Well, either my high school spanning suspicion that my mentioned English teacher has a bit too high standards (and hence the grading was done to this higher standard) is true or simply I don't do well on exams. Whatever's the case, my speaking grade is always the worst. On my Matura I got about 88% on Extended Level Written English, but got only 65% or so in Basic Level Spoken English. Regarding mentioned Dutchman, it's usually he who wants us to talk exclusively in Polish because he feels like any practice can help. Unless it's about our research project in which case we usually end up using English, and I have to say that it's not lacking in any respect. As a side note, Dutch seem to have an almost freakish affinity for foreign languages. After two years of learning Polish he approaches high school level of skill and his German is friggin' flawless.
Linguistically, Dutch is right in between English and German, so both languages are easy to pick up and get well at. Our own language is not as important as the languages we're surrounded by, so a lot of people learn two or three second languages in high school. I had courses in English, French and German. Some people also had Spanish and even Chinese was available.
First of all, damn! That's impressive as hell. Three extra languages in high school? Kudos! I would love this arrangement. Not that I feel like Polish is a bad language (or particularly good, I can talk for hours about fairly basic parts of it that confuse even the natives), but in my case it was: - 5/6 hours of Polish; - 3 hours of English (obligatory); - 2 hours of German (language you choose from the pool of available in said high school); per week each. Unless you are in language focused school (Cervantes for Spanish, Goethe for German, Polish-Japanese HS for Japanese (duh!)) where most of the subjects can be even taken in the dedicated language, there's not really much you can do aside of getting a tutor.Our own language is not as important as the languages we're surrounded by, so a lot of people learn two or three second languages in high school. I had courses in English, French and German. Some people also had Spanish and even Chinese was available.
I guess this is the right moment to explain that I went to a bit of a elitist, 'smart kids' high school (we call it gymnasium). At one point I had classes in 6 mandatory languages - Dutch, English, German, Latin, Greek and Frisian (a local language). Each 2 or 3 hrs a week. But as soon as I could drop them I did, so I now only know English, some conversational German and a bit of French.
Heh, same here. I was in high school that is famous for its insane mathematics and science programme. Suffice to say that I was a bit bored during first year at uni and for each recruitment season there is something like ~900 candidates for 50 places. I could recognise most people who qualified along with me from Polish Mathematical Competition finals. Elitism was a bit bothersome and shitty of some teachers though. Neither before nor after being there I've heard so many "Is that how our student ought to behave?!" or pretty damn annoying "Do you have any idea who you represent?!" that was ever used to reprimand for such reprehensible things like doodling in my own notebook :/. Gymnasium does not mean the same in Polish though. It's our word for what is basically junior high school, from 7th up to 9th grade. Liceum is our term for high school.I guess this is the right moment to explain that I went to a bit of a elitist, 'smart kids' high school (we call it gymnasium).
I never really competed in anything - none of the subjects interested me enough. Only noticed the elitism when I talked to other people in college about their high school experience. One of my best friends was leagues ahead of everyone in math. He competed in the International Mathematical Olympics twice, winning gold the second time in Argentina. He even made national news here. Did you happen to go to the IMO?
Unfortunately, no. I was always pretty close, but never did better than Silver on national level. Only best six can go. Same with physics. On the other hand, one time there were five Gold medallists from my class :D. Even then, I think only one or two qualified.Did you happen to go to the IMO?