thoughts on switzerland -- 10 non-school things I've learned from school

some (most) of you reading this blog know that I was formerly homeschooled.

This means that my first experience in public school is in another country speaking another language. I find this really funny.

That said, Swiss high school isn't really like American high school for several different reasons. I've learned a lot about both the European attitude towards school and the general Swiss mindset towards the younger generation by being here.

 And so, here are some of the main differences/ideas that I've noticed, as an exchange student, a homeschooler, and a high schooler. (If you'd like to know the facts about Swiss high school and a little description of what I'm doing there, you can read my post here.)

oh, and these pictures don't actually have anything to do with school. they are just pictures of switzerland that I found on my camera. :P

subjects I've learned to appreciate:

1. science, math, and physics. because they are the same in every language. (also because physics and math are way, way better in the metric than in the english system.)
2. foreign languages. because it's nice to know that you are not the only one who sounds like a caveman in a language that is not your own.
3. history. because things are different when you have touched them and heard them and walked inside of them, because events are different when you have stood in the very spot someone else once did, because people are different when they have a story.

people I've learned to appreciate:

1. teachers. because they really do want you to learn, and in general they are looking out for your best interests. (I know this isn't the same for all exchange students, but for the most part I really like my teachers and I think they like me. then again, I think my class has a lot of the nice teachers.)
2. people. the people who are willing to overcome not only the normal social walls, but language barriers, cultural barriers, and the awkwardness of an exchange student in order to talk to you.
3. and of course the other exchange students. because we are a family. :)

things I've learned to appreciate: 

1. tests. not because they are easy or because I am good at them (on average, it takes me the same amount of time to understand the questions on my economics test as it does for the others to answer them), but because then I am closer to being a normal student. Because then, I can learn for the test and study and pretend that I am nothing beyond a Swiss girl doing school work.
2. trains. you'd be surprised by how much I like the trains here, because they are on schedule and because they are full of people and because the riding to and from school is, to some extent, a way to prepare and wind down from my day at school.
3. age. Almost everyone in Gymnasium and FMS Muttenz is between the ages of 15 and 20 years old, which is about 1-2 years older than normal American high school. This makes a huge difference. I'm not sure why, but it's just that the general maturity level is higher... then again, that might also be due to the last point on this list...
4. everyone who is in Gymi and FMS wants to be there. In Switzerland, you can get an apprenticeship after you turn 15, or you can continue with school. This ultimately means that if you are in Gymnasium, you have the grades and the motivation to stay in. At the end of the first semester (January) those with insufficient scores are dropped from the school. While this initially seemed really harsh to me, I'm realizing that here kids are expected to take more initiative in their own education. That nothing here is keeping them, really, except that they want to be here. And for the most part, it shows.
   

...and that concludes my rather randomized list of things I've learned to appreciate from school. I'm actually liking this list idea...

till next time,

Hannah

girl meets world: my first week of school in another country

So, today marks Friday and my first official week of school ever. Plenty of people have asked me what school looks like in Switzerland, so here's a quick rundown of the differences I've noticed:

• There are two different types of high school: FMS and Gymi, or Gymnasium. Gymnasium is for students to pursue "higher" branches of learning, and FMS is for things like teaching and art and dentistry etc. You can easily get a job coming from either high school. (I got put in FMS... explanation to come later.)
• You have only one class of students, and you see them every day. Mine is about 17 people, which is the average for FMS--Gymnasium classes have an average of 25 people (but they can't be any more than that, it's illegal.) This is actually really nice, because I have the same kids in my class every day and it's easier to make friends.
• Every day is not the same... your days are broken up into 50 minute sessions and each day is different. So on Tuesday I have Physik, Musik, Geschichte (history), Englisch, and Deutsch, but on Wednesday I have Klassenstunde (a weird thing that varies from week to week), Musik, Biologie, and Mathematik.
• This also means that you can take way more subjects than in American high school, simply because you have so many timeslots to fill. As of my last counting, I have 14 different classes. I'm not sure if that's a lot? It seems like an awful lot to me...

Anyway. Now that you know all about Swiss high school, here's an average morning before school for me:

6:00am--wake up. I refuse to wake up earlier than 6 (well actually I normally end up waking up at 5:50 because I have a weird tendency to anticipate my alarm... but I refuse to get out of bed earlier than 6, so). I get dressed, pack my school bag, review my bus schedule so I don't miss the bus again, and do all the normal things that one does in the morning.
6:30am--eat breakfast. It's still dark outside, and cold. Brrrr, Switzerland.
6:50am--leave the house. I have to catch the bus at 6:56 to the Rheinfelden main station, and then take the train from Rheinfelden to Muttenz, and then walk for about 10 minutes from the Muttenz station to my school. Hopefully I don't get lost, because my school is in the middle of an industrial area and there aren't that many people around at 7:30am to ask for directions.
7:50am-- If I'm lucky, I find one of my classmates and we walk to class together. If I'm not, I rush madly up and down stairs in an attempt to find the room. After I've finally located it (I swear the FMS building has no logical order to their room numbers whatsoever) I go into the classroom and we all wait for the teacher, who shows up promptly at 7:55. These are Swiss people, after all.

Voila. And school hasn't even started yet!

But after I find my classroom and my classmates, things get easier. Since we all have the same classes, I can just follow everyone else around and theoretically get where I need to be at the time I need to be. So far it's worked pretty well. :)

The majority of my classmates are really friendly and super nice about showing me where classes are and translating for me when I have no idea what's going on. Also, people keep commenting on how good my German is already, which is not exactly right... but it makes me happy, haha.

I'm currently in Physik, Mathematik, Biologie, Franzoesisch, Deutsch, Sport, Art (which I can't remember the name of in German), Wirtschaft und Rechts (economics), Computer Science (which I also can't remember the name of), Musik, Geschichte, and Englisch. Also my other Deutschkurs, something called PP that I don't understand, and something called Klassenstunde that confuses me.
Because I'm feeling nice, I won't drag you through my entire schedule for the week. You're welcome.

Highlights:

• Music! We started with music theory (thank you, Animate Studio and voice lessons and voice teacher who gave me two years of intensive theory) and sang in the second hour. Also, the songs were all really old hits in English. Think Moonlight Shadow and House of the Rising Sun. Since I like singing and I could actually read the lyrics, it was a good class for me.
• The economics teacher told us we didn't have any homework because I was in class and I might not understand it. This made me a lot more popular with the other students ;)
• For my very first day we had three hours of Art. Hooray for art, it doesn't require you to speak very much and you have plenty of time to draw and think and attempt to translate what the teacher is saying. Probably the best Monday class to have, ever.
• French is an optional class, because all the teaching is either in French or German and I've had neither of those languages in school. Because I've wanted to learn French, I stayed in the first class just to see what would happen. That said, I was surprised to discover that I actually understood part of what was going on! Language has always been something fairly intuitive for me-- some people get math, some people get science, I get languages. But I wasn't expecting to be able to read and understand very much, as I've never in my life taken French. I think maybe Spanish helped, or possibly my brain was in learn-a-new-language mode... either way, it was a nice surprise :)

In the majority of my classes, I don't have homework (hooray!) This is mostly because my teachers are really nice and understand that I have no idea what to do with written German homework. I do understand what's going on in the class, and I can follow along to some extent. From what I've heard about school on exchange, school is really boring, but so far I haven't found that to be true.

and so concludes a very long probably boring post.
We'll see what happens next week... stay tuned!