Korean JPO test

I had a really tough week. Now I thank this week finally has finished. I had to take two tests for five days and encountered two unusual and unpleasant accidents during the week. One test was JPO (Junior Professional Officer) for the United Nations and the other was National Urban Planner License Exam which took place today. I surely had a lot of stress but I can't easily expect success because my preparation was not enough for both of the exams.

JPO is a special internship program of the UN but it is financed by national governments.  UN internship is a shortcut for regular jobs in the UN but the poor UN never pays interns. Many nations want more of their nationals work in the UN, so they select JPOs and pay them instead of the UN.

 

Continue if you want to read my experience of Korean JPO test…

The test is two phased. The first stage is TEPS (Test of English Proficiency developed by Seoul National University). TEPS is a kind of Korean TOEIC test. Korea worships English language in a strange way and both TOEIC and TEPS are products of English worshiping in Korea. TOEIC test is a must for entry to  respectable Korean companies. One day Korean government was not happy to spend hard-earned dollars for this American English test and they made Seoul National University(SNU) develop TEPS. TEPS is a lot less influential than TOEIC but SNU and government prefers this test to TOEIC. I guess that's why TEPS was adopted for the first test of Korean JPO.

TEPS filtered 160 applicants to 36. I was the last of 36 because my score was 931/999 while the cut off score was 930! Yes, I was very lucky. (I guess this too much luckiness made this week miserable. Koreans belive bad luck is compensated by good luck.)

The second phase of the test was a headache. The full score of the second exam is 100 and it is composed as follows:

- Korean interview 30 pts

- English discussion and oral presentation 20 pts

- English writing 25 pts 

- Second language 8 pts (other official languages of the UN: French, Spanish, Russian, Chinese and Arabic)

- Additional points 17 pts (Graduate school diplome, UN related activities and awards, lawyer certificate, etc.)

It was quite an exam because it took place during four days. I had more stress in this test than others because most of the tests were oral exams. You always repent after an interview why you couldn't answer more correctly and gorgeously.

I met the moment of truth in the Korean interview. Juges asked me why I chose to be a JPO. I answered I got sick of the profit-seeking job in my former company and it would be a lot nicer to work for the humanity in the UN! One juge asked me then I had ever worked for other people. I was a lot embarassed and told him a not very convincing experience. After the exam, I got really ashamed of myself and decided to seek actively a voluntary work. The moment was a disaster for the exam but a good lesson for my life.

The one where I invested my time most was English writing. I knew I commit a lot of faults in my English writing. Another luck came at this time. I encountered an ESL teacher in Kybo bookstore in Seoul and she introduced me a fine writing teacher. The lesson fee was deadly expensive for an unemployed person like me but it sure was worth of its price. The teacher corrected my writing problems such as excessive use of passive voice and ambiguity. It helped me but I didn't have much time to remember these rules at the test because the time was too short. I had to answer to three questions for two and half hours but I managed to answer to only two questions. I couldn't even finish the second one.

I was really impressed by other testees at the English oral exams. Most of them spoke English just like their mother tongue while I was speaking ungrammatical and less organized English. Some of them always spoke in English even out of the exam time. It is noticeable most of the 36 testees were female. I think men were less than five. Korean men seem to lag behind Korean women in language department.

The easiest part for me was the second language exam. I didn't have much difficulty answering in French because I lived in France for two years. My French is still weaker than my English but other people had more problems than I. Many testees chose French but it's a hard language to learn at home. I may have been one of few who had lived in Francophonie.

The exam was difficult and very demanding. It taught me a lot of things though I don't want to take the exam again. I met a lot of brillant people (many of them were brilliant and good looking at the same time!) and could contemplate on the meaning of my life. I don't see much chance of being chosen because of the level of my English and lack of UN related experiences. However, I will not be much disappointed because I learned a lot from the exam.