Teen Corner

[Lirpaderp]

On 8/13/2017 at 3:21 PM, hippiecat said:

I've watched the show and nooo Todd is not a dick :D! The whole thing is a parody so all the characters are a bit weird but I still like it.

 

Oh. I thought they meant Bojack horseman is ace. That's who I was talking about.... I didn't even watch enough to know who Todd is. My brother showed me parts of it but it was usually right before jazz so I never saw an entire episode at a time

[GeekyAce]

On the topic of aces in pop culture, I first of completely back the idea of Amelie Poulain being ace. Second of all I have just finished the third book in a French series and I believed since book one that she was aro-ace but book two proved me wrong on the aromantic part and book three proved me on the asexual part and of course she could very well be demisexual and demiromantic, but it didn't feel like it and instead it got me annoyed towards the author, who probably doesn't know anything about asexuality, because she made clear that her reason for why the character was clearly not interested in romance or sex was because she needed to grow up, something hear every time I want to speak about myself being ace to my mum or even some of my friends, and that practically ruined a perfectly good series of books for me, just because I was annoyed at the author for something she probably didn't mean. 

[Tomterregen]

Wow it seems like every school in the US offers French haha :') 

My school offers Spanish, German and Mandarin Chinese as Second Foreign Languages, and Latin and Mandarin Chinese as Third Foreign Languages. English is mandatory for everyone as a First Foreign Language! 

And tbh, (no offend here I LOVE Canada and half of my family is from there) learning French and going to Quebec (where they speak French, so I guess American students go there?) to practice doesn't sound like the best idea  

[PixieCat]

15 minutes ago, Aryaaaa said:

learning French and going to Quebec (where they speak French, so I guess American students go there?) to practice doesn't sound like the best idea  

They also speak a different dialect of French in Quebec than regular French, so it'd be a bit confusing not to know all the terms and stuff

[GeekyAce]

Like every one is talking about languages right now, I guess I'll do to.

English is the mandatory first foreign language here, then we have second languages, that are also mandatory, Portuguese, Spanish and German in my school ( I do Portuguese if you wondered but probably didn't ) and then third languages Japanese, Russian and Italian in my "futur" school, that are an option. You also have "old languages" ( not sure how you people say in english, and I can't ask my mum right now so... let's just say it's that ) like Latin and Ancient Greek ( I do both. Woohoo three extra hours of class !!!! Totally worth it to be honest. )

[hippiecat]

16 hours ago, Lirpaderp said:

Oh. I thought they meant Bojack horseman is ace. That's who I was talking about.... I didn't even watch enough to know who Todd is. My brother showed me parts of it but it was usually right before jazz so I never saw an entire episode at a time

Yeah no, Bojack's definitely not ace :D. But he's a dick so you're right on that. Todd is his best friend on the show.

 

Aand yeah about languages: I've studied English and Swedish as mandatory foreign languages at school (okay Swedish isn't technically a foreign language here but whatever) and also optional German. I'm now beginning Mandarin Chinese as well, yay ^^ (I've finished high school so I'm not studying any of those other languages anymore).

[Alexhandro0515]

My school only offers Spainish to middle schoolers but offers Spainish and online French classes to Middle schoolers...

 

And PS I'm new here! Hello everyone🍰🍰🍰!!!

[MoldyFruitCake]

8 hours ago, PixieCat said:

They also speak a different dialect of French in Quebec than regular French, so it'd be a bit confusing not to know all the terms and stuff

Honestly, we're only a 2nd grade level in the first place, so some Canadian slang didn't hurt us. Plus, we couldn't afford to go to France, Canada was about 1/10 the cost!

[dragon_nerd]

On 16 August 2017 at 0:56 AM, notfeelingit98 said:

Honestly, I took a french class since I was 14 and I can't put together simple sentences. I'm a sham.

I have found the most important sentence in French is

Je ne parle pas Français

[dragon_nerd]

And to all those who are new,

                                                    CAKE!!!

[GeekyAce]

7 hours ago, dragon_nerd said:

And to all those who are new,

                                                    CAKE!!!

