Summary of a week in Turkey

After a week long stay in our school, two lovely ladies from Denmark (Ida Marie Frost & Anna Bech Skougaard) wrote a summary to reflect their impression of a week stay in Turkey. You can read it bellow!

Summary of our week

- The classes

We think it was great, that we could choose the classes we liked; the only downside was

that we didn’t participate as much as we would have liked to do. It would have been a

better experience if the teachers gave us small tasks, that we could do when the class was

doing something we couldn’t participate in.

- The information

It would have been nice if the school had sent a packing list. We weren’t really sure if we

had to bring bed sheets and stuff like that. Otherwise, it was really nice that we got to text

with our hosts; it made the trip a little less frightening experience.

- The weekend

It was a great experience to live with one of the students and see how a typical Turkish

family lives and how the student’s lives are outside of school. Overall the weekend went by

almost way to fast and we felt as if there were so much to see, but too little time do so.

One of the most challenging things about staying the weekend in a Turkish home was that

the parents didn’t understand you. We figured it out by having Deniz (our host) translating,

but it would have been nice to communicate directly with the parents. (We know that

there is nothing you can do about such things and it is just a small detail)

- The school system

We got the impression that the students are stressed out by homework and by the

pressure from the parents. We got the impression that it is very important for the Turkish

students to get away from Turkey as soon as possible because of the huge amount of

pressure, the Turkish state puts on the students; especially with all the exams and tests.

The system is so far away from the Danish system and we honestly feel very lucky to live in

a country that doesn’t put so much stress on the students by giving grades and exams in

such an early age.

- The school

It’s obvious to see, that there is a lot of homework and a certain amount of stress for each

student attending this school. But besides the hard work, the students seem to be very

close with one another and overall they seem extremely happy to be here. The

 environment on the school is really laid back and free-spirited. We can sense that the

students feel more free and relaxed here than in the society outside of school.

- The general impression

The students were really welcoming and it was so nice that so many of them came to pick

us up at the airport. The students showed some motherly concern to make sure that we

were having fun and everything was okay. They were chatty and often students

approached us make sure that we were okay and weren’t lost or feeling lonely. They

seemed to be interested in our way of living with our school system and everything. They

had a genuine interest in us as individuals and actually wanted to get to know us.


So overall it has been great staying at the school and getting to know you guys :)

Ida Marie Frost & Anna Bech Skougaard  (Midtfyns Gymnasium)

Date that the text is written; 25/10/2016