Wow. i am amazed how much people have been answering! People are really trying to help. I will try to give the view of a foreigner who knows the USA a bit, so it might be intresting for the US citizens too. Please correct me when i am wrong

from Samster

Need answers from americans but well other people from europe feel free to add in like bully jesus.

Since bully jesus is big like hulk & he uses the name bully, i'm sure he loves to beat up people when in high school. biggrin

I feel honored being listed here. Thank you sam!
Actually, i have american nationality too, and so i am even more so permitted to answer.
If you ask me directly i will tell you where my nickname comes from.😉

I have a better question:

Thread starter: Are you above the age of 7?

I mean, some of these questions are just...

while it may seem for you that a lot of these questions are stupid, i can sort of explain why even small ( senseless seeming ) questions can be important for a foreigner.
As a north american you probably underestemate how dominating USA is in kultur. ( TV, MUSIK ) Here in Germany i would say 80% of television series are american. How many german TV shows have you ever seen? One maybe. Anyway, because of stuff like that foreigners that never go to america get a completly false hollywood view of the USA. I don't want to know how many romanian kids watch Hip Hop videos and actually think that thats what LA is all about.
So it is a good thing imo if people try to find out the truth. I knew somebody who went to china to teach english, and all his students wanted to know about was high school romance crap.

               Anyway, i hope that makes his questions somewhat more understandable. 

        To Samster,   
             I won't try to answer all your questions. I have only visited american high schools or talked to peole about the subject, so i couldn't give detailed answers anyway.   I think instead it would be better to give you some overall info that might be able to help you to put the picture together yourself. 

1. the USA and its school systems are very split. The area the school is in determines the ethnic groups, the amount of school funding, different school laws, religion, and so on. For example, i think in certain states it is forbidden to say homosexuality isn't an abnormality, in a different state a kid got thrown out of school for wearing a t-shirt with:"proud to be straight" written on it. And as diverse as the local make up is, so are the schools. Many towns will have a cathlic school, a public one, a private one and so on. Also, these schools have a lot of leeway to make their own rules. ( well, compared to the state school system in germany, and i am sure much more than in China )
   So there is no way to give a simple answer to your question about american high schools. They are way to diverse

2.american high schools can be fricking huge ( again, compared to what i am used to from my village in germany ) But imagine a high school with 4000 students for 4 years. Of course you can't know everybody, and so groups have to form to a lesser extent. Also, americans tend to move pretty often, whitch means there is always a coming and going among the students. ( for a comparission, i went to the same school from 5th to 12th grade with pretty much the same people, besides the ones who had to repeat a grads ( about 10%) and the ones who dropped out ( about another 10%), so when i left school i knew everybody from my grade, the one above me, and the one beneath me)

3. School Spirit. In the US, exspecially school sport teams are very very very important. So are things like homecoming, prom and all that. There are a lot of traditions to uphold and so on. ( for example, going to proms in formal dressing, boys asking girls to dance, and so on )

4. Coolness, Popularity: can't compare it to china, but i remember that even in grade school (i was in the US for the first three school years ) being cool was very important. No real rule here, is different for each school.

5.Kissing publicly: Is generally excepted in most of the US, don't think any teachers are happy about it in class. Many religios schools will probably be strict about human contact. Mormons exspecially.

6.Going to the same school doesn't mean you have the same classes. Thats why there is a lot of class changing. As a student there a lot of options, similar to university

                Well, i guess thats all i can say for certain,    oh yes, physical punishment is illegal! Sexual Harrasment isn't as touchy as a topic as it was but it is a big issue. For example, i knew a girl whos basketball teacher wouldn't give her a ride home because he might get in trouble for alleged sexual harrasment. 

           Ok Sam, hoped that helped

Thread Starter: Okay, thank God you aren't European.

My mother is from England, and she said that outside of the classes, highschool atmosphere is virtually the same from here (Canada) and England.

But some of your questions are really... Let's just say they made me sigh out loud.

-GGpX

I run Illuminati-Manga. You're welcome.

