Americans of KS, what confuses or do you have a question about concerning Europe? (1 Viewer)

[bulletproof]

Generally what is your meal schedule like and what/how much do you eat?

well i finished school 4 years ago so idk how is it now, but i prefered my meal from home... it was some sandwich or idk... or fruits. i had 6-7 hours of school everyday so i didn't need much

 

[Walnutt]

What's a... "mortgage"?

Touché

 

[Bopper]

Wow around Europe you start school later than us Brits. In England you start primary school the September after you turn four. Then at eleven you start high school til you leave at sixteen. I think England and Wales share an education system, but it differs slightly for Scotland and Northern Ireland.

Also we have language classes in the first three years of high school, but then we have the option to drop them in our final two years. I was forced to drop Spanish though because not enough people wanted to continue it :hmm:

 

[Peach]

What is the school system like?

A bit long, sorry, lmao. Maybe someone finds this interesting though?

In Estonia, we go to the first grade at the age of seven, our elementary school lasts from first grade to the fourth, after that middle school lasts from the fifth grade until the ninth grade. At the end of the 9th grade, you're supposed to do three exams (there have been several reforms so I'm not sure if it's like this anymore since I graduated from the middle school 9 years ago) but when I was still a student, Estonian and math exams were compulsory, but you could pick the third one.

After that, you can choose whether you want to continue studying in high school (our equivalent would be called gymnasium) or a vocational school, where you can learn a specific profession, while being much easier than the aforementioned gymnasium. It lasts for 3 years so some of us graduate at age of 19 when I graduated nearly 6 years ago, I had to do 3 exams again, but I could pick them except for Estonian, which basically was a 6-hour long exam, where you have to write two essays based on questions. I know that now math and English are compulsory as well.

Also.. I had 19 different subjects in the 11th grade and 15 in the 12th grade all year long. I think in the US it's less than 10?

What I don't like about our school system is that you need good or even average marks to graduate but they don't matter if you want to get in the university. But you need an average of the three exams points to get into the university and it's 65 points at a minimum which doesn't even guarantee that you can get into university because most subjects only accept 20-40 students per year and they're all those who got the highest average. And they made it so that you can pass exam with 1 point meaning you can't fail and redo an exam and if you don't do well for whatever reason you can't redo it and it means you'll never be able to get into the university, they made it especially hard after making university education free in public universities.

TLDR: Estonian school system sucks ass and punishes you greatly if you fail to do well on an exam because you only get one chance.

 

[Peach]

does your school teach you other languages at a young age or do you get the option to pick languages in high school? because that's how it is over here in the states and tbh it doesn't rlly help you learn the language unless you really get into it.

I started learning English in the third grade but I had private lessons in the kindergarten so I was quite ahead of others and never struggled with it as much as some of my classmates did. You're supposed to have a B2 level by the end of 12th grade and there were some students who couldn't even get past A2. In 6th grade, we could pick between two languages, in my case Russian or German.

I picked German because I didn't want to learn Russian but they didn't let me study German because there weren't enough students to form a group so I half-assed for 6 years, lol. It was one of these things where you need your parent to decide for you and a lot of students had no say in this. In 10th grade, I could pick my third foreign language, because my curriculum focused on humanities. I could choose between Finnish, Spanish or German and I opted for German again. Sadly, while I did learn quite a bit, I never got really far after three years (barely A2), because we only had 2 45 minute lessons per week, which in my opinion is almost nothing.. for example, Russian had 4 lessons per week and English had 6.

Some schools offer French, Chinese, Japanese etc as well but if it's third foreign language then there isn't much focus on it.

 

[MochiFace]

does your school teach you other languages at a young age or do you get the option to pick languages in high school?

No in france we start to learn some basic english like colors, numbers, animals at the age of 6-7 yo
and then when you enter in your 3rd year of Middle school you have to choose one more languages between latin, spanish or italian
but i know other middle school for example don't do latin but you can do chinese etc....

 

[MochiFace]

learning a second language is something that i want to do (specifically arabic, its my native language)

oh i remember too like i said we start learn english around the age of 6-7
but my primary school used to make arabic classes after school for the people who were in 4th year of Primary school
i did it too but i almost forget everything

 

[MochiFace]

Generally what is your meal schedule like and what/how much do you eat?

