Many of you may or may not know that my husband is from another country. I appreciate this diverse aspect of our relationship. He has helped me to become less of an isolationist and opened my eyes to the world that was out there. I knew they were there but never really thought about it. He recently decided that he wanted to become an American citizen. Not because he felt any duty to this country, (The only difference between a permanent US resident and a citizen is the right to vote. Although he has strong feelings about voting, he still exercised that right in his native Fiji so it didn't bother him that he couldn't vote here.) but only reason why he decided to become a US citizen is so he could sponsor his family and bring them here. His own mother has been denied a simple tourist visa on several occasions and was told she would most likely never get one. (I will leave my own commentary on our immigration system for another post). So in order to provide a better life for his family he is in the process of becoming a citizen. Part of this process is to take a test on the basic system of our government. They gave us a guide to study from while preparing for the test. I was quite impressed with my husband when I first quizzed him, and he hadn't even looked over anything yet. Out of the 96 questions they gave him he only missed 4! Simply amazing especially for someone who wasn't raised with the same type of government as us.
So this left me wondering...How many questions could you get right? I have heard that most Americans wouldn't be able to pass this test if it was immediately given to them. They would need to study it. I have given this test to a few of my friends and my husband knocked their socks off with his score. Pretty sad. Here is the link to the Citizenship and Immigration website. Take the quiz and let me know how you did!
6 comments:
We still have the cd with the questions on it from when Inoke was studying for his exam. I do have to agree he knew WAY more than I did when it came time for the test... :) So much for that bachelor degree in Political Science,eh... Congrats Peni!
Ok I took the test I got 16 wrong. And I have lived here all my life and a teacher. Congratulations Peni on becoming a citizen. Remember to vote for John McCain in the fall!!!
I gave it to a lot of people at work & none of us could pass it. How sad is that. Anyway Peni I'm excited for you & can't wait to have your family here w/ us. :) Love you!!!!
Oh, I've taken that test before. I failed brutally! It's so sad that American Citizens can't even pass their own test. If I didn't like it here so much I'd say they should make everyone take the test and only the ones that pass can stay. Congrats Peni! You see, I knew he was a genius!
Amy, make sure you do whatever you can to go with Peni when he is sworn in. That was one of the best experiences of my life watching Mark and then just being part of that with all these immigrants who have worked hard to be a citizen. It was very touching!
I did ok but certainly nothing to be proud of... it looks like I need to learn more about my own country.
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