Exchange Student Romy Shares Her Thoughts about Schools and Teachers

Ever wonder what an exchange student thinks about their time in American high schools compared to their education back home? Grab your earbuds and join me, Greg Collins, as I sit down with Romy, a vibrant German exchange student who's navigating the halls of high school on this side of the Atlantic.

Transcript

Speaker 1 0:00

Greg Collins Substitute Teachers Lounge. This is episode 254 and I couldn't be more excited. You know, every time I've done a student interview show, it's been one of our highest rated shows. This week I am especially excited because it's the first time I've ever done an interview with an exchange student in high school. Interview with an exchange student in high school, you might find out some of her likes and dislikes. You might find out her favorite food in America and also in Germany, if you can pronounce it. Most importantly, you'll find out about what she thinks about substitute teachers. So here we go. All right, guys, I am excited today because, for the first time I've ever done this on this podcast, I have an exchange student that I'm going to interview just to talk a little bit about, maybe, what some of the differences are between schools here, schools over there, whatever else we think we might be able to, you know, talk about and discuss First of all now. I didn't tell you this, but I'll tell you now. Don't tell anybody your last name.

Speaker 2 1:27

Okay.

Speaker 1 1:28

So we'll just go by your first name. Are you good with that? Yeah, all right, so I'll let you introduce yourself. You can tell us a little bit about yourself, like where you were born, maybe your favorite activities to do, favorite food, anything like that.

Speaker 2 1:44

So my name is Romy and I'm from Germany. Yeah, I was born in Germany and then I lived in Spain for six years and then we moved back to Germany and, yeah, now I'm doing an exchange here in the US.

Speaker 1 1:58

What else did? I say Food what's your favorite food?

Speaker 2 2:05

My favorite food, like here in America.

Speaker 1 2:07

Either one Well here in.

Speaker 2 2:08

America, either one. Well, here in America definitely Cane's and back in Germany probably like. It's called Dampfnudeln. It's like a southern something my dad makes it, it's really good. That's like the first thing I can think of.

Speaker 1 2:30

Have you been to any German restaurants in America?

Speaker 2 2:35

Not yet.

Speaker 1 2:35

Okay.

Speaker 2 2:36

But I've been to like a market and you can like buy like German stuff there, like German food. Okay, that was pretty fun, but like not a restaurant. I don't think they have many here. Okay, all right.

Speaker 1 2:47

I don't think they have many here. Okay, all right, I would agree. I have been to one before in Lexington, but I don't even remember what I got. Anyway, all right, so let's see. How would you say schools are different in America than they are in Germany? By the way, can I say something? First, how many languages do you speak?

Speaker 2 3:08

Four.

Speaker 1 3:09

What do you speak?

Speaker 2 3:11

So English, then German, french and Spanish.

Speaker 1 3:14

Okay, all right, I'm pretty impressed with that, pretty envious of that, to be honest, how do schools differ in Germany than they do in the United States?

Speaker 2 3:23

So I think school is way harder in Germany. Like here is like I don't know. They make school more fun than like, just like the teachers are more like on the same level. You know what I mean.

Speaker 2 3:39

Like and like I don't know, it's like more formal in Germany, like people dress more up and like I don't know, it's just like people take it more serious. I feel like, but it's like a little too hard actually, like sometimes it's like I don't know, especially like the last two years, I think it's gotten me like really hard, like I wish like I could stay here for school sometimes yeah, yeah, Just like have a like relaxing life. I don't know.

Speaker 1 4:06

Okay, all right, Can I tell them what you told me? I guess when I met you in that engineering class do you remember what you told me about testing when you came over here.

Speaker 2 4:17

Yeah, sure, I don't remember.

Speaker 1 4:18

but yeah Well, I mean, you said something to the effect of you were the equivalent of a sophomore over there, but then when they tested you, tested you, they put they don't really tested me okay well, like it was just because, like I said, it was like really easy.

Speaker 2 4:34

Like the sophomore, like biology classes, it was like really easy, I was like doing nothing okay so it was just like making more sense to like the upper classes okay, okay, all right, sounds good.

Speaker 1 4:47

All right, let's talk about Substitute Teacher, since this is a Substitute Teacher podcast, describe. Is it different, like if you have a teacher that was absent In your school over there. Did they handle it basically the way we handle it here, or was it a little bit different?

Speaker 2 5:08

It was different. So since teachers don't have like a classroom, they stay in like you, switch classrooms like every class.

Speaker 1 5:16

Oh, okay.

Speaker 2 5:17

And it would be like if you would be like a teacher and you would have like a free period or so you would like jump in and in and like teach the class.

Speaker 1 5:26

Okay.

Speaker 2 5:27

And then the upperclassmen mostly just would get like a free class period or something to like go outside or like do some makeup work, or like go home if you live close or something like that. Okay, so it's kind of different, yeah.

