School Life

My School Life, written from Geography class on 29. September 2007
I just realized I would do nothing this class. I guess the obvious thing to write about would be school as most of my time here is spent in school. And mostly, I have written in emails “School is just school” However, there are a lot of differences between school in the United States and school in Austria. As I am writing in my Geography class full of kids laughing and fooling around while the teacher is teaching, I can safely say it is stricter in the US. I don’t know why it seems that we give more respect to our teachers, maybe because they are more personable or reach out in more appealing ways. Even in my CP1 classes aren’t this bad. Honestly, I think it comes down to tests. These kids have exams 4 times a year in Math English and German. Teachers have not quizzed us in the month I have been in school. These classes are also the only ones we have homework in. 2 or 3 problems a night, tops. As for the huge number of other classes I take, nothing really happens in them, and frankly, no one cares. I sit in the first row, where students pay the most attention. The second row is all girls who at least have their books out. The back table would not be able to tell you what they learned in a day. We remain in the same classroom all day, so it is always this way. Also, no one gets in trouble for writing on desks so everyone does it.
Now, my school schedule is 8am to 1.40, Monday to Friday.
Monday begins with Math, which I guess everyone tries in. Usually it will be like, one person learns and everyone copies their homework in other classes. The idea that math is the same in every language is not exactly true. They use many different symbols and find my problem solving methods strange. They also integrate a lot of math together before they know all the methods of say, geometry or algebra. The teacher moves at a very fast pace and informed me last week I would be receiving a grade in her class. This is bad news because even though some things are review for me, I have never in my life learned advanced geometry or trigonometry or calculus. I will also take exams. However, I look forward to math as much as I dread it because it is something to do. After is a five minute break.Next is either French or Old Greek, and I go to the second year students to take German class with them, (11 years old). The past few weeks I did little, but now they gave me some free books so I can learn too. Honestly, it helps. The kids are very interested in me, but often too shy and afraid of the language barrier. After is a 10 minute breakEnglish class is next which is laughable. The teacher has often fallen back on asking me or Franziska, who lived for eight years in Michigan, to explain things. The kids don’t speak English as well as I expected though. After is the 15 minute break.Next is history, which I know the theme and take notes in, or copy from someone when she dictates. Despite this, I am not actually learning history because I don’t know that much German. I can say “oh, we are learning the Russian Revolution” but that’s it. I can see myself improving already, so maybe by December I can say “we are studying the Russian revolution, and this is what happened” However, I didn’t buy school books, and in this class we use it sometimes. Even if I had the book, I couldn’t read it. Thankfully it is not necessary, just note taking really. Also thankfully, she types out her notes and puts them on the overhead projector. Austrian handwriting is dreadful for me to read and misspelled German words do me no good. A five minute break.Next is Psychology which is very advanced technical vocabulary. I take notes if she writes them, but I have come to terms with the fact that there is nothing I can do in this class. I handed in a paper we had to write, supposed to be like pages or something. It had four lines of text in very simple German where I defined very briefly the terms we were supposed to explain in detail. Under that I wrote in German “This is just comprehension practice for me. Let me know if it is mostly right, but do not grade it” My way of letting them know that I am not wasting my time by just sitting in classes all day with no clue what is going on. A ten minute break.The day ends with 3B who I don’t like so much. Except the day does not quite end. Monday is special. I have my elective on Monday in the eighth and ninth hour. Basically the school gets out at 1.40 every day, but after a one hour break, school resumes until about 7 in the evening. I go home and eat lunch (big part of the family life, which I will write on later) and then come back at 2.30 for Informatik. I thought it would be basic word processing, but it is HTML. They are impressed with how fast I can type and I usually have time to use Email by the end of the class. Everyone else in this class is a 14 or 15 year old boy. The teacher is my religion teacher also, and always wants me to understand. This is so kind and dear to me as most classes they ignore me completely even if I take notes and try to participate.
Tuesday begins also with 3B which is extremely tiring. Tuesday is a bad day for me, there aren’t really any classes I enjoy. Next is two periods of Sport which sucks. Of course it sucks. It sucks internationally. They are shocked that you can get out of the requirement in the US. In Austria, you can’t so someone who sucks at sports does not exist. It is two hours of misery to be there sucking so much.And after this hell is another one: Geography. I don’t have a book, the teacher speaks in dialect and it is almost all Austria. They seem to think that it is the center of the world. We are supposed to be looking at something on the overhead projector right now and taking notes on things she is talking about on the map. No way I can do that. Next is German. They are reading Schiller, I am reading a children’s book. At least it is something to do, and it honestly helps. I feel so proud of myself as I read faster and faster and use a dictionary less and less. Math ends the day.
Wednesday is German again in the morning, then Chemistry. We leave the classroom to go to the lab. The French teacher has this as her other subject. We take notes, thankfully, not by dictation. It all seems pretty basic so far. Sciences aren’t stressed so much ehre as in the US, so that’s why it is only 2 times a week. No homework. Next is Physics which I completely do not understand. They have known it every year since they were ten years old. The teacher looks like the lead singer of System of a Down, with curly long hair and the soul patch. Apparently he’s wicked funny, but he speaks in Viennese dialect. We don’t learn much Physics, I know that for sure. Psychology is next, which already know is a dream. =P3A German in the fifth hour, where the teacher has purple hair. Last week they had to memorize ballads. The Austrians really appreciate Schiller and Goethe and many other ancient poets’ ballads. And for such an ugly language, they are so gorgeous. I relished in listening to them. We got a huge book of them from the library, and there are thousands of them! My family enjoys memorizing them for fun. Wednesday finishes with English, and Thursdays begin this way
After English on Thursday is Chemistry.My favorite German class is this day, 1B. They are ten years old and so sweet. The teacher is the nicest man I have ever met. He is so helpful to me and gave me a bunch of German workbooks the kids use for free. He even corrected my dictation work and wrote things like SUPER and FEIN all over it.Then History, Math, and Geography.
Fridays are interesting and there is little work to be done, which is a good quality for Fridays. It begins with Physics, then German, and then I have an hour free. There aren’t any German classes this hour.Next is religion which is my Informatik teacher. It is always a discussion, things I can almost understand. It is very frustrating because I have so much that I would like to debate on Catholicism, but it is just beyond my grasp. In this class, the child deficit in Austria was brought up. Parents are only having one or two children. My teacher asked, wouldn’t it be nice if women could stay home with their kids. I said no, of course not because there wouldn’t be enough money and women can do more than raise children. Interested, they asked me how many kids Americans have. I said about three, but most people would know a family that has 4 or 5 kids. They found this stunning. My Austrian family is an exception where the grandmother has 35 grandchildren (or 53, I get the German numbers mixed up) Everyone in the family has 4 kids, and one of them has 9.Anyway, next is two hours of art to end the day. And I must say, American kids are taught to draw quite professionally. We can draw whatever we want according o theme. Stress is on creativity, if there is any. The kids do not draw what they really see with shading and depth and tone and directional marks, just symbols, like kids or nonartists. Even my skills, which were at the bottom of my art class seem to amaze them. They think I can draw so beautifully. That’s nice I suppose. The only real downside is that you have to buy all your own surprise.
And that is my school week! Hopefully that was interesting.