I could tell myself that eating two whole cakes for breakfast isn't a good idea but who am I kidding. 

 

Edit : My conscience is really making life hell right now because I didn't credit the artist, so I should mention this image is from a video of Overly Sarcastic Productions on YouTube. https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=61nuXrvqNgI

[Demidemigod]

On 8/16/2017 at 2:52 AM, GeekyAce said:

On the topic of aces in pop culture, I first of completely back the idea of Amelie Poulain being ace. 

Yes! 

[notfeelingit98]

My school offers German, French, Spanish and Russian as second foreign languages. English is mandatory. And there were courses of Latin and Mandarin Chinese, but I don't know many people that were taking those.

The thing with languages here is that it depends on what teacher you get a lot. Because some of them are the "one lecture ahead of the people I'm teaching" kinda people, so if the class is divided between two teachers, one half can in time lead discussions in fluent English and the other one will spend the lessons fighting their teacher that "pear" isn't pronounced the same way as "spear" (true story).

 

[Tomterregen]

On 8/16/2017 at 10:45 PM, Alexhandro0515 said:

My school only offers Spainish to middle schoolers but offers Spainish and online French classes to Middle schoolers...

 

And PS I'm new here! Hello everyone🍰🍰🍰!!!

Hello!!! Welcome here!!! 

[Dreammaker]

Hm. I guess my school just sucks then.

Haha who am I kidding all American schools suck. Hey all you people who don't live in the US, do your school systems suck? I could go on for a good while about how bad our schools are here.

Edit: Oh, and I see there's someone from Finland! @hippiecat, are schools there really as awesome as I've been told?

[hippiecat]

8 hours ago, Dreammaker said:

Hm. I guess my school just sucks then.

Haha who am I kidding all American schools suck. Hey all you people who don't live in the US, do your school systems suck? I could go on for a good while about how bad our schools are here.

Edit: Oh, and I see there's someone from Finland! @hippiecat, are schools there really as awesome as I've been told?

Well, I guess they're better than most :D. Although now all of these political decisions have been made about changing up the school system a lot (the curriculum and a bunch of other stuff), so I was one of the last to finish high school with the "old system". Let's just hope things are changing for the better and not the worse.

[dragon_nerd]

18 hours ago, Dreammaker said:

Hm. I guess my school just sucks then.

Haha who am I kidding all American schools suck. Hey all you people who don't live in the US, do your school systems suck? I could go on for a good while about how bad our schools are here.

Depends on what you want to learn I suppose. I did (I can say did now, hard to believe I've finished high school) English curriculum in the Middle East (UAE, I'm an expat brat what can I say). So sex ed was/is illegal but other than that it was fine

[Tomterregen]

11 hours ago, Dreammaker said:

Hm. I guess my school just sucks then.

Haha who am I kidding all American schools suck. Hey all you people who don't live in the US, do your school systems suck? I could go on for a good while about how bad our schools are here.

Edit: Oh, and I see there's someone from Finland! @hippiecat, are schools there really as awesome as I've been told?

I'm French, and does my school system suck? Oh well... I've been an exchange student in America during year 10, so I guess I can compare them? 

I honestly thought that school is the US was SO relaxed, the teachers were so nice! And you guys have less classes then we do in France. Apart from that, I thought it was pretty interesting (the classes, and the clubs, and the sports! That was cool!) 

I just finished Year 12 in France, and we have this big graduation exam (actually a part of this exam is taken in Year 11) that determines your life haha. Well in my school at least? I know not all schools are like mine but we worked so much. I had classes from 8 to 6 every single day, and basically studied all the time. But I actually liked it, so from my point of view the system didn't suck too much. 

Oh well, this answer is really confused. I'm sorry guys!!

[time traveller jedi]

7 hours ago, dragon_nerd said:

Hey all you people who don't live in the US, do your school systems suck

I'm brazilian, and our school system sucks  (like almost everything in my country). To begin with, our public system of education is deplorable (I'm lucky I can study in a private school, otherwise, I wouldn't be able to speak in English with you guys). In some public schools, there aren't chairs or clean bathrooms.