I definitely understand the bad rep Americans have gotten in other countries. Actually, in one way, that fact is reinforced every time I pick up a manga, manhwa, etc. The speech patterns and manners of people here, and I include myself, seem very rude by comparison.

I just graduated high school last June, so it was pretty recent that I was in school. Personally, I think that the stereotypes and cliques in some of the movies out right now are exaggerated to a very unreasonable degree; I find it almost disgusting.

For a public high school in the states, mine was fairly small--approx. 200 people per year. Which was small enough that you got to recognize just about everyone by sight, but large enough that it would be difficult to get to know everybody's names and get to know them.

Corporal punishment, and romantic/sexual relationships between students and teachers are absolutely prohibited, and will, if discovered, lead to the teacher losing his or her job, as the absolute least severe consequence possible.

My classes in high school always had about 20-30 people in them, although some (particularly honors or advanced placement courses) had less. My AP Spanish class, for instance, had only 6 people! We ended up with a pretty close relationship by the end of the year.

As for switching classes, I think it's a very small price to pay for the options we have in choosing our classes. For instance, my honors art classes, which were more intense/time-consuming than high school students in an ordinary public high school would normally have the opportunity to take...they were really amazing, and it was always exciting to choose what to take.

There wasn't a manga or anime club at my high school. There is one at my university though; every Saturday night we meet in a lecture hall and watch episodes of animes. It's pretty cool.

Foreign students---at my school anyways, you were at least as likely, if not more, to become popular if you were a foreign exchange student. In the time I was in high school we had students from France (she was on a sports team with me), from Japan (she was in my art class), and a student from Italy, although I didn't know her very well. No one bullied them or discriminated against them. Then again, I lived in a suburb, in a town with a fairly open and friendly atmosphere.

There are definitely not assigned tables, but people do tend to develop habits and sit at the same place and with the same people fairly often. Basically though, at least at my high school, unless there's someone at the table who you really don't get along with, if there's room to sit, you can. However, you get used to sitting in the same spot---I've gotten frustrated because my friends have suddenly not been where they usually sit, and I couldn't find them, hehehe.

Some people absolutely do love to target and ridicule other students, and it sucks to be a victim of that---speaking from experience, as a girl who spent a couple of hours getting gum out of her hair in her first year of high school (too stubborn to cut it off when that happened; I succeeded though!)---but in my experience it isn't taken to the same extent as is portrayed in movies. Again though, this may be due to the attitudes of the town we were raised in...well, I actually moved there when I was 11...

Well, there may have been things I didn't notice... ;-) We voted for something called superlatives my senior year (such as most likely to succeed, best hair, class flirt), and I won class daydreamer, supposedly by a landslide...I really didn't think I had attracted enough attention that I would get a superlative...maybe that's just proof of how oblivious I am, hehehe

Is physical punishment still used there? Because in my place there's no detention thing. If you make a mistake the teacher smack or kick you right away.

Definitely no more physical punishment. I think they phased that out around 15-17 years ago when I was in the lower elementary grades. "Child Abuse" or whatever. Here in america you'll have an activist for just about anything. The teachers can't touch students at all. If they do, the student can sue.

Is it true that students there can sue the school or teachers? If a teacher touch a girl student's hand accidentally or not the girl's really going to file a sexual harrasment lawsuit? And what's that first amandment thing that always somehow connected to school? In those tv shows the students always have problem with the school about 1st amandment and always end up in court.

Yes. The first amendment just basically says we can say/write whatever we want (as long as it isn't libel/slander).

Is the teacher in America really still young, beautiful & attractive? Does an affair between teachers and students always happen there?[/quote
My teachers weren't exactly pretty 😉 I think that's just a TV thing.

[quote]What teacher assistant do actually? You get a special extra grade if you're a teacher assistant?

Grade papers, teach when the professor is away, holds office hours and study sessions, helps students, etc.

What is that science fair thing? Is it a mandatory thing for all students?

I never did the science fair, so I don't really know anything about it. I went to a few though.

And last what's that cheerleader gals all about ... Wonder if Manick ever date one...