Speaker 1 5:41

Okay, have you ever had a bad experience with a teacher or a substitute teacher? Um in germany or I'll let you answer that, however you want to. Maybe we should stick with germany yeah, so in germany definitely like I had a math teacher that was really bad.

Speaker 2 6:01

Like he was just like I don't know. He was like coming up to like students and like telling like I don't know them that they're like not good enough for like the school or something like that, that they look like that they should like change schools or something like, or I don't know.

Speaker 2 6:17

His test would be like with like handwriting and you couldn't even read it and all that stuff, and he just didn't really care about it and that like made me, I don't know, really like insecure about my math okay, classes, that's a good answer, and I thought I'm like not good enough for it or so, but it was just like the teacher so okay, so since you've been here, you've probably had several substitute teachers, right?

Speaker 1 6:40

yeah okay, here's what I want you to do Tell me how you would create the perfect substitute teacher.

Speaker 2 6:51

Wait, let me think about that for a second.

Speaker 1 6:52

Okay, all right.

Speaker 2 6:54

Do you want to stop it?

Speaker 1 6:57

Okay, you could probably tell that we paused it a little bit because we're thinking about that question. The question I asked was how would you create the perfect substitute teacher? I think maybe Romy is gonna let someone else in the room help a little bit, so tell us your first name. By the way, this student is 18, so that those of you that are making sure that I get all the permissions you might ask that. So how would you create the perfect substitute teacher? Tell us your first name.

Speaker 2 7:32

My name's Micah and I would create the perfect substitute teacher. They would probably not make us do much, and let us be on our phone.

Speaker 1 7:46

You're 18, and you still feel that way.

Speaker 2 7:48

Yes, and keep the lights off so we can nap. All right, now, give us a bad.

Speaker 1 7:55

Oh, come on. Come on, that's the best answer. Go ahead back of the room, you don't have to Just go ahead.

Speaker 2 8:08

Mine is kind of the opposite, because I don't like getting behind on work. Okay, so I would prefer, like it's nice to know a little bit about the subject. Okay, all right it kind of helps us actually do what we're supposed to do.

Speaker 1 8:22

Okay, I like that.

Speaker 2 8:23

I think, like a substitute teacher, like I mean, since they're like probably not the best in the subject.

Speaker 1 8:30

Right In the field that they're probably not the best in the subject. They can't really help you so.

Speaker 2 8:33

I kind of agree with Michael.

Speaker 1 8:36

And I will tell you this I was pretty good at math in high school, but knowing it and trying to teach it are two different things, so that comes into play a lot too. All right, let's close with this one. You ready?

Speaker 2 8:49

Yeah.

Speaker 1 8:50

All right, tell everybody in the room something about yourself that they don't already know.

Speaker 2 9:00

Pause. That for a second.

Speaker 1 9:03

All right, since you're thinking about it, let me change the question slightly. Tell us as far as activities sports that you're involved with here or that they don't really offer you in your school in Germany, Maybe some of the activities that are different here than they would be there.

Speaker 2 9:27

Okay, so in Germany I did dancing and horse riding, actually a lot like, since sports are like not in school, like it's completely different, like you have your school friends and then you're like sport friends, um, and you do it like after school and here it's just like I feel like the school is just like just so much, like like the school spirit is so much better Because, like the school, sports are like the same people as like the people you know from school.

Speaker 1 10:00

If you know what I mean.

Speaker 2 10:01

It's kind of complicated, but yeah, so here I do. I did swimming, diving, like swimming, and but the season is over, so now I do track and field and yeah, I really like it. I've never really tried it out in Germany. I used to swim a little bit, but like, I mean never like competitive. But yeah, I really like track and field here and I don't know if I'm gonna do it in Germany or not probably not because I won't have time, but I really enjoy doing it here.

Speaker 1 10:32

Okay what events specifically in track and field do you do?

Speaker 2 10:37

um, so yesterday was our like first outdoor meet actually, and I did the 100 sprint, the 200 and the 400 and then I was in one relay, the four by two, but we were, uh, really looking forward for like the four by four team in the 400 individual.

Speaker 1 10:57

Yeah okay, all right. Well, romey, we thank you for being with us on this week's episode. Any closing thoughts you have? Um I caught you by surprise.

Speaker 2 11:09

Yeah, I mean wait, what was it?

Speaker 1 11:13

Any closing thoughts, anything you want to say? How many new friends did you make when you came here?

Speaker 2 11:22

Oh, a lot.

Speaker 1 11:22

Yeah, I was going to say it seems like you make friends pretty easily.

Speaker 2 11:26

It took a little bit but like, yeah, I made some really close friends here that will probably come back and visit too.

Speaker 1 11:32

Good, good Sounds great. All right, guys, that was Romy. We were happy to have her here today, and that's it for us on Substitute Teacher's Lounge. One final comment is we will have other interviews in the future. I want to interview a young lady that I last interviewed in the sixth grade, and this is four years later now. We'll have her talk about substitute teachers and then we'll move along. Happy spring break, that's. We're in the middle of that this week, so hope you're having a good one.