The school itself was actually really nice. It's a private school, and almost set up a little like a college campus in that there are a bunch of different buildings. The inside of the buildings were bright and clean, and everything looked really new. Not like Mountain Lakes. At all. Honestly, I found the lack of mustard yellow and snot green paint a little disturbing - I was under the impression that all high schools looked like that. I got there during their break, so Johannes introduced me to his teacher and then led me to the classroom. Apparently, the other thing similar to this school and a college campus is the fact that during their breaks, the students are allowed to do essentially whatever they want. The few minutes I spent in the classroom were, to be quite honest, a little terrifying, and I completely understand why the teacher was hiding in his office. There were kids running around (I can only assume they were playing tag), kids yelling and screaming, kids throwing chairs and picking each other up, and loud dance music blasting. Obviously, I was more than a little curious to find out what this lesson would be like.A few students came up to me and introduced themselves (one girl in Danish, before she realized I didn't speak a word of it. She then ran to the back of the room with a red face.) and asked me a few questions about being in Denmark and how it was different from the US. The teacher arrived soon enough, and as soon as he set foot in the door all the kids ran to their seats and were quiet immediately. Cue stunned jaw-drop.
The teacher started by asking what I thought about their school, and how it was different from my school at home. As I talked, the kids would raise their hands whenever they thought of a question. The fact that they actually bothered to raise their hands was impressive in and of itself, but I soon noticed that not only were they raising their hands, but they were all raising their hands in exactly the same, polite manner. They would rest their elbow on the desk, and face the back of their hand forward, while pointing upwards with one finger. There was no "oh, oh! Call on me!" or impatient hand waving. Just a calm finger pointing upwards, and patient waiting. It still amazes me too much to even make any further comments on the matter.
I was asked a lot of different questions - way more than I thought I would be asked. Here are some of the ones I can remember: Why are you in Denmark instead of somewhere else? How long have you been here/will you be here? Where do you live in the US? What are the differences between NYC and here? What do you think of the Danes? Do you think Danish guys are better looking than American boys? Are you allowed to use cellphones in school in the US? What age do you start school? What age do you leave home and live on your own? Can you drive (I then told them how much it costs to get your license in the US - probably 5 times less than it costs in Denmark, not to mention the fact that after I said my family has 4 people but we have 5 cars the entire room broke out into a dull roar - families here only have one car, if they're lucky. Everyone uses bikes or public transportation, and cars are so expensive I'd imagine the only person in Denmark who could afford to have 5 is the queen herself.) Have you tried any Danish food, and what do you think of it? What do you think of the weather? Do you have the same plants and trees at home as we do here? How much does your school cost? (Again, there was a dull roar when the numbers were converted from dollars to kroner. Have I mentioned that in Denmark, you don't pay them to go to school, they pay you?) What are you studying? Where have you been in Denmark so far? The teacher named a few places, and I responded by saying that I hadn't been there but it's on the list of things my friends and I plan on doing. One girl then goes, "YOU HAVE FRIENDS?!" So I explained that there are a lot of kids here from my school at home, and there's a couple hundred Americans at DIS. Her next comment was, "THERE ARE MORE OF YOU?!" Apparently, Americans are kind of a big deal. This fact was reinforced when one boy said to me, "You know, I've never seen an American before!" I replied by saying that I hope I didn't look so strange that seeing me was something special. He laughed, but didn't refute it. Hmm ...
There were a lot more questions, and a lot of them were pretty funny. I was impressed by their English - I was told that it was the advanced class, but that didn't prepare me for the fact that the entire class of 15 year olds was completely fluent in English. They even had most of the grammar down, and only once or twice did they forget a word and have to ask their teacher to translate. To be honest, when I was walking over I had no idea what to expect, and I was dreading it ever so slightly. Imagine being a foreigner and going to a class of 15 year olds in the US to speak to them - I imagine it wouldn't be a pleasant experience. High schoolers are not nice people. They still scare me a bit, to tell the truth. But I had a really good time talking to these kids and was really impressed - they were excited and seemed legitimately interested, and had so many questions to ask me. Maybe they were just excited that they weren't going to have a normal lecture, but I'll never know for sure, so I might as well give them the benefit of the doubt. I think I'm going to go to my host sister's school in a few weeks, and I'm actually looking forward to it.
Not to be the bearer of bad news, but I probably won't be updating for a few weeks. I'm officially on travel break as of 4:30 this afternoon, and over the next 3 weeks I'll be heading off to London, Edinburgh, Paris, Barcelona, Munich, Venice and Florence. Try not to be too jealous. =)
No comments:
Post a Comment