We can't also pick areas of interest, since all of the subjects are compulsory, and I have to study like crazy stuff I know will be useless for me. We just... memorize it, and, despite knowing that some subjects we take don't make sense for our futures, it's our only chance to get into a good university. Our system kills creativity, since it's 110% focused on the national exams (kinda like the A-levels or the SAT, I guess), which are getting more and more competitive every year. Public universities, however, are good, but since Brazil is in a deep economical crisis, they're runing out of money, and most of them only have conditions to work well until the end of this year. I'll graduate from high school in 2 and a half years, and I have plans for my future, but things are getting worse every day. Honestly? I'm losing hope. 

I hope the situation is better where you guys live... 

[will123]

17 hours ago, Dreammaker said:

Hm. I guess my school just sucks then.

Haha who am I kidding all American schools suck. Hey all you people who don't live in the US, do your school systems suck? I could go on for a good while about how bad our schools are here.

Edit: Oh, and I see there's someone from Finland! @hippiecat, are schools there really as awesome as I've been told?

To listen to some people here in Ontario, the 'public' school system sucks and they send their kids to Catholic schools even though their family isn't RC. My brother and and I both went to the same high school that supposedly has a really lousy rating. We can read and write and successfully completed apprenticeships. We were never a burden on society, so I'll give my school a passing grade.

[Dreammaker]

2 hours ago, time traveller jedi said:

I'm brazilian, and our school system sucks  (like almost everything in my country). To begin with, our public system of education is deplorable (I'm lucky I can study in a private school, otherwise, I wouldn't be able to speak in English with you guys). In some public schools, there aren't chairs or clean bathrooms.

We can't also pick areas of interest, since all of the subjects are compulsory, and I have to study like crazy stuff I know will be useless for me. We just... memorize it, and, despite knowing that some subjects we take don't make sense for our futures, it's our only chance to get into a good university. Our system kills creativity, since it's 110% focused on the national exams (kinda like the A-levels or the SAT, I guess), which are getting more and more competitive every year. Public universities, however, are good, but since Brazil is in a deep economical crisis, they're runing out of money, and most of them only have conditions to work well until the end of this year. I'll graduate from high school in 2 and a half years, and I have plans for my future, but things are getting worse every day. Honestly? I'm losing hope. 

I hope the situation is better where you guys live... 

Yeah, I've been told by a couple of people who've been to Brazilian public schools that the system sucks, especially the part about killing creativity. From what I can tell, it's even worse there than in America. I wish you the best of luck.

1 hour ago, will123 said:

To listen to some people here in Ontario, the 'public' school system sucks and they send their kids to Catholic schools even though their family isn't RC. My brother and and I both went to the same high school that supposedly has a really lousy rating. We can read and write and successfully completed apprenticeships. We were never a burden on society, so I'll give my school a passing grade.

Personally, I think there's room for improvement everywhere. Just because you don't live in poverty doesn't necessarily mean there's no better way to live. Personally I think there are a lot of ways students can be very intelligent that many school systems try to squish out of them.

Isn't it funny though, I've been thinking I might like to be a teacher. I don't think very well of my country's school system, and I only recently realized that banging on the doors from the outside won't do much. I always though't I'd be a bad teacher because almost every teacher I've ever had has used a lecture-based, teacher-centered teaching style. They say, "here's what you need to know. Now tell me all that stuff right back. Yes, you need to know it. No, you can't think anything different." Only recently have I discovered that there's such thing as something called a "student-centered" teaching style, where the teacher is simply a conduit and a facilitator of the learning process, but the active learning is engaged in by the students instead of just the teacher. Now THAT sounds like something I'd enjoy. It would be a very difficult thing to work in with the current school system in America, but it sounds doable enough.

[dragon_nerd]

1 minute ago, Dreammaker said:

They say, "here's what you need to know. Now tell me all that stuff right back. Yes, you need to know it. No, you can't think anything different." Only recently have I discovered that there's such thing as something called a "student-centered" teaching style, where the teacher is simply a conduit and a facilitator of the learning process, but the active learning is engaged in by the students instead of just the teacher.

