Hungarian Schools

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Ok I'll tell you about my school life. About time, right?

I'm in primarily a first grade class. I have 21 students. 2 speak English really well because they've spent a ton of time in the states, 4 speak English pretty well, and 4 speak 0 amounts of English. The rest fall somewhere in the middle.

I have one little boy who speaks no English and is just so lost always. Even during the Hungarian lessons he looks lost. However, when he finally learns something, he only says that one thing, which is super cute. He comes up to me every day and says, "Good morning! Happy!" with a big ol' smile on his face. We've been doing "Thank you" "You're welcome" which pretty much everyone in the class understands. But when I say "thank you" to this kid, his response is "thank you." He's in my low group, and I think the small group time will help him a lot.

There's another little boy who I can't really gauge. He wanders off all the time and doesn't respond to his name. Even when the Hungarian teacher calls it, so I know it's not just me. When I get him to respond, he knows the right answer, but most of the time he's completely clueless. He has the cutest little voice though.

Hungarian schools are really interesting. The kids are in the same class together with the same teacher from grades 1-4. The class stays the same through 8th grade, but the teachers change. It gets them to build a community together, and the teacher already knows their levels and learning styles. It's pretty cool.

The kids also have no concept of self-image. For gym class they all go into a room together and just whip off all their clothes to change. Now, that's cute in 1st grade blah blah blah. But here's the thing. My fourth graders do it too. And it's not even a thing here because these kids have known each other forever.

The classes are 45 minutes long, and there's a break in between each class where the kids eat snack or go to recess for 10-15 minutes. So transition times aren't really a thing.

My kids call me "Kate" or "Miss Kate."

And apparently I'm going to some camp with the 5th and 6th graders next weekend???

Also, here's something that happened today. So I go to the teacher's room after school today, and Dora starts talking to me about what I want thrown away in my flat. I haven't cleaned the whole thing yet, so I didn't know for sure. Dora calls Peter and puts me on the phone with him. I told him to give me an hour to get home and then I'd have a better idea of what I need thrown away. (side note: today and tomorrow are apparently the days to throw out big things in my district). So I ask Peter to give me an hour and he goes "umm...well I'm already here. I just need permission to go into your flat." So that's all the warning I got for that. He took the rugs and pillows and is hopefully coming back to take away that red shelf? Well, whatever. I walked into my flat this afternoon and there was some woman there who spoke no English and was pointing at things, so I just nodded. Not sure what I agreed to.

Wine festival this weekend! And Jeej and Sheil are coming to Budapest tomorrow!!

Szieszto!

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