Today was my second day at Kungsängsgymnaset. Today I got to go to some more of Hanna's classes and two of Ida's classes. The first class of the day started at 8:45 and Hanna got out of school at 12:40! Hanna only had three classes today! I want her schedule so badly, but then there is the fact that the classes are really long, some of them are even 2 hours long and I think that that would get a bit boring and dull. The first class of the day was Swedish class, the equivalent of our English class. Today their teacher talked for a while and then they had to copy down sentences from a book and correct them, rewriting the correct version. It all seemed very complicated, but that might have been because it was in Swedish. :)
The second class of the day was English. In the spirit of the U.S. election the teacher played president Obama's acceptance speech. It felt weird to listen to it in class in a foreign country, I felt like all of the students were judging me, but it was still nice to hear the speech, I did not stay up all night to hear it, unlike Frank, one of the students who visited MV last year and who is in Hanna's class. We also talked about the 5th of November, a British holiday to remember Guy Fawkes, a man who tried to blow up parliament. The teacher had written a short poem that was written in memorial of November 5th:
"Remember, remember the fifth of November,
Gunpowder treason and plot.
We see no reason
Why gunpowder treason
Should ever be forgot!"
The teacher also talked about Remembrance Day, November 11, a day to remember all of the soldiers from WW1. She even talked about the fact that people wear poppies on their jackets in recognition and support. Yesterday they wrote book reports about a book in English that they had read. Today the teacher took groups of five out of the room to talk about the books they had read. The teacher only got through one group of students because it took so long, I guess they all had a lot to say about the books. While the group of five students and the teacher were out of the room we took a short quiz on current events and then read a short story, individually, about eating snakes. The topic was a bit strange but it was really funny to read. This was because the students learn British English and the spelling and word choices that the book used were very different from what I would have used. For example the book used mate where as I would have used friend.
After English we had lunch in the cafeteria before going to Hanna's last class of the day: German. German class was very confusing and very complicated because I do not understand Swedish or German, but I helped Hanna translate some of the words and I learned a little bit of German. Now I know how to say not only ich liebe dich (i love you) Die hampater sprang über den Crockodile (the hamster jumped over the crocodile) which il learned from Kat last year, but also mein name ist... (my name is...), gesund (healthy), and geschwister(siblings). I had a lot of fun in German class and I wish that MV had German as a foreign language option, I would definitely take it.
After Hanna's final class we tried to find Ida because I was going to spend the rest of the day with Ida and Austin because Hanna had to go home and study for her 3 hour chemistry test tomorrow morning! It would hate to take a 3 hour test, even our exams are not 3 hours long! When we could not find her in the library we went back down to the common area where the lockers are and I sat down to wait for Ida and Austin to come pick me up while Hampus drove Hanna home to study. I did not have to wait very long because within 10 minuets Ida and Austin came by to pick me up before heading off to physics. If I had taken physics this year instead of AP Bio I think I would have been able to understand a lot of what he said and what he wrote on the board because he drew a lot of pictures, they were talking about Archimedes principle.
After physics we stopped by Ida's locker and picked up all of our stuff, coats, hats, scarves, and gloves included and headed off to gym class. We would not be coming back to her locker because we could go right from gym to Ida's home. Gym in Sweden is a bit different from gym at MV. In Sweden you are expected to change you clothing for gym class in the locker rooms and if you have another class after gym you can take a quick shower in between. Because I did not know Ida had gym class today I did not bring extra clothing to change into but it was still fun anyway. We spent most of our time, after a quick warm up, in the new weight room where the gym teach taught us all how to use the equipment and then gave us all a chance to try out each machine, except for one because we ran out of time.
After gym, the last class of the day, we walked home to Ida's house and watched the movie Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy which was about a mole in the upper rankings of MI6. It was very good and interesting. Because they had rented the movie from the library and it was due that night, Austin, Ida, and I hurried down to the library after the movie to return it. Hanna met us there and as Ida and Austin headed home to a scout meeting, Hanna and I rode home on Hanna's bike. Overall, a great day!
Why do Swedish students learn British English instead of American (or Canadian) English? Do the Swedish students who come and study in the US find the adjustment difficult?
ReplyDeleteI did not know the answer to your question so i asked some of my fellow class mates. The responses varied from confused expressions to I have no idea but that is an interesting question. However there were a few people with some opinions on the matter. Some thought that it was because Sweden was closer to the UK than to the US while others thought it was because British English was the original, the ture, English.
ReplyDeleteI have also talked to Hanna and Ida about the adjustment from American English to British English and they both said it was quite weird at first but that as time went by they both got use to it.