Learning Languages

[Mai]

Being reserved has it's advantages too, I think. While being instantly treated like a friend is very nice for tourists, when you're living here sometimes it's hard to be sure whether someone is really your friend or whether they're just being polite.

[Cameo]

hmm good point. :)

[Claire]

I'm both Irish and Italian. It's safe to say that even small family gatherings are...loud.

@Meave that's a shame they don't teach Irish consistently. I'd love to learn it, but it isn't as though American universities offer it. How is the education system in Ireland? Do people normally go to university after secondary school or no?

[Mai]

Lol, I'd say they must be! I've always thought that Italians are what the Irish might be if we didn't have this bloody wet climate so I'd imagine a mix must be a lot of fun.
The Irish education system is okay, it suffers from the usual problems, you know, favours people with the ability to memorise loads of facts and doesn't teach independent, analytical thinking. A lot of people do go to college, I've no idea what the percentages are like, but I'd say a good half of the people in my secondary school year went on to some form of higher education. It depends where you're from as well. People from inner city areas and people from uber rural areas are less likely to go. It's not too expensive over here. We bitch like hell because we have to pay €2700 ish per year in registration but we have it great in comparison to some places. University is really expensive in the states right?

[Claire]

Yeah, tuition is about $60,000 a year at some schools and textbooks aren't included.

I honestly think it depends what discipline you're in and also which professors you get. As a mathematician, most of my professors let us bring notes to our exams. They don't care if we have the formulas memorized, only that we know how to use them. But history is based a lot more on memorization, which makes sense. If you don't know the dates for civilizations, how are you supposed to know if they interacted or not?

I don't really have a grasp on how many people go to college in America.

[Cameo]

lol you should totally møve to Denmark, here education is free, you even get paid to study, you only have to buy books :)

[Mai]

Wow, really? Hey maybe I'll move too! Got a spare room Leodora? :D

[Cameo]

yup really :) It's not much you get paid to study, you have to keep a small job on the side, but the education itself is free and you can get as many as you want :) The more the merrier!

Only con for you Guys is that almost all of the classes are in Danish ;)