Yes, but the "student centred" teaching is a pain in the neck for the students too. If the teachers let the student figure it out for themselves then if the student figures it out wrong the first time they remember the wrong thing and fail. It's like asking someone what remote to use to turn the volume down on the TV and they walk out of the room and tell you to figure it out and then write an essay on how you figured it out. After spending my whole life with the "student centered" learning I'd love it if a teacher just told me what to memorise and be done with it. Because guess what? When you've only had 4hrs of sleep because you've spent all night doing essays and practical write-ups and you've drunk so much coffee that you have a splitting headache you can't be creative.

[Dreammaker]

17 minutes ago, dragon_nerd said:

Yes, but the "student centred" teaching is a pain in the neck for the students too. If the teachers let the student figure it out for themselves then if the student figures it out wrong the first time they remember the wrong thing and fail. It's like asking someone what remote to use to turn the volume down on the TV and they walk out of the room and tell you to figure it out and then write an essay on how you figured it out. After spending my whole life with the "student centered" learning I'd love it if a teacher just told me what to memorise and be done with it. Because guess what? When you've only had 4hrs of sleep because you've spent all night doing essays and practical write-ups and you've drunk so much coffee that you have a splitting headache you can't be creative.

Well obviously that doesn't sound like it would work very well. :/ That's not really what I meant? Sounds awful.

See, most of the reason I hate school is because while the teacher's showing everyone else a bunch of examples of archetype vs stereotype, or lecturing on the Reformation and its influence on the development of democracy, I'm ready to get started on the worksheet, or it's been passed out already, have already finished, and am bored out of my mind.

Now, there are other students who didn't understand before and are absolutely lost at that point, and won't be able to do the worksheet no matter how much time they're given because they still don't understand. My idea of the student-centered method is, students like me who can be done with half the class period left can be allowed to finish that worksheet and move on to something else (another assignment for the same class, homework for another class, or even talking quietly on occasion, etc), while the teacher has time with the other students to explain what they don't understand. There's more of an individual process of learning, more autonomy, at least as much as can be allowed in my school system, and everyone is allowed to go at their own pace.

Of course this isn't a perfect model, as it's not like I could just flip around the school schedule completely just in one class, but I feel like it would be some level of improvement upon the institution of the school system created for the industrial age, which has long since passed. Obviously it takes quite a bit of finesse and sensitivity to the students' needs, but I would feel better trying to do something than nothing at all.

Edit: Oh, and I'm not just talking about this particular style of teaching, either! Class discussions, sharing of opinions and ideas, more often than not choosing between working in groups or alone (though sometimes students may need to be made to do the opposite of the one they usually choose), and many small things that would make a world of difference could also be done! Honestly it's probably just me wanting to fulfill my wish to be more independent for others since it's not something I can get for myself.

[BionicPi]

20 hours ago, Dreammaker said:

Hm. I guess my school just sucks then.

Haha who am I kidding all American schools suck. Hey all you people who don't live in the US, do your school systems suck? I could go on for a good while about how bad our schools are here.

Edit: Oh, and I see there's someone from Finland! @hippiecat, are schools there really as awesome as I've been told?

Meh, mine's alright.

[time traveller jedi]

6 hours ago, Dreammaker said:

Yeah, I've been told by a couple of people who've been to Brazilian public schools that the system sucks, especially the part about killing creativity. From what I can tell, it's even worse there than in America. I wish you the best of luck.

Thanks <3. But, know what, we need more than luck. We need serious politicians who will take care of the people instead of their personal interests, and serious ordinary citizens who aren't corrupted and who will make themselves be heard. I love my country, but sometimes I wish I could go away... and just live in a place where I could be creative and study more of what I love and write stories instead of essays all. the. time. Go looking for some shelter with a suitcase full of dreams...

