Young Writers Society

We all know Stella's favourite form of procrastination is posting in the Lounge and she's avoiding study at the moment so hey! Let's have a talk about education.

Are you in school at the moment? What level? What classes are you taking? Do you love it? Hate it? Wish you were doing something else? Any interesting extra-curriculars? Any big tests coming up?

Please tell me, I would love to know.

(Me, I am in my fourth year of college and I'm studying medicine. I love it! But I'm doing obstetrics and gynaecology at the moment which I don't love as much. My main extra curricular is the knitting society, I'm a member of the committee.)

How about you? Feel free to tell as much or as little as you like!

I'm in my second semester of college, finishing up the credits I need for my prelim/Associate's degree, then I'm going to be transferring to a larger university (which means I need to start filling out transfer applications this fall at the latest). At the moment, I'm taking American History 1865-Present and American Literature 1865-Present, as well as General Chemistry and Calculus 1. Calc 1 is kind of boring, because I know it all already from AP Calc last year.

I actually just decided on my goal of a career path last semester (teaching English as a foreign language), and I'm definitely happy that I feel I've found a foothold where I could carve out a niche in the world. So, uh, yeah.

@arkhaion, ARE YOU IN MY HISTORY CLASS?? CAUSE I'M ALSO TAKING THAT CLASS?!!!!!!????!!?

I'm in my second semester too :3 just like ancie, working on my general education until I have enough credits to transfer to a university. Fun!

Was 1865 the American Civil War? If so I get starting a history module from there - but why the lit module?

The American system is so interesting the way you do such varied subjects in college. That just doesn't happen here. The most subjects you can do in my college is two - and that's only in arts courses. You can do general science - but you can't do any arts/humanities modules with it. And then courses like mine are obviously super-specialised, and there's no way to take a class in something random. I'd love to learn Russian or take the Second Year English Zombie Literature class but alas.

@Iggy I don't thiiiiink so because I'm taking a class ridiculously late at night (like, ridiculously late) (like, it runs from 6:30pm to 9:15pm) (yeah, that ridiculously late)

Stella -- the Lit module starts from 1865 (the end of the Civil War and the beginning of the Reconstruction period, yes) because of the cultural shifts taking place with the abolition of slavery and the shift of the United States towards a more industrialized society! A lot of cultural stuff was going on.

ancie - then I'm definitely not in your class, you crazy kid.

Stella. Zombies? ZOMBIES WHAT?!? EXPLAIN.

Hello StellaThomas! I am glad you asked.

I'm in my fourth year of university studying English Translation (like, between English and Finnish) and would have got my Bachelor's degree last year if I hadn't done an exchange year in England last year. So now I'm currently writing my Pride & Prejudice themed Bachelor's thesis and will get my BA degree this spring.

Next autumn, I'm going to start my Master's at the same uni doing the same subject (which is very common in Finland, or at least doing a Master's is).

This semester, I have the following fun classes: Subtitling I (where we are meant to subtitle 15 minutes of a Lewis episode, a British detective/police series), Voiceover & Dubbing I (where we will translate a 30-minute documentary and do the voiceover ourselves), and Translating Literature.

In addition to those, I have Translator as an Entrepreneur, a mandatory Swedish class, Translating Trade & Business, and my thesis seminar group. Actually, pretty much all my classes are interesting.

Here, you can pretty much take any classes you want, but depending on your major, you need to have a certain number of mandatory classes (duh). But you can take classes from any subject, I think.

School's a bit odd right now. I haven't done it since Friday. I'm probably going to start after I do some procrastinatory stuff here.
*Cracks knuckles*

Hello @Demeter! My family are obsessed with Lewis xD I hope you can bring it to the people of Finland with pride. We also watch Wallander (Swedish) and Montalbano (Italian) with subtitles, so obviously subtitled detective dramas are a big hit.

@Clickduncake - am I take it that you're homeschooled? Or in some other non-traditional education system?

@Iggy - not being a second year English student I couldn't tell you what on earth happens in that class, I just hear them talk about it in the library! But they don't tell us anything about zombies. Think they're afraid of a Frankenstein situation arising.

I have an exam worth 20% obstetrics/gynaecology tomorrow, and then the rest will be at the end of the year. Next week I start general practice! This year is really weird for me because for two months you *just* do one subject, so if you don't enjoy that subject, then you're in trouble.

Starting my final year of high school today. We've got some team-building day-camp today, and then casses start tomorrow. I don't mind school usually, but I'm finding it a little hard to get motivated. 'Tis too early.

Well, I'm trying to manage being both a freshman in high school and a freshman in college.

Basically, my school has this program where they'll pay to have students take college classes for both high school and college credit. You get permission to leave the high school as soon as your high school classes are completed, then you go to the college for whatever classes you are taking there. (There is a cap on the number you can take, though.)

Most people only do this their junior or senior year, but I decided to do it as a freshman because my high school's English program is notorious for mean teachers and overloads of homework, and when I had a teacher like that in 7th grade it made my whole year miserable. So I decided to take college English classes instead.

I just started my second one, and it's going pretty well. They aren't as hard as I expected. You just have to be able to write well.

It can get stressful, though, when both your math and your Spanish teachers give more than half an hour of homework a night and on top of that you have a long English paper to write. -_-

@Meandbooks - wow! That's so cool! And you don't find it too stressful?

For some reason I always forget how little time I spent on homework when I was younger. I was in boarding school so we did our homework in 'prep' - in Third Year (equivalent to Freshman Year), that was just two hours long. By Sixth Year it was three hours. I find it interesting the way it built up. (Of course, now I spend eight hours a day in the library every weekend but we'll overlook that).

@TriSARAHtops - but that first day sounds like fun! Are you nervous for entering your last year?

@StellaThomas I'm not really. It doesn't quite seem real, yet. Today should be good, I know we're doing Zumba, plus lunch is supplied, which is never a bad thing! It's just earlier than I've gotten up for the last six weeks!

StellaThomas wrote:@Meandbooks - wow! That's so cool! And you don't find it too stressful?

@StellaThomas Sometimes I do, when the homework and extra-curriculars really start to pile up, but for the most part, I'm okay. The reason I did it was to avoid the high school's English classes, which would probably be a lot harder and more time-consuming. Plus, I get out of school early, which is nice on the days I don't have to go to the college.

Well I'm a junior in high school (grade 11). Our semester just started last Friday (SO glad finals are over now). I took creative writing last semester, and to replace it this semester, I'm taking Intro to Art. I'm dropping out of pre-calculus because (a)it's too stressful and hard, and (b)the school I'm going to go to next year (moving before my senior year UGHHH) requires that its students take math their final year in high school. Plus, they have this really great math class that teaches you how to do things you'll actually need in the real world (like TAXES!). They don't have any class like that at my current school.
As for extracurriculars, I'm not in any, unless choir counts, but that's a class. In choir we're singing all these Irish songs, Stella. XD

My two AP classes are holding up pretty well, so I think I'm doing pretty good. ^-^