Thoughts on School Life

Their academic life was a bit of a shock on the first day with the differences it had to what I was used to. The first thing I noticed was their schedule. They only had up to four subjects each day which includes Architectural Design Studio II, English II A & B, Math II A & B, Science II A & B, Politics and Economics, Form and Design in Architecture, Japanese II, and PE. Each subject lasts an hour and a half, and they have a 50-minute lunch time. There was also some free time that we would use to go out and bond with the other classmates. Another good thing is that their school starts 9:00 am instead of 7:00 am or 7:30 am. With all that, their schedule felt so much more free and spacious than my school schedule.

After that, the second thing of note was how the students acted. On certain subjects, the students would go into groups for group discussions after the teacher is done with the lesson. Instead of simply using that time for something else, they actually help each other understand and explain the different concepts learned in class. They also tried to explain to me the lessons even when the language barrier made it difficult, and it was sweet and kind of them to do so. Besides that, some students would sleep in class, and they wouldn’t get reprimanded. One time, in Japanese II, almost half the class were asleep. Some were sneaky about it by sleeping sitting up, but others were straight up asleep on their desks.