 

6 hours ago, Dreammaker said:

! Class discussions, sharing of opinions and ideas, more often than not choosing between working in groups or alone (though sometimes students may need to be made to do the opposite of the one they usually choose), and many small things that would make a world of difference could also be done! Honestly it's probably just me wanting to fulfill my wish to be more independent for others since it's not something I can get for myself.

YES

Y E S

Y   E   S

School isn't just about learning chemistry, maths, english and geography, etc. It's about becoming a better and more complete human being. There's no meaning on being the ultimate badass in all of the fields of knowledge or getting A's all year long if you can't respect the ones who are different from you or have an open mind to the world that surrounds you. In my school, teachers just toss subjects at us, and competition between students is encouraged by the direction (UGH!). There's no space for discussions or sharing of ideas. What about the human aspect of the learning process? We're being treated as robots, not as the multidimensional people we are. I could go on a giant rant here, but I'll tell myself to stop, lol. Sometimes, I just need to vent a little about things that affect thousands of young brazilian – and latinx, because in latin america things aren't going well, either – people so much (and so negatively!)... and there's nothing we can do about it. *sighs*

[Liz_Rd]

On 8/18/2017 at 6:33 PM, Dreammaker said:

Hm. I guess my school just sucks then.

Haha who am I kidding all American schools suck. Hey all you people who don't live in the US, do your school systems suck? I could go on for a good while about how bad our schools are here.

Honestly I got lucky with my school system. A few of the high schools in the county have magnet programs (because they attract interested students) that you can apply for in the last year of middle school, then if you get in you can go to another school in the county with a specialized focus (for example, I'm in the international studies program) and then you get to have classes with other people in the program, all of which care about being there and learning. Same with the teachers too. I do wish that high school taught us how to do things like taxes or maybe how to recognize the early symptoms of treatable diseases (physical or mental) so normal people can stop a problem before it gets bad, you know things that could make the world a better place. 

 

Also I've started applying to Universities and am seriously questioning why it would cost less for me to go to university in Canada than go to another state for my higher education. Of the 4 universities I'm planning on applying to, unless i get a scholarship that gets me in-state tuition for that school, the school I'm applying to in Canada is the cheapest option because my state doesn't have the academic program I am looking for.

 

That being said, I am immensely grateful to be going through the American public school system instead of Brazil or somewhere in latin America (best of luck to you guys) 

[Tintinfan]

On 18/08/2017 at 11:33 PM, Dreammaker said:

Hm. I guess my school just sucks then.

Haha who am I kidding all American schools suck. Hey all you people who don't live in the US, do your school systems suck? I could go on for a good while about how bad our schools are here.

Edit: Oh, and I see there's someone from Finland! @hippiecat, are schools there really as awesome as I've been told?

I'm British and to be honest our schooling is confused. Firstly we don't learn foreign languages early enough- only start in secondary. This means that we are a bit(a lot) useless at them. 

Then there are the type of schools. Public schools- fee paying (what a misnomer) where classes are very small so students get a lot of attention

State school- payed by government and can vary from very good to rubbish. Classes are a bit bigger.

 

Then there are ofted inspections where teachers and the school is inspected and given a grade. So for the inspection time teachers will have different lesson plan.

 

 

Although I complain I went to a good school. It's just some parts of the system are a bit off.

[Liz_Rd]

I have a question for you guys.

 

So I haven't come out to my parents yet, but I would like to and kinda want to do it in a fun way. I know they will be fine with it, though I might have to explain what being asexual is to them.

 

You guys got any ideas for fun ways for me to do this?

[SoGoPsychotic]

1 hour ago, Liz_Rd said:

I have a question for you guys.

 

So I haven't come out to my parents yet, but I would like to and kinda want to do it in a fun way. I know they will be fine with it, though I might have to explain what being asexual is to them.

 

You guys got any ideas for fun ways for me to do this?

I was planning to do it by asking my mom to buy me some stuff for asexual awareness week in October like a few funny shirts or some stickers and the like

No heads up or anything just out of the blue "hey will you buy me this shirt?" Should make for an amusing reaction since I don't think she'll really care

[MoldyFruitCake]

You could make a cake and write it on there........