I guess you speak in school

you finish your classes of the morning around 12pm, then it depends on your schedule some people will start their classes of the afternoon at 1pm or 2pm
if you start at 1pm you have the priority but since many people start their classes again at 1pm , you need to wait at least 30minutes to have a place in the cafeteria and then eat.
and it's always a salad, with a meal you choose between meat or legumes/fish for people who are muslim and can't eat meat or are vegetarian
and as a dessert it's a yogurt or a fruit

but since now i'm in university
we end our classes the morning at 12pm30 and start our classes again around 1pm
and we don't really have a cafeteria so we need to gout to go to a fastfood to buy our food ( but the smartest bring their own food from home)

 

[MochiFace]

Wow around Europe you start school later than us Brits. In England you start primary school the September after you turn four. Then at eleven you start high school til you leave at sixteen.

not really we don't start later than you since we have infant school who is mandatory
since we start infant school which is mandatory at 3yo where you learn to count, the alphabet, calculate etc...
then we start primary school at 6 yo
then we start middle school when we are 10yo-11yo
and we start high school when we have 15yo-16 yo
and finish High school when we have 18yo

 

[potato]

not really we don't start later than you since we have infant school who is mandatory
since we start infant school which is mandatory at 3yo where you learn to count, the alphabet, calculate etc...
then we start primary school at 6 yo
then we start middle school when we are 10yo-11yo
and we start high school when we have 15yo-16 yo
and finish High school when we have 18yo

We also have a preschool in England too that you can start at 3 years old but it isn't mandatory. In fact, I just looked it up and we just have to be in school by the age of 5.

 

[MochiFace]

What is the school system like?

In france you have Infant school mandatory from 3yo to 6 yo
then you go in primary school for 5years
then middle school for 4 years and at the end you have a final exam about everything your learn during this 4 years
and then you go in High school and it's when it start to become difficult

you have 3 years in High school

the first year we all have the same classes
then for your 2nd year they ask you to "specialize " in an area and you have 3 options for this :

- ES, which is Economics and social, where it's really focus on economics and the comportment of people in the society
-L, which is the specialiation in literrature
- and then S, which is the scientific specialization, it's where you have chemistry classes, harder mathematics classes and science

among this 3 specialization there is a hierarchy base on how hard it is to go in this specialization and which one give you the most chance to have a good school path:

1. S, it's the "elite" where all the smart kids go
2. ES
3. L

at the end of your 2nd Year of High school you have a french exam, in 2 step

- first one, it's an exam of 4 hours where they gave you a text and you have to analyse it
- and then an Oral in french where you need to present something you study in class, and it's the judge who choose the subject basically if you are in ES or S you have 25 artwork to learn and if you are in L you have to learn 50 artwork.
The judge give you 10 minute and in 10 minute you needs to make a plan separate in parts where you analyse it could be a text or a paint
then you have to explain him your analyse and he'll ask you some question about the other artwork you learn in the year, about writing genre etc.....

then during your 3rd years of high school

you have a project in group that you need to prepare through the year and present to judges

and at the end of the year you have your final exam of High school call the BAC, even if you have amazing result in the year but fail at the Bac you need to do one more year in High school until you have it and if you have it you can go to college.
For the bac, you have exams of 4 hours in each subject, in History and geography, Philosophy, Math, Physics and chemistry, Science

You're also evaluate on 3 sport that you choose at the debut of the year

and You're evaluate in Spanish and English, through an oral understanding, where the teacher put an audio in english or in spanigh ( youre evaluate in both language) and you need to make a summary of what you heard
and then you have an oral where you need to Present a subject you study in the year in english and spanish

also you're not evaluate only on the exam of 4 hours in science and chemistry, you're evaluate on practical work.
Where the teachers call your name, give you a subject like " we would want to know what is in this drink " and you have to make the experience with what you learn in the year, you need to explain what tools you're using, what are you doing and then you need to explain what the result you have.
In this experimentation you might also be force to make some calcul and this practical work last 30 minutes

It might be a little hard to understand :/

 

[MochiFace]

We also have a preschool in England too that you can start at 3 years old but it isn't mandatory. In fact, I just looked it up and we just have to be in school by the age of 5.

here it's mandatory because when you go in primary school they expect that you can already know how to make an addition, a soustraction, count and know the alphabet and write a little, because if you don't know this things they'll not take the time to explain it to you

 

[potato]

here it's mandatory because when you go in primary school they expect that you can already know how to make an addition, a soustraction, count and know the alphabet and write a little, because if you don't know this things they'll not take the time to explain it to you

Wow 😲

We learn all those things you're talking about in nursery. You're not expected to know anything when you first go to school. That doesn't stop parents from teaching their kids beforehand though and most children will have a very basic understanding of numbers by then anyway. But subtraction and addition? You're not expected to know that at all first going into nursery.

