Middle School

You remember middle school. Embarrassment, social confusion, trying to make the basketball team...all things most of us have probably successfully blocked out since our middle school days.
This past wednesday, Brandon and I visited a local middle school with the "principal" of foreign students from the university we attend. He set up this arrangement with the middle school his son attends so that we could get a feel of what schools are like here and also so that the students and english teachers at the school could practice their english.
It was exactly opposite of what an American middle school is like.
Middle schools here are for students ages 12-15. The majority of middle schools (and high schools for that matter) in this country are more similar to boarding schools. Over half of the students in the school live on campus in a dormitory like setting. Each student has a room (small sized bedroom) that they share with seven other students. The go home on weekends so the stuff they have with them in their dorm room is what would fit in a small duffel bag. Plus they wear windsuit uniforms, so there's no need for many clothes. They attend class from about 7:30 in the morning to 5 in the afternoon, with a short lunch break in between. They learn the usual subjects, chinese, english, math, science, history, geography, but also have time for choir, dance, drawing, painting, & photography. From 5-7 p.m. they get a break for dinner and resting and then return to the classrooms or library from 7-9 p.m. for personal study time (homework!) Then it's to bed at 9:30 p.m. So as you can imagine the school we visited was more like a university campus than a one building middle school you might recall from your middle school days. The students have PE hours where they can play outside with fellow students, but they don't compete with other schools in sporting events...also different than what might have been your experience. That's a quick synopsis of obvious differences just glancing at the school...but the best part of our experience was not the difference in the school but the difference in the kids.
Imagine, if you will, an English classroom full of "only childs." (no brothers or sisters...if that didn't make sense) That would probably be a teacher's worst nightmare. But that's every classroom here. We visited an english class of about 30 students. When we entered our "principal's" son came up and gave him a big hug then returned to his seat. (right, like you would do that when you were 13). The kids sat up straight in their chair and asked us all kinds of questions that they knew in English. "What's your favorite color/animal/food/book (awesome way to share by the way)/song/country (what are gonna say!? Japan?) etc... After each response we gave in Chinglish, they said, "Thank you!" and sat back down. They were sooooo polite. For many reasons I'm sure, one of which may have been that it was the first time they'd seen a whitie in person, but also just because that's how they behave in school. Then we had a girl ask us if we like to sing. I said, "sure, but I'd like to hear you sing!" So she stands up, in front of the rest of her 13 year old peers, bursts into song, & the rest of the students all start clapping along! Now...again, return to your days as a middle schooler. If you ever had the guts to do that it'd be a sure way to get beat up behind the cafeteria during lunch. But when this girl finished (who was absolutely incredible by the way) the rest of the students clapped and cheered! One of the boys sitting at a nearby table said that she is the best singer in the school. Again, that would never happen in my middle school. They asked us to sing a song (brandon made me do it by myself), so I took the opportunity to sing an english song I grew up hearing every sunday.
All that to say...it was so different than any middle school in America might be. Some really cool differences. Some differences I wouldn't be too fond of. But the biggest difference was the kids and the respect they showed not only their teachers (many kids do that in the states) but their peers...which is a totally foreign (haha no pun intended) concept for U.S. middle schools.