My School

School vs. university/college

At school (K-12), you have teachers and lessons; at university or college, you have professors and instructors, and lectures, discussion classes, and seminars. When  a professor gives a lecture, the students listen and take notes [write down the important information] but do not usually say much. In a discussion class, students discuss the subject and ask questions. A seminar is an advanced or postgraduate class in which students do independent research and then compare their results informally with the professor and other students. 

Exercises 

1. Read these sentences said by college students. What subject is each person studying?

"I'm concentrating on the modernist style and the work of Le Corbusier and Frank Lloyd Wright."  …architecture…

"The way we  use fertilizers is much more precise than it was twenty years ago."

"Travel and tourism are an important part of this industry."

"We're going to concentrate on Freud and Jung this term."

"I've been reading some books on time management."

"Expressionism was really a reaction to the work of the Impressionists."

"We've spent a lot of time on foreign policy and how it is affected by domestic issues."

"We're looking at ways that solar energy can be utilized."

      Now  mark the stress in each of your answers above and practice saying the words. Check the index or a dictionary for help with pronunciation. 

2. What do you call...

the money  students pay for their courses? …tuition…

the qualification you get at the end of four years at a university?

the name we  give students during this period at college?

teachers at a university/college?

an advanced  class where students discuss their research with a professor?

students studying for a second degree?

the study of one subject in great depth and detail, often to get new information?

the talks that students go to while they are at university or college? 

3. Replace the underlined words with different words that have the same meaning in the context.

Is he a postgraduate? …graduate  student…

Did she receive a college scholarship?

He's planning to go to junior college.

Where  did you go to college?

She's studying physics, I think.

I think they're doing research into the cause of asthma. 

4. How similar is higher education in Russia country?

Do  some students get a scholarship to study at university or college?

Is the tuition free in some colleges?

At what age do most students go to university or college?

4. How   long do most undergraduate courses last?

What  is your equivalent of the B.A. or B.S.?

Do  you have similar postgraduate degrees in your country? Explain. 

Supplementary Reading 

1. Another brick in the wall 

Read the text of the song written by a famous rock group Pink Floyd. What 2 grammar mistakes can you see in it? Why did the writer of the song make them?

We don´t need no education.

We don´t need no thought control.

No dark sarcasm in the classroom.

Teacher(s) leave them kids alone.

Hey teacher, leave them kids alone.

All in all, it´s just another brick in the wall.

All in all, you´re just another brick in the wall.

Glossary:

kids: children

all in all: in conclusion

brick: block you use to build (a house/wall) 

Give your own translation of the song. 

2. Text. At School for 17 Hours a Day 

I. Read the text and try to remember as many of its details as possible.

It is 6.30 a.m. and the sun has only just come up when the two alarm clocks next to Jie Sun´s bed ring simultaneously. She gets out of bed and goes to the kitchen. Her eyes half closed, she hardly says a word while she eats breakfast. Next to the table is her blue Benetton school bag which she packed the night before. It weighs just over six and a half kilos. At 7 a.m. she says goodbye to her parents and sets off to her school, just outside the capital city, Seoul. She returns home at 6 p.m. for dinner, but half an hour later she sets off again for a private academy where she studies for another four hours. On a typical night she gets home at midnight and falls asleep, completely exhausted.

Studying for up to 17 hours a day is a fact of life for South Korean secondary school pupils. They live in a society where education is very important, and there is great competition for a place at university. Getting a good degree from a top university is the only way to be sure of getting a professional well-paid job. The normal secondary school day, as in most other countries, lasts eight hours. But after that most parents make their children stay at school for extra classes. In theory these classes are optional, but in practice they are compulsory. When the school day ends, the children are not allowed to relax and enjoy themselves. Most of them have to study all evening in libraries, with private tutors or at private academies.

Classes of 50 are not uncommon and the teachers are strict. Pupils have to repeat after the teacher and memorize everything. ‘Teachers at my school don´t give you any individual attention because they have not got time,´ says Jie Sun. ‘They don´t let us ask questions because they say it wastes time.´

Young people like Jie Sun have almost no social life. They rarely have time to see their friends, and having a boyfriend or girlfriend is unthinkable. ‘I´ve never had a boyfriend and neither have any of my friends,´ says Jie Sun. ‘Our studies come first.´

This lifestyle may seem very hard to many European schoolchildren, who are accustomed to going out most weekends, and watching TV every evening. But on the other hand, in many British schools, up to 40% of teenagers leave school with no qualifications and the prospect of unemployment. So which system really is better? 

II. What are the advantages and disadvantages of the Korean educational system? Make the list of them. How different is the educational system from the Russian one?