everywebsite just tells you to be careful when you fill in information. Andif that wasn’t bad enough, I saw a statement that says if you’recaught putting down false information, you’ll have to take legalresponsibilities. “Shit! They’re going to put me in jail!”, that wasthe only thing I could think of after that.
Throughout dinner, my tears kept falling down and I couldn’tstop it. After dinner, I pulled out the testing booklet again andrealized that Chinese and Japanese were right next to each other.That’s when I thought maybe I could tell Mrs. Barton that Iaccidentally filled in the wrong code and was there some way to fixit? I knew it was a lie, but that was the only way out, so I sent heran e-mail, hoping she would reply soon. It was Sunday night, I went tobed so anxiously I couldn’t fall asleep for a long while. And after Ifell asleep, I kept having nightmares.
First thing Monday morning, I checked my mailbox, and there itwas! An e-mail from Mrs. Barton! She said she still had the tests andwas sending them out that afternoon. She told me to stop by her roombefore school so I could fix it. She also congratulated me on my goodperformance, which made me feel even worse for lying to her. My momdrove me to school that day. I got there early and waited until Mrs.Barton appeared at the end of the hallway with a yellow paper bag inher hands-the bag with my test in it. She handed me my scantron sheet,and I quickly erased 331 and filled in 315, thinking how lucky I’dbeen that she hadn’t sent out the tests yet. And most of all, how thetwo languages weren’t listed on opposite corners on the page. Ithanked her after she congratulated me once again, and left the roomfeeling a hundred times more relieved, and guilty.
Two weeks later, I got my actual grade report back from theTOEFL institution, it was a 603, just like my estimated grade. Also onthat report was my native language, but instead of what I call it, itsays “Chinese”. I would have felt disgusted, but after what hadhappened, I could only say that I was lucky for getting away with theconsequences I might have had to face. Yea, probably not as bad asgoing to jail, but I’d have to explain to everyone why I did that andthey’d be very disappointed at me.
Now I think twice before doing everything, just in case I makeanother bad decision like that. And I’ve also learned not to be soimpulsive when dealing with people I don’t like. Filling in the wronglanguage code certainly didn’t affect the Chinese kids at all, andthey’d probably laugh their heads off if they knew I cried.