Experiencing A New Culture

By: Becky O

     Kristyna Sojova is the new foreign exchange student attending Valley High School. She comes from the Czech Republic. Life for her here is very different than he life at home. Her host family in Clermont is the  Siebrechts, Jed and Lorri.

     One of the main things different for Kristyna is the school system. The school system in the Czech Republic has 3 levels: nursery school, primary education (first five years of school), secondary education (sixth to ninth grade), and tertiary (college, university type and non-university). As a rule, study is free of charge at state schools with the exception of colleges where students contribute a small amount. There are no uniforms required for school, they are allowed to use cell phones during breaks, and they do not eat lunch during school. School starts at 7:50 a.m. every day, but may end at a different time, sometimes 2:00 p.m., 3:30 p.m., and 4:30 p.m. The students are not free to choose the classes they want. Kristyna’s classes were physics, biology, chemistry, Czech, German, English, geography, geometry/algebra, PE, computer, and art every year. They do not switch classrooms like students at Valley; they are in the same room all day, every day. Unlike Valley students, they have very little homework and several exams. They are free to choose the high school and city they want to enroll in, but they have to go through exams for the school to accept them. This is obviously way different than the way things are at Valley. The classes Kristyna is currently taking at Valley are myth and epic, psychology, physics, chorus, intro to business, geometry, study hall, and art fundamentals.

     Back home, Kristyna lives in a small village called Stitna nad Vlari, which has about three thousand inhabitants. Her dad, Lubomir, is a foreman bricklayer, and her mother, Jana, works as a shop assistant in their family business, a shoe and clothing shop. Kristyna has one brother named Lubomir, and a young boy she used to baby-sit is a a family friend, who is a big part of their family. The main difference for Kristyna to get used to between her family back home and the Siebrechts is the Siebrechts eat supper together every night, while Kristyna’s family back home ate at separate times, since they get home at different times.

     Kristyna will be at Valley for the entire school year, and hopefully she will enjoy her stay and have plenty of stories to tell her friends and family back home.