European vs American Schools
There is a world difference between the European and American school lives. Whether it is the grading system, after school activities or the lifestyle in general. Anyway, international students are destined for a culture shock. 3 Europeans that now study at Morningside were interviewed in an attempt to show the broadening of their horizon.
Danish Freshman Frederik just moved here this summer, meaning that he still remembers his first culture shock very clearly. He was mostly amazed by the amount of unused space here in the Midwest as well as the fact that all cities looked exactly alike.
Jurre, a sophomore from the Netherlands, and Maximilian, a sophomore from Germany, had a more developed view on the American lifestyle after having lived here for more than a year already. And still after this time, they both are still shocked about the amount of interest of Americans towards the rest of the world. This being based on classes and conversations which they had.
“Often people still ask me whether the Netherlands is its own country or part of another one,” Jurre laughed.
Jurre and Maximilian then also reassured Frederik that the fear of the language barrier is nothing to worry about.
“Once you get used to speaking English, it is very easy to adapt to everything,” Maximilian said from experience after struggling with the language his first semester.
Further, the format in which high schools give out their grades may seem similar to everyone, yet every country does it completely different. Where most countries use regular numbers, others, like the USA, use percentages. None of the Europeans, however, were surprised when asked about their reaction to finding out about the American grading systems since they watched many American movies before. When asked about their grading system Frederik simply answered: “You sure you want to know that?”
He then went on explaining the system, which has 7 possible grades: 12, 10, 7, 4, 2, 0 and -3, with the last being the lowest. Everything above a 2 is a passing grade. There are no possible grades other than these numbers. However, at the end of the year, the average is taken between your grades, where it can result in for example a 5. He then also directly acknowledged that the American grading system is “just better.”
Next, Jurre explained how the Dutch grading system worked, which he said was “much simpler” than the Danish system.
“In the Netherlands we have a grading system that goes from 1 to 10, where 1 is the lowest and 10 the highest grade. You will need to get a 5.5 to pass a class and everything lower will fail you the class,” Jurre explained.
He then went on by calling out his neighboring country Germany which, much like Denmark, “is not logic”. The German sophomore Maximilian took an attempt to explaining his home country’s system. He told that it goes from 6-1, with 1 being the highest possible grade and 6 the lowest.
Whereas these Europeans were not at all shock by the ‘new’ American grading system as it, “just makes sense” as said by Maximilian , they were more in shock with their fellow European country’s systems.
The Europeans were also asked to react on the fact that students play competitive sports at their schools. Maximilian loves this style since students are much more involved in their schools. He also added that he loves it because you can support your fellow students in other sports.
Jurre agreed with Maximilian, but was also quick to talk about the other part of this style.
“It is weird. We are used to playing with a team which we only see on the field. You went from only seeing them on the pitch, to never having a break from them, even when annoyed,” Jurre said.
He concluded his answer by stating the importance of keeping your emotions from the pitch separated from the emotions outside the field.
Whereas Maximilian and Jurre had to adapt to this new aspect of life, Frederik was used to it already. He told how many Danish students, including him, go to boarding schools in Denmark where all competitive sports are organized by their schools, just like in the United States.
Culture shocks happen in every new environment where one comes. For Frederik, Jurre and Maximilian this happened when they started their adventure in the USA. Where they already saw many differences compared to their home countries, their horizons will only keep broadening from this point on.
