Most of us are Franco-Brazilian and have been living here in Brazil, if not since we were born, for quite some time. However, there are also some French students who have just arrived and one or two students from different cultures (Colombian, Argentinian, American, Jewish, Mexican and Swiss). Ours is a bilingual school, so it follows both the French and the Brazilian programs. This makes our timetable extremely full and we stay at school from 8:00 to 16:00 and sometimes until 17:00, which is very tiring. At the end of our studies, if we do well, we will have both the Brazilian high school certificate and the French baccalaureat, which allows us to go to university in Europe.

The Brazilians and the French have different habits, customs and behavior. This sometimes leads to stereotypical views and attitudes, which we know are unfair because they are generalizations.

After a survey in class, we concluded that Europeans tend to be colder and more distant than Brazilians at first sight. As it takes them longer to interact with others, local people have the impression that they do not want to mix with them. Some Brazilian students have the impression that the French are arrogant and that they feel superior. Others say they do not have the same higiene habits and are smelly because they do not change their clothes or take showers as often as the Brazilians do.

On the other hand, because Brazilians tend to be more extroverted, sociable and are said to like partying, singing and dancing, some newly arrived foreigners may think that they are impolite because they get really loud sometimes. Others think they only care about playing soccer so they do not like working and are lazy or immature.

Many other kinds of stereotypes were also put forward: social class (rich and poor), age (teenagers and elderly people), gender (male and female), color of skin, color of hair (there is one that says blond girls are stupid). A strong stereotype that the literary students mentioned is that at school, many parents and students who are doing sciences look down on the literary section saying these students will never succeed in life because they have chosen a soft option and that there will no good jobs for them. This is not very motivating, is it? Negative stereotypes like these hurt people and may lead to prejudice and discrimination. This is why we must counteract them by showing people they do not represent the truth.

We believe intercultural communication is a good means to achieve this. By communicating and learning more about the others, we have more knowledge and we can then have a broader view of the world and understand better why people have different ways of thinking and behaving.

Edited by - bdieu on 8-4-2003 12:17:50

In Italy the school system is organized in this way:

AGE ATTENDING TIME TYPE OF SCHOOL
From 3 to 6 3 years Kindergarden
From 6 to 11 5 years Elementary School
From 11 to 14 3 years Middle school
From 14 to 19 5 years High school
After 19 3 or 5 years University

Until you were sixteen, the school was compulsory,but from next year,unfortunately,we will return at fifteen years and this age is not the European Level,that is sixteen.

Our School System has been changed many times in this period by our School Minister,Letizia Moratti and she is still changing it.
We prefer to write the “traditional” Italian School System because in Italy we are still using it.

We are in High school and we are attending the second form.
For the English School System we are in the 5th form,for the USA School System we are in the 10th grade and for the French School System we are in 5 ième(we think).

Our High School is a high school based on scientific subjects,like maths and physics,but with latin and Italian.

We call it “Liceo Scientifico“ and its name is B. Russell, it takes its name from the homonymous philosopher.

The building is not very big: students are less than 500; it is situated in a small town near Milan, Garbagnate Milanese.

Here there are not many foreign students. In the school we may choose among five courses:
 Traditional
 Maths experimentation
 Maths & Physics experimentation
 Science experimentation
 European course

The traditional course is a normal Italian “Liceo scientifico”.
Maths course deepens the study of maths.

Our course is the 3rd in the list; it is different from the others because we work more on maths in the laboratories (computer-room or multimedia-room) and we have been studying physics since the 9th grade. We spend 31 hours a week in school.
Subjects are:
 Maths (6 hours a week)
 Physics (3)
 English (4)
 Italian (4)
 Latin (4)
 History (2)
 Biology (2)
 Technical Drawing (2)
 Art history (1)
 Physical education (2)
 Religion (1).
The students that attend the Science course have the subject of science from the first year.

Finally the European course is based on the study of the second foreign language, French, and Economics
These two courses have started this year.

We have more hours than the traditional course and,especially,more hours of maths,physics and laboratory.

In the Italian system there are also different types of school:
 “Liceo Artistico”,that have more hours of art;
 ”Liceo Classico” ,that have more hours of Latin,Greek,history and phylosophy;
 Technical Colleges of different types,from surveyor to accountant to tourism to computing;