Nope! 😛

wow, everybody really put in the effort to write long long replies. 😀

Well I think it is a very good topic and a perfect opportunity to set the record straight! 🙂

Quote from bully_jesus

wow, everybody really put in the effort to write long long replies. 😀

Well, they're long questions~

A just ruler amongst tyrants

Quote from lambchopsil

Bean, some of these questions can apply to just about any school because of what human nature is.

Group divisions: Come on. People are ALWAYS finding differences between others. It's just how extreme does one go with it. Do we just not like them? Or do we hate them so bad that we need genecide? Or maybe we coexist and help each other out? I've experienced/seen times where the athlete and the nerd are best of friends~

The other questions are okay from the standpoint that they've never experienced it, but still, some of them are pretty easy to discover or have can already be related to people in other countries. It just depends on the age of this guy and how far his schooling went. (It's entirely possible that he's home schooled...Gotta wait for his reply.)

Just for the record, I'm an anthropology major and I'm well aware of how the Endogamous vs. Exogamous principle works.

At any rate none of these questions strike me as particularly bizarre for someone growing up in a poor community in China, from what I know of the place.

Quote from samsters24

(quote)The person might be from Norway or something and not really know these things about American school life. I've met a number of people online from Scandinavia, Germany, and the Netherlands who wrote English flawlessly. I doubt even a Brit would know the answer to a lot of these questions though. We Americans have a pretty bad reputation as it is for being self-centric. Please remember that not everywhere is like America.(/quote)

I'm way above 7. Almost 30. 😀

And I'm from China. But moving a lot around Asia for work since small though. Because of that I ended up knowing more English than my homeland language. The employer said English is a must if you want to pass the customs.

Ah, ok. I misinterpreted something you said that made me think you were from Europe. That makes a little more sense.

Quote from samsters24

I just want to know what America is like and I'm curious how you spend school life in America since it's completely different. There's almost no activity here all you do is just study inside the classroom.

Also back then there's some scholarship program thing from some america's company or something that you can study in US and work for their factory at the same time. Wonder how's my life will be if I move to america. 😀

Used to live in a small village and there's no tv. News and infos about America are censored & considered forbidden. I think it's still like that even now. An old friend told me they block news sites about America.

And also people there always talking about going to america and you will be rich. America is a dream land thing. At that time all i know about America is it's the place of Alien, UFO, James Bond & Superman and the people are all giants. 😀

In school here you're stuck in a small hot classroom with almost 100 students for like 10 hours. They only give you twice 10 minutes break to go to the toilet.

Teachers come in not like there where you have to move around. Even the PE class is in the classroom too. I remembered have to jump the table for some obstacle sprint thing lesson or something. Only outdoor PE lesson when it's about badminton or ping pong.

Don't know about now but I think it's still the same as ever.

There's no group thing in school. People know each other since all families work at the same place and all know since small already.

No popular thing here since all look the same, wear the same, act the same. All too busy to study & too afraid of the teacher so there's no time for that popular thing. It's nothing like america. School is basically just a place to avoid work at that time. That's how it is in my time or my place anyway. Maybe it's a little different now.

Can I ask a few more questions?

Is physical punishment still used there? Because in my place there's no detention thing. If you make a mistake the teacher smack or kick you right away.

Physical punishment is illegal and has not been used for decades. I suppose it might happen in rare instances but as was stated, a teacher can get in a lot of trouble for that.

That sort of physical punishment does exist still in some families though, and limited physical punishment by parents is legal in most states I believe.

Quote from samsters24

Is it true that students there can sue the school or teachers? If a teacher touch a girl student's hand accidentally or not the girl's really going to file a sexual harrasment lawsuit?

Um, accidentally touching a girl's hand is not considered sexual harrasment or grounds for a lawsuit. A teacher "accidentally" groping a girl's breasts could get them in trouble.

Quote from samsters24

And what's that first amandment thing that always somehow connected to school? In those tv shows the students always have problem with the school about 1st amandment and always end up in court.

That is..... complicated. The 1st Amendment is part of the U.S. Constitution and is basically The Right To Free Speech. I don't know how it would be specifically connected to school. Some people commonly misinterpret the 1st Amendment's reach. For instance, it does not give someone the right to knowingly lie about someone in a way that can cause that person's reputation serious harm (that's called "slander" and in print it's called "libel").
The Right To Free Speech also does not allow one to yell "FIRE!" in a crowded theater or purposely incite a riot. It also cannot protect you from being fired if you yell at your boss or something like that.

However, it does give the right for someone to express any opinion they please, no matter how unpopular or controversial. To this end it allows for free and public criticism, mockery, or satire of any public or private institution or individual, including the U.S. Government, and also including schools. The U.S. Constitution was written in 1787 after the United States won their independence from Britain in the American Revolutionary War, and included a number of guaranteed freedoms that they had not necessarily had under British rule, Free Speech being among the most cherished, and it is something deeply ingrained in American society.

Quote from samsters24

Is the teacher in America really still young, beautiful & attractive?

Most are not. I did have two or three female teachers that did fit this description, but they were exceptions. I also knew of at least one male teacher that a lot of girls seemed to have a crush on.

Quote from samsters24

Does an affair between teachers and students always happen there? 😛

Uh... this is pretty rare, and can lead to a teacher being fired or even jailed. Affairs between college professors and students are more common (although this can still cost a professor his (or her) job). I had a Film Studies professor once who was rumored to be having an affair with a student (and he was married at the time).

Quote from samsters24

What teacher assistant do actually? You get a special extra grade if you're a teacher assistant?

We didn't have teacher's assistants in my high school, so I can't answer that. Teacher's Assistants in college are other students or graduate students who help a teacher teach a class in order to recieve college credit (they aren't also taking the same class that they help teach; they are assumed to be above that level). I believe Teacher's Assistants in high school aren't really the same thing though.

Quote from samsters24

What is that science fair thing? Is it a mandatory thing for all students?

This was mandatory for me from 5th grade through 8th grade. I had to come up with projects to research and display. My 5th, 6th, and 7th grade projects were all crap, but I got an award for my 8th grade project where I would measure how different materials would affect the volume of sound at different pitches. People who win their school science fair can sometimes compete in city-wide or state-wide competitions

Quote from samsters24

How american gals say about foreign students especially foreign asian students?

I didn't know any foreign Asians in high school. In college however I knew numerous Asian-Americans and foreign born Asians, including a Filipino who was my roommate who got me into anime. Some of the Asian Americans had white girlfriends. My Filipino roommate was very shy though.

EDIT: Asian guys with white girlfriends are more common than they used to be but they are still much less common than white guys with Asian girlfriends. Also, black guys with white girlfriends are also much more common than the reverse. Black/Asian couples are pretty unusual, although I did have a very good friend on college who was one-quarter black, one-quarter white, and half-Chinese.

Quote from samsters24

Can a foreign student ask an american gal out? Or there's an unwritten rule from the jocks that you stay away from our gal or we will beat u up kind of thing. 😀

There is no such rule. Jocks might beat up other kids that they perceive to be "weird" or outcasts, but this did not happen much in my school. There are some places where there might be racial divides within schools that can lead to racial tension and to fights but they don't generally involve Asians (mainly they involve whites, blacks, and Latinos).

Quote from samsters24

And last what's that cheerleader gals all about. Is the gals in cheerleaders team are really that special and must be treated real special? They really only date the guys from football team? Wonder if Manick ever date one... 😀

I did not have cheerleaders at my high school, sorry (most larger high schools do have these though). They don't "only date guys from the football team" though. The stereotype is that cheerleaders are mostly "elite" girls though, and

Quote from samsters24

Thanks for all your answers, guys. Really helpful. 🙂

No problem.
Anyway, what American movies or television shows are you taking as examples? A lot of these can show very skewed versions of reality, even when trying to deal with the latest cultural topics.

This thread is really funny. I had wondered about some of these things myself. I think popularity groups and cheerleaders are hilarious (as in so ridiculous) in movies, but I always thought it would be different in real life, of course. Movies show extremes.

Quote from Manick

Interesting question. I don't really know. Perhaps because its easier moving the students around than the materials for the class. For instance, in my math class, the room had chalkboards on 3 out of the 4 sides of the room so students could write on the board or the teacher could do a long derivation. Other than that though, I really don't know. Perhaps it's just another cultural thing?

I highly doubt it's a cultural thing... in here (my country, I mean) we do the same. ^___^ Like you said it's just being pratical.

I often see the misconception in anime and manga that "kissing" is the normal greeting or whatever when seeing someone (in america). This is not entirely true. While in some circumstances it is common for foreigners, typical people here do not kiss when they meet. However, there is an exception to this rule. Boyfriend/Girlfriend often kiss when they see each other. Also, it is very common to see a couple kissing in the hallway...

Actually I had wondered about that myself in anime/manga. It's not like I'm an expert on american culture or anything, but I'd never seen americans kissing as greeting. I thought it was more of an European thing... might be wrong though. 😐

Wow, will since my parents are in the us military i go to a DODDS school, which is supposedly better influenced in education.. but i dunno

all i can say is that in my old regular american highschool i got pretty mediocore grades of just C's and B's now in my DODDS highschool im getting A's and B's which is a lot better now haha..

also DODDS schools seemed to be really influenced by the US military since the US military pays the DODDS teachers more than regular teachers and such, also if parents are in the military the fee for school is free.. also i think the pay to get into a DODDS schools is much more expensive than a regular school

most people think DODDS schools are very strict since the military pays for the education, but its not strict at all, auctually its kind of less strict than a regular highschool.. although if you break the rules numerous times, you'll be deported (if you live overseas like in japan and you get expelled the goverment will send your parents back to the states, or you'll just live with a relative in the states)

also another benefit of being in a DODDS highschool we dont have to do community serivce, which is needed like 200 hrs to go to some universities and that if you graduate from a DODDS school you can get into universites a BIT easier, not easy just a teeny bit.. hehe

other than that my american DODDS highschool its basically the same as a regular highschool.. and im not saying DODDS schools are better than regular highschools.. its just pointing out the facts of what most other people say.. and its not like a private school where you wear uniforms or anything like that 😀

other than that my american DODDS highschool its basically the same as a regular highschool.. oh yeah DODDS schools are American schools just different

hate school so much... i hate to get up early 🙁

[img]http://a.imageshack.us/img267/5220/mikoto13.jpg[/img]

Quote from samsters24

Is it really that interesting like it shown on tv?

I guess since you are from china, lots of things are viewed differently and are usually quite prejudice. I am from Hong Kong, so I guess I can see where the stereotypes are coming from. So to answer that, no, not really. Elementary school would be like blend, little kids all playing together, very...normal like except for less homework than in China, and quite a bit more freedom and minus the uniforms. Then as you get older and advance in school, it gets a bit more group dividing. You have your group of friends and the groups start to not interact with the other groups as much. And slowly it'll get more and more that way. Still, less homework though.

Is it true that the students are divided into groups like nerds, preps or jocks thing?

Well, that only happens a bit in high school, it doesn't really have much do do with your status but more like your attitude. If you are outgoing, you'll get a lot of out going friends with somewhat the same interest.

Is there really a cool popular thing system? You really not allowed to talk to cool popular kids unless you're popular too? How can you become a popular kid in US school?

Well, I'm not too sure about 'not allowed'. I mean, you could but you'd look weird. As far as the so call 'cool/popular' thing...The way I see it, it is very subjective. I won't call myself a cool kid in school, but I won't call myself totally not popular. While I see the so call cool kids who always show off here and there...well, I view it as stupitity while other view it as cool.

Is it true that in the cafetaria there's a designated seats area for groups?

Not really...We tend to sit whereever we want. But there are the kind where since we always sit in this table, might as well always sit here.

Are those mean girls who loves to make fun of people and order you around like their slave really exist in US school? ;p

...I hate to say, but sorry for those slavery fetish out there. We don't have much in north america. Sure there are biotches who like to be mean and make fun of people, but you can always ignore them. I mean, why would you take orders from them. But usually these are just for fun kind of thing. My group of friends have a few girls who like to make fun of us and make us do stuff. But it isn't out of harmful intentions, it is just a joke or fun kind of thing.

Why you have to move and go to other class every time one class ends? You don't just stay in one class and different teachers come into class?

This is indeed quite a bit different from how it is in China. The system for classes here is that we as students have to move to different parts or departments of the school for other classes. My school has a hallway for english, then a different hallway for science. Etc.

What is that detention thing? Why the teachers lock the students in some kind of room?

This barely happens in my school, but as far as I know. If you are late or misbehave, you have to stay after class to make up for the time you disturbed the class or late for the class. A kind of punishment if you will.

Are those kissing and smooching things always happen there? Students allowed to kiss in class too? Is it just a common thing there?

Well...I don't have a girlfriend and all, but I will tell you what I see in school. Kissing and smooching in the hallway? Sure, there are even groping and making out/soft core porn if you will. As far as classroom goes, I won't say you are allowed in class, I mean...that's a bit overboard.

Is there a manga or anime club there? What you do in there usually? Heard from some friend that lots of fun things in school's anime or manga club.

Not in my school. For some reason, my school has very few anime/manga geeks. And hell, my school barely have any clubs.

How the students there treat foreign students? Heard local students love to intimidate and pick up fight with foreign students for no reason. Is it really that bad?

When I was in elementary, people loved to pick on me because I was chinese. Once you are in highschool though, people are more mature and won't actually make fun of foreigners.

How come there are lots of dancing events there?

Just the way the society works here, North American in general are more open and socialize then Asian countries.

What is that prom thing actually? Why people are so desperate to find a date to prom? Is it really embarassing to go alone?

This one I can't really answer, since I'm only in grade 11 and prom isn't till the end of grade 12. But here is my take on it.
I find it overrated, if you got a girl sure, if you don't too bad. I'm the silent type that barely likes social situations in the first place.

Is physical punishment still used there? Because in my place there's no detention thing. If you make a mistake the teacher smack or kick you right away.

If you do that here...be prepared for a lot of lawsuits.

Is it true that students there can sue the school or teachers? If a teacher touch a girl student's hand accidentally or not the girl's really going to file a sexual harrasment lawsuit? And what's that first amandment thing that always somehow connected to school? In those tv shows the students always have problem with the school about 1st amandment and always end up in court.

I have no clue what you mean by amandment. But as far as lawsuit goes, I'm not sure if they would sue just for touching the hand...but there are and there has been several lawsuits for sexual harassment a year.

Is the teacher in America really still young, beautiful & attractive? Does an affair between teachers and students always happen there? 😛

More than in China...but not that much more. There are like 2 teachers that are actually so call 'beautiful and young.' And affair between teachers and students...well, I haven't heard of any in my city yet.

What teacher assistant do actually? You get a special extra grade if you're a teacher assistant?

We don't have that system in my city for some reason...

What is that science fair thing? Is it a mandatory thing for all students?

Once again, don't have this in my city.

How american gals say about foreign students especially foreign asian students? Can a foreign student ask an american gal out? Or there's an unwritten rule from the jocks that you stay away from our gal or we will beat u up kind of thing. 😀

Depends how FOB (fresh of the boat. It is how we describe people who are still very native to their home country even though you are now in america) you are. I mean, this is very subjective for both sides, if the girl likes you. She'll go out with you, but if you pick to flirt with girlfriends of other people...I think beating up or things like that happen anywhere...

And last what's that cheerleader gals all about. Is the gals in cheerleaders team are really that special and must be treated real special? They really only date the guys from football team? Wonder if Manick ever date one... 😀

I wish we had cheerleaders in our school...T__T

Oh, by the way. I live in Canada, so it is a bit different from the US.

ive studied h.s and lower in an asian country and college on u.s..and all i can say is DONT STUDY ON US!!! if its college!!!!!

if tis h.s or lower come right over!

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...are we really that interesting? 😕

ya there is pretty much every ting you said there is serten seets for serten groups

wich kinda gets me mad because in my school there arnt alot of kids who like animes so your kind of a out cast....

I know im crazy, I live in my own little world