Jillian TS #11

Date/Time: May 31, 2017; 9:00-10:00 A.M.
Location: Home via Skype (Tallahassee/Seoul)
Topic: American versus Korean High School
Feedback: Article correction and word choice. Instead of saying "a summer course" she pluralized it, and it did not fit in the context of the sentence. She self-corrected after I asked how many classes she will actually take next month. We also had to clear up the difference between "small amount" and "little amount." It was just word choice usage here.

Soyoung told me she was curious about American high schools since she watched Glee. I must say, her stereotypes were all over the place but generally pretty accurate. She asked if all American teenagers smoke in high school. I told her no, but it is common. I mentioned how vaping has become a little more popular than smoking, but traditional smoking is still pretty common. She told me that many Korean high schoolers smoke, most likely due to stress. Soyoung told me that high school is hard and sometimes students can feel overwhelmed. Drinking is very common, too, for many Korean teenagers. It is common in America as well, but I do not think for the same reasons.

Class sizes was a huge difference, too. American high school classes are roughly 20 to 25 students, sometimes more, depending on the size of the school. In Korea, however, classes can range from 30 to 40 students, an overwhelming amount from an American perspective. I told her American classes would be chaos if they were that large. Many American students do not focus the same way as Korean students. She told me that Korean students are very serious and classes generally always remain orderly.

We also briefly talked about school lunches, but it was not much of a discussion. I showed her pictures of American school lunches and how underwhelming some of them are. I told her I always brought my lunch and ate in a teacher's classroom. Lunches sound a lot healthier over in Korea, but she did not say they were perfect either.