Sigh, dit is Saai

A translated, word-for-word conversation my teacher had with me in front of the entire class:

Teacher: So, Emily, you know you are supposed to give a presentation on Friday?

Me: Yup.

Teacher: But, on Friday, we have a guest speaker coming.

Me: Yup.

Teacher: So actually, you can go next week.

Me: That works too.

Teacher: By the way, I looked at your test. It really wasn't very good. I guess because you didn't understand the questions.

Me: Uhm.... ok.

This happens to me a lot. There's no "grade privacy" here. Everyone knows exactly what grade everyone else got, because actually, the teachers read them out loud! It's something like:

Teacher: Dutch girl: 7,8. Dutch boy: 9. Dutch boy: 6,5. Emily: .... Ja, you wrote that you didn't understand it so...

Dutch boy: I wrote that too!

Teacher: Yes, but you speak Dutch.

Dutch people are very straightforward, so be prepared. They tell you exactly what they think and also ask very direct questions.

Oh, and if you're wondering about the grades... here it is not an A, B, C, D, F system. Instead it is 1-10. Basically, a 10 is an A+, a 9 is an A-, an 8 is a B+, 7 is a B-, and so on. So a 9,5 would be an A. Because here a comma is a period and vice versa when dealing with numbers.... For instance:

1.001 = one thousand and one

1,001 = one and one thousandth

Yes it is very confusing.

Well, I'm learning a lot here. About myself, about other people, about life.

Hmm... what should I do now?

I think I will read more of my Dutch comic book. Actually, the author is from Belgium, but they speak Dutch there. I really have nothing more to tell you.

Tot ziens,

Emily