World Beaters Exchange Students Enjoying Differences In Idaho Schools

Julia Baldermarm loves the extracurricular activities at Lake City High School.

“We don’t have school spirit in Germany, or school sports,” she said. “Here they are very big.”

Another thing that Baldermann likes about her American school is that “I have different people in each class … In Germany, you are in one class all the way through school.”

Antje Felber, another exchange student from Germany, appreciates the elective opportunities at Lake City, “so you can choose what you want to learn.”

“Next semester I have a computer class. We (in Germany) have only one available computer class.”

Both Germans marveled at the technology at Lake City.

“Every single classroom has a computer. In Germany, we (my school) have one. There is far better technology here, and more of it,” said Felber.

But the academic requirements are much different in Germany.

English, German and math are required each year. If a student receives a bad grade in any of these requirements, they are prone to flunk the year.

Foreign exchange students at Coeur d’Alene, Post Falls, Lakeland and Timberlake cite similar differences between educational standards at their home schools and here.

A primary motivation for foreign exchange students coming to America is to learn English. “I realized how important it is, and how important it will become in the future,” said Felber.

When asked what the differences in learning standards, she replied: “Where do I start’?”

There are three different types of high schools: those for college-bound students; those for students who want to work right away; and those for students who don’t want to go to college right away.

“School is much easier here,” said Baldermann. “The tests and quizzes are easier, and we review them right before we take them, and we don’t have to know very much for each test or quiz. In Germany, we have only six exams in the main subjects a year.”

Felber agreed. “The teachers don’t require very much from you. The whole situation of teaching and learning is totally different. Everything is more relaxed, and nobody really cares … In Germany grades are more important, and school is more stressful.”

In the U.S., “The teachers don’t know that much about the subject,” added Felber.

Felber said that although all of her subjects were harder in Germany, languages here were significantly easier.

“In Germany, you go through everything faster, we cover more and you have only eight classes, while we have 11 or 12 every year. That means we study more,” Felber said.

Baldermann also said she studies less in America, with a maximum of one hour a night. In Germany, “for one test there is so much stuff - most of the time I study two to three days ahead of time; a couple hours each day.”

At Post Falls High School, Rustarn “Rusty” Abdurahmanov, said schools in his native Uzbekistan are based on academics instead of extracurricular activities.

“The classes are easier here in the U.S., but they are also more fun,” said Abdurahmanov. “I ‘get to take weight lifting, which is a new class.”

When asked about the teaching style in Uzbekistan, he said: “Classes are taught more traditionally. It is really boring. The teachers at Post Falls make it more interesting.”

Another difference is how the teachers here explain assignments and other work in great detail. In Uzbekistan, the work is done more independently.

The people in Post Falls have been very friendly and helpful, he said. “I am proud to be a Trojan.”

Sebastien Jaspor, a foreign exchange student from Belgium, agrees that the standards and academic levels at PFHS are much easier. In Belgium he was taking eight classes a day, and he was going to school from 8 a.m. to 4 p.m.

“We were required to do more work in Belgium and it was usually harder,” he said.

Julia Jungert, a foreign exchange student from Germany, said that the classes are easier here, with one exception: honors math “I seem to have a lot more homework in that class,” Jungert said.

“But when I first came to America the math class I was in was doing the things that I did a year ago.”

Frane Vuka and Sandra Bozovic, foreign exchange students from neighboring countries, Croatia and Montenegro, find PFHS to be boring.

Bozovic said the school is too concerned with rules like the dress code. “I think the school needs to raise some of the work levels,” she said. In Montenegro, there wasn’t as much emphasis put on attendance as long as you were passing. The students don’t have to worry about report cards either, because there aren’t any.

Both Vuka and Bozovic said that they had less homework in their countries, but they also had more work time in class.

“The teachers didn’t spend as much time up in front of the class explaining as they do in America,” Vuka said. “We are required to figure a lot of work out for ourselves.”

Like the other exchange students Vuka and Bozovic had more required classes at home. They took 15 subjects, and had different classes every day.

According to Vuka and Bozovic, the teachers in their home countries are more strict, but more intelligent. “Our teachers are more educated and qualified, and they get paid less,” said Vuka.

Natalya Kravchenko, a 16-year-old Coeur d’Alene High School senior, is from a Spokane-sized city near Moscow.

