Devon CP #5

Isabela de Oliveira Soares (Brazil)

8/10/21

7:00 PM - 8:00 PM

For today's conversation partner session I once again talked with my good friend from Brazil, Isa. Isa expressed to me that she is feeling more confident in speaking in English because of our sessions, though she might still be shy if talking with a stranger. When I first met Isa it was very hard to connect with her because she was too embarrassed to attempt speaking in English, and to boot my Portuguese skills were still very rough. In fact, after our sessions we will continue to chit chat but we will almost immediately switch to Portuguese. 

Today I had my last session with my tutee from South Korea, Hang-ah Kim, where we talked about prom, homecoming, and school life in America. I realized that I never really talked about this with Isa and thought it could be a cool conversation topic. As I thought, almost all of Isa's knowledge on the topic was from TV and movies. She said that all of her knowledge regarding American schools came from High School Musical and other Disney Channel classics. I showed Isa pictures of my different dresses, talked about which dances I brought dates to, as well as walked her through a typical day in high school. I met Isa at a Brazilian high school so I was already aware of the differences. She was jealous that we got spirit weeks and school rallies. However, she was amazed that every period, of which there are six total, that the students pick up and walk to a different classroom. This may seem normal to us, but in Brazil one room will have all of the students from that grade in a lecture type setting, and the teachers will rotate around the classrooms on a block schedule. This also means that the teachers teach every grade in the school, and that all of the students in each grade learn the same material. This is very different from the US school system in that it also means that every student must move at the same pace. There are no accelerated classes for Honors or AP, as well as no classes for students that need to move as a more reduced rate.

Isa also told me about the horrors of exams in Brazilian schools, and how the senior year equivalent spend most of their last year in study halls preparing for the major exams at the end of the year. These stressful exams dictate whether or not the students will go to college. Additionally, Isa told me that there are only three years in Brazilian high school compared to the four in the US.