My husband said
"Mieko, you know it? It's not usual thing in America, to put a circle on the right answer."
"What does it mean?"
My husband said "Teachers, they usually put place a check beside a wrong answer."
Yes, I sometimes place a check beside a wrong answer of elder students.
But younger students loves to get lots of circle. And when they get perfect score I usually put HANA-MARU (HANA means a flower, MARU means a circle).
My husband said "Exactly, I told them about "HANAMARU", but no one could image HANAMARU".
Can you understand "HANAMARU" on this photo?
6 comments:
I don't know what teachers do in schools today, but when I was young you got a "star" if your work was good. Later, when they became popular, teachers often used a "smiley face" for good work.
I think circles are probably unusual in America as you use them.
It's an interesting topic. Actually there are two aspects, and I'm not sure which one you mean, so I will comment on both.
1. What kind of mark (sign) is written beside the answers on a test paper?
For incorrect answers we use ✘, the same as you do. We call it an "ex" (the name of the letter X), or a "cross".
For correct answers we use what we in the UK call a "tick" and the Americans call a "check mark". It looks like this ✔.
I was very surprised the first time I saw that you use a ◯ instead.
Why don't you use ✔? Maybe it looks too similar to a kanji stroke or katakana NO.
Why do you use ◯? Perhaps because there is no Japanese character of that exact shape so there should be no confusion. It's also quite logical - ◯ is the opposite character to ✘ in the game "nought and crosses" or "tic-tac-toe", but I doubt that is the real reason.
Why do we use ✔? Some people say it comes from the V of the Latin word veritas, which means "true".
I found an interesting thing when researching this topic today. In Sweden they use ✔ for wrong answers, and they use "R" for right answers!
2. What marks do (or should) teachers write beside answers on a test paper?
I can only say what happened in my own schooldays (in 1960s) in England. I remember two possibilities. They either marked all answers (with ✔ and ✘), or they marked only the wrong answers (with ✘). They never marked only the right answers.
I suppose children need encouragement and praise so they enjoy seeing the ✔ marks. Perhaps they would not be so motivated by ✘ because it seems like criticism. However, which are the more important answers that the student should pay attention to? I think the wrong answers are more important because some more work is needed in that area, and it seems reasonable that those should be highlighted in some way.
I know some teachers so I will ask them what marking style is used today. If they tell me anything interesting, I will write another comment here. In these days much more thought is given to the psychology and mental health of students, and to matters of motivation and encouragement.
I hadn't heard of hanmaru before. Thanks for showing it to us. In my schooldays, some teachers stuck a gold star on our papers if we did particularly well.
First, We(not all teachers, but most of teachers who teach kids) put MARU; it means a circle; beside or on the "correct" answers.
So more MARU they get, happier they feel. MORE, MORE --- it changes into HANAMARU.
We tend to forcus correct answers.
In Japan, the symbol of MARU means correct or success, and the symbol of BATSU that looks like "x" means incorrect or failure. We have double or triple MARU but we have only shingle Batsu.
Well when the answers are incorrect, on the tests for kids, probably teachers put "Batsu" beside them, and on the young or adult tests, probably teachers put checks on them.
And MARU means a circle, but usualy when teachers put MARU, the shape is not a perfect circle, it looks like a long oval that lean to the upper right.
And, my students are "usually" smrat, so I need to wirte lots of MARU". So red pends are consumed quickly as soon as I buy them.
Thanks for the extra information.
I forgot to say that red pens are also the customary tools here for such marking. I wonder why? Interestingly, blue pencils are the tradition for correcting and editing text in higher academic and professional life. This has even created the verb "to blue pencil something", meaning to delete or censor something.
When I taught English in Japan, this is one of the things that I found really different. As a teacher in America, I didn't do anything if an answer was correct. But I would circle misspelled words or put an X by a wrong answer on a TF or multiple choice test.
As a student in America, if my paper came back with no red marks on it...it was a good thing. It meant I had made no mistakes. If I'd gotten a paper back with lots of red circles, I would have thought I had many wrong answers.
The other thing I learned was the way I draw a circle and the way Japanese teachers draw "maru" is different. I start from the top and go counter-clockwise They start from the bottom and go clockwise.
Is this true for you?
The other thing I learned was the way I draw a circle and the way Japanese teachers draw "maru" is different. I start from the top and go counter-clockwise They start from the bottom and go clockwise.
It's true.
We(Japanese) learn, when we write the number of 0 and the letter of o, we "have to" start from the top and go counter-clockwise. Don't write them like "maru".
We tend to be strict the way of letters because we use KANJI.
And yes, when we draw maru we usualy start from the bottom and bo clockwise. I think it is easier for us than the way to write 0 or o.
So many kids, when they write o or 0, they use the way to write maru.
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