 

[MochiFace]

Wow 😲

We learn all those things you're talking about in nursery. You're not expected to know anything when you first go to school. That doesn't stop parents from teaching their kids beforehand though and most children will have a very basic understanding of numbers by then anyway. But subtraction and addition? You're not expected to know that at all first going into nursery.

they are and now even more kids become more and more smart
at 3yo my nephew already know how to use my phone and computer and i didn't even teach him

 

[bulletproof]

Not really American, but...

- Is it true that you only eat cold foods for breakfast?

- For those whose first language utilizes gender or lots of grammatical cases, do you ever get confused about what to use?

- Do you know more than two languages / how common is it to know only one?

- Are Europeans very direct when they speak, even to strangers?

- Are all European countries potato-obsessed, or is it just Ireland and Germany?

1. No, we don’t eat only cold food for breakfast I mean of course we have cold meals, but we eat mostly the same things as americans. Examples of hot meals for breakfast: pancakes, eggs, bacon

2. My language is pretty difficult for foreigners because it has lots of grammar rules and 3 genders (female, male and neutral). I admit sometimes I am confused with some difficult words. Not very often tho.

3. Yes I know more than two languages. For young people it’s not that common, especially in the urban areas. We study two foreign languages since primary school and more later. The most common are English and French, but sometimes it may be Spanish, German, Latin (but this is in the 7th grade).

4. Well I wouldn’t say ‘very’ direct, but they are direct compared to americans.

5. Are Germany and Ireland potato-obsessed? I mean... we eat potatos just like any other country. In the end they are an easy to cook, fast side dish.

 

[Bopper]

they are and now even more kids become more and more smart
at 3yo my nephew already know how to use my phone and computer and i didn't even teach him

Probably because technology is all they know. Youtube didn’t exist for me until my last year of high school, yet my nephew who’s five can work my sister’s iphone, it’s almost scary.

 

[Foxia]

does your school teach you other languages at a young age or do you get the option to pick languages in high school? because that's how it is over here in the states and tbh it doesn't rlly help you learn the language unless you really get into it.

I learned English in elementary (from the age of 10/11 I think) and because I live in the north of the Netherlands, we also were taught the Frisian language (I can understand and read it, but not speak it well myself)

In "highschool" I had French for 2 years but I sucked so bad. Dutch and English were kind of mandatory I guess. And after two years of French, I picked German for my exam package (you could also pick Spanish I think but it wasnt really popular at our school, which is sad)

But I think it's different for every Dutch school (or other European countries)

 

[Foxia]

Not really American, but...

- Is it true that you only eat cold foods for breakfast?

- For those whose first language utilizes gender or lots of grammatical cases, do you ever get confused about what to use?

- Do you know more than two languages / how common is it to know only one?

- Are Europeans very direct when they speak, even to strangers?

- Are all European countries potato-obsessed, or is it just Ireland and Germany?

Answering this from a Dutch point of view aaa

- Mostly cold I think (bread, yogurt, cornflakes etc) sometimes a boiled egg? Almost everyone I know eats cold foods for breakfast

- we don't have a case system like the German language, but other parts of our language may be difficult to learn. I don't have difficulties with it, I think it's quite easy

- I know Dutch, English and Frisian the most. In my province, it's really common to have at least two languages (Dutch and Frisian). The younger people know English as well and others too (for example: German, Spanish etc)

- Netherlands is also a potato country, I can confirm. I have seen so many potatoes for dinner, its traumatic.

 

[Mayday]

Someone explain Article 13

 

[raymondchouku]

Apparently the Irish don't hate the Northern Irish anymore. My Grandfather hated the Northern Irish as he thought they were sellouts; he was an Irish Immigrant. So I would ask when the tensions between the Northern and Southern Irish stopped?

That was fairly specific, but I'm sure there's someone on here that can explain this.