He passed the first two sections, and in the final part was competing with six others who were all graduates of the foreign language departments of well-known, even famous, universities. Before the interview, when they discovered that Lai was merely a graduate of a military college, they were dumbfounded and asked: "Can a soldier speak English?"
賴世雄通過前兩項，最後與其他六位角逐者進行口試，由於參加口試的考生，全部來自名校外文系，口試前，當他們知道賴世雄來自外語學校，十分驚訝地說：「軍人也懂英文？」