In Russia, the school system differs in many ways. First of all, the Russian government establishes a standard that all schools must meet. This includes both lesson plans and standardized tests.

“The expectations are harder,” said Kravchenko.

She finds the attendance rules here to be odd. In Russia, if one has a headache, they can just take a break from class, come back and tell the teacher why he or she wasn’t present, and the teacher will understand. “They trust you more,” said Kravchenko.

Russia has very specialized secondary schools. They include such subjects as physics/math or history/language. Kravchenko attended a school specializing in physics and math.

Tests in Russia, Kravchenko explained, don’t usually have multiple choices. Instead, each question is to be solved or answered thoroughly.

There are no percentages to determine the final grades of students in Russia. Instead, the teachers, gauging on the work ethic of the student and whether or not he/she deserves it, give the student a grade between one and five. “They look at your overall work and decide what grade you deserve,” said Kravchenko.

In America, students have some required classes and some electives, including subjects such as business or debate. In Russia, all the classes are chosen for the students.

Kravchenko has discovered that English is much easier to learn in America. “There we learn the language,” she said. “Here we use the language.”

Michael Grzywacz, a CHS student from Germany, said that physics is much more difficult there. Here, the students are taught the mechanics, but in Germany they go over every chapter in detail.

Grzywacz doesn’t like the way American students have to travel from class to class. In Germany, the teachers have to wander from class to class, a practice he prefers.

The foreign exchange students at Timberlake High School agree that one of the biggest differences is in the number of classes.

Martin Abel took 12 subjects last year in Germany, his home country. Dmitriy Ovcharov took 15 classes in Russia, while Susana Sotomayor had nine subjects in Mexico.

Abel said there is a benefit to taking so many subjects. “The advantage of our system is that you have more general education.”

For example, Abel took biology, chemistry, and physics at the same time. But he did not attend each class every day.

The same was true in Mexico. “You would go to one class maybe three times a week and another only two,” said Sotomayor.

Abel found that mathematics is easier in the United States than in Germany. In Germany, he took calculus during his junior year, while here it is a class that seniors take.

Ovcharov appreciates a different teaching style.

“The teachers here are so cool,” he said. “The teachers help you here. In Russia, the teachers don’t help you, they just give you an assignment and you do it.”

Ovcharov also noted the difference in school size. His school in Russia was a four-story building with about 6,000 students.

The exchange students appreciate the wider variety of classes at Timberlake, especially the electives.

Sotomayor said she doesn’t need to study much because the classes she is taking are primarily electives and not core classes.

Ovcharov said he doesn’t spend too much time studying, either, because the grades he gets here aren’t that important.

Abel said he probably spent more time studying at the beginning of the school year. “At the beginning it was pretty hard, because I had to get used to the language. So, I had to spend several hours on the homework,” said Abel.

The three all commented on how many more activities the high schools in America offer, mainly in athletics.

Sotomayor said that in Mexico sports weren’t a big deal. “Here the sports are really important,” said Sotomayor. “In basketball here, you practice every day. In Mexico, you practice maybe once a week, and you don’t have games as often. There, no one cares about the games. Here a group of friends get together and go watch them.”

Ovcharov noted that the gymnasiums are much nicer in America than in Russia.

Henrik Hansen, an exchange student at Lakeland High School, says schools there are based around one’s career choice (i.e. an aspiring electrician would take related courses in high school).

They do have required classes in Sweden. Henrik has been learning to speak English since the fourth grade. Other required classes include math and Swedish.

Hansen has been attending school with the same group of about 30 students for all of high school. The different groups of students all take the same courses and move from class to class together.

Instead of using periods, his school uses a college-like schedule, where there can be anywhere from five to 30 minutes between classes. In addition, most students usually have at least an hour for lunch.

High schools sports in Sweden are nonexistent. Sports teams do exist, but all are outside of school.

The Swedish student likes America’s strict drug laws and its drinking age. The Swedish do not have a set drinking age, he said, and some begin drinking alcohol at the age of 13.

But perhaps his favorite aspect of living in the U.S. has to do with driving. Not only is the age higher in his country to get a license, but they are expensive. Hansen paid 1,000 Kronas, the equivalent of more than $100 to get his motorcycle license.

Educational standards aside, a driver’s license can be a powerful incentive for a foreign teen to come to the United States.

Story contributors: Chas Phillips, Cristina Hawks, Steve Duman, Michelle Clark and Michael Staeb