Where
is
the
Cafeteria?
by Rashmi Bhakta
The first day of my school was in
Devine, Texas. I was in 7th grade. I felt like a small fish in a
large pond, I felt alone because I saw everybody was sitting
individually. I was surprised because in India we seat three girls at
each desk. First, the teacher introduced me to the class, then she
told me what we were doing in class and she helped me with my
assignment because I didn't understand English very well.
I didn't know that we had to go to
cafeteria for lunch, so the teacher told me to go to cafeteria. I was
surprised because we eat lunch in our classroom in India. I didn't
make friends on the first day of school but after a week or so I made
four friends. The first day of school was very surprising.
The main thing I saw about U.S.
schools is that there is a lot of freedom in the schools and we have
to change classes. We don't have to buy books and boys and girls are
not separated. In the U.S. we take many small tests, but we do not
take entrance exams.
Probably the most striking difference
between
India
and The United States is
that in India we learn our subjects in three languages. We have to
learn Hindi and Gujarati, which is my own language. In India there
are different states and different languages. We also learn English
from the 3rd grade onwards. We study Math, Science, Geography,
Civics, History, Drawing and P.E. We don't have to change classes.
Instead the teacher comes to us. Boys and girls are separated, boys'
seats on one side of the classroom and girls' seats on other side of
the classroom. We take an entrance exam to go to college. In India we
have two different kinds of school, Gujarati schools and English
schools.
I think I like both
school systems,
in India and in the U.S. but I like the schools system in the U.S.
better. I think it depends on how the country is developed. India
is not a well developed country so it doesn't have good equipment and
other things in school, but The United States is a well developed
country so it has many things in school.
Other contributions by Rashmi
Bhakta:
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Last updated May 29, 1997.