We heard a lot about the センター試験 in the news last week. So what is the so called "center exam" and why does it have such a strange name?
I Googled センター試験 and found the National Center for University Entrance Examinations Web site. After 20 years, I now know what "center exam" means. However, to non-Japanese, "center exam" sounds like a grammatical mistake, "Didn't you mean 'central exam'?" is the question I have asked before.
Interestingly enough, a writer at The Japan Times, had a well written article about the Center Exam. They wrote/translated センター試験 as "unified entrance exams for universities and colleges," which sounds a lot better than "center exam." Later in the article, they just referred to it as "national exam."
SPACE ALC's dictionary gives the following in-depth definitions:
- センター試験
- national center test for university
- preliminary university entrance examinations administered by the government
- 大学入試センター試験
- National Center Test for University Admissions
- test of the National Center for University Entrance Examination
- standardized preliminary examinations for university applicants
- national exam [examination] center's test for university admissions
- 大学入試センター試験
- University Testing Center Examination (UTCE)
So, the next time I want to ask a friend or student about the "center exam," I'll probably use "unified national entrance exam." How about you? Which phrase will you use?
アンミ英会話教室
〒234-0053神奈川県横浜市港南区日野中央2-6-3
パークサイド日野102号室
tel 045-841-4218
fax 045-841-4288
cell 070-5084-9592
http://www.anmi-eikaiwa.com/
