Turkish people love to copy. I could write an entire book about the Turks’ love of copying, but then eventually it would lead to a philosophy of originality and I would lose myself in a self defeating argument. Here, though, I speak of copying of the student variety.
Of course, my job requires I give exams, and check homework as well. I don’t really like giving homework, but I enjoy giving exams because exam checking is the kind of work that I could do all day (I know, boring), and of course you don’t have to do anything, just give the exam and then go home.
Now I think of myself as an amiable teacher and I’m easygoing about lots of stuff, but I am very strict about certain things, such as telephone use in class and, of course, copying. There’s nothing I hate more than a lazy student who succeeds off the hard work of others. I think the reason for this goes back to my middle school days; when I was in school and exams were administered, all the students were given a blank sheet of paper with our tests to “cover our answers” and disable other students around us from copying. Later on, in high school, when we were no longer given the blank cover sheets, the teachers suggested we not copy, because our friend who we copied from might be a complete moron and cause us to fail the exam. Plus, they cautioned, be wary of copiers - if you are good and study hard, you wouldn’t want your lazy, idiot friend to pass the exam thanks to your hard work, would you? Thus it was good old American competition that unconsciously set me in my ways.
Of course, the sin of copying was reinforced during my university days, where plagiarism was treated as no less than a crime and where if you were found to have a string of more than 10 words in a term paper that matched any other document on or off the internet, you could kiss your semester goodbye, if not the university itself.
The Turkish see copying differently, however. In stark contrast to the Western view, the Turks see copying more as “helping” each other. This is common and accepted everywhere, save the OSS, the Turkish university entry exam that pretty much determines the rest of your life; you can bet that your life is over if you are caught copying on the OSS.
As a teacher, you know who the copiers are from day one; they aren’t too hard to spot - they’re the ones with an edge of wise-ass to them. So I learned about copying from the students. Every time I mentioned there would be an exam, and there would be no copying, the copiers would smile a shit-eating grin and say, “Yes copy!”
“No copy!” I say.
“Teacher, I love copy,” the bolder ones say, and elicit the same grin.
“Ha ha, I know you do, but you won’t be copying on this exam,” I respond.
“No teacher, no copy….check teacher, check,” (or “help teacher, help”) they reply.
“I don’t think so friends, because you’ll be three-three-three in rows,” I say, gesturing. “Anyway, what’s the deal with copying, really?” I ask.
“We love copy, teacher,” they say.
“I know, but why? If you copy, you might pass this level, but you will never learn to speak English,” I say.
“Because teacher in high school not important, no problem. Everybody copy.”
“Who has copied before?” I ask. A large show of hands. Not only a large show of hands - most people exclaim “Oooh, ooooooh!” with an rapid and enthusiastic upscoop of the hand that means ‘a lot!’ in TSL.
“And what about you?” I say to those who did not respond, “You mean you’ve never copied?”
“No teacher, never, but I gave copy,” they say. It’s true – even the best students who have never copied have at some point “gave copy”.
“How is it that you copy anyway, friends?” I ask. And they proceed to tell me all of the little tricks used to cheat on the exam. They cut erasers in half and write notes inside of them; they write tiny sentences on the soles of their shoes; they paste pages inside of dictionary covers; they write on their skin; they hide tiny scrolls of notes inside pencil lead cases and their pencils; they even told me that the girls write on their knees or inside the hem of their dresses, which was especially clever as when they folded back their skirts to copy, the teacher wouldn’t be able to look for fear of being labeled a pervert and potentially losing his job. Really, there is no limit to the lengths they go to to copy.
“Shame on you friends,” I say, and proceed to tell them about the guilt trip the teachers of my youth laid upon us. They giggle.
“Aren’t you worried about your lazy classmates succeeding from your hard work?” I ask. “And if you do all that work just to copy, why not just study for the exam – it might be easier.”
“Teacher, copy not about succeed but.…heyecanli neydi?.....excitement, copy very excitement.” And they proceed to explain that they enjoy copying not so much for passing an exam as much as for the excitement - the thrill they get from copying and potentially getting caught gives them a rush, like one you get from gambling. They see it as a kind of game.
“Well, there won’t be any copying on the grammar exam,” I say, the hardass I am. But you know, it doesn’t really matter – you either can speak English or you can’t, and those who can’t don’t pass the level, even if they do copy.
Nowadays though, I usually turn a blind eye to some of the copying that goes on during the exam. At English Time, the proficiency levels have no correlation with real world proficiency levels; for example, an Upper-Intermediate student isn’t upper-intermediate - in reality, she is more like pre-intermediate. And usually the exams are so ridiculously difficult for the level that I feel guilty giving them the exam. It’s not fair to the good students who really try to speak English and who should pass to the next level, so sometimes I pretend I don’t see anything. I know, bad teacher, bad! – but the politics of exams at English Time is a whole other matter that I don’t want to (can’t) get into. I care about my students, and that’s why I don’t mind a bit of copying. After all who wants to learn another language if it’s no fun? Besides, this is Turkey – things are a lot different here.
I shouldn’t forget that a very brilliant coworker and mentor of mine has written an interesting and amusing story about copying from his own experience and it is definitely worth listening to, not to mention other entertaining stories on his web page. You can find that story here.
