Thought I'd share with you a few differences between German life and American life. 

1.  Students are allowed to have a pocket knife at school. 

2.  In Nebensatze, all verbs go at the end of the sentence.  (My classmates like to help me finish my sentence because I get lost in these type of sentences.  By the time I get to then end, I've forgotten what my verb was.  As I pause to think, my classmates fill in the verb for me.  This has happened often enough that now the teacher tells the class to be quiet and let me finish my sentence!)

 
3.  We have a test every 7 chapters. You are expected to know the information from all seven chapters for your test.  Unless your name is Hunter and have a teacher who is giving a test after every other chapter.  Hmmmm.  Differences between having a German for a teacher and a non-German for a teacher.

 
 4.  Grades are not A,B,C,D,F, but are 1,2,3,4,5,6 with one being the best grade and 6 being the worst.  1.8 is not as good as a 1.2.  In other countries the grading is 1-10 with 10 being the best.  Of course, everyone wants to know what happened to the 'E' in our grading system.  Wait until I tell them that today it is A,B,C,D and U!!


  5.  The school kids ride the public transportation to school and are not dropped off right at school but near school.  Likewise, they take the public transportation system when going on field trips too. 

  6.  Teachers can put signs on the kids that say "IDIOT."  Honest to goodness.  A friend was sharing this with me the other day.  I don't remember what she said the kid did, but afterwards the teacher told the kid that he/she got to wear the (ID- ay- o-ta) tag for the rest of the day.    She said she did not have a clue as to what the teacher was saying until she read the tag!  (I checked it out.  That translates the same in German, although I don't think it is a normal German word.) 

So as I started out saying, "That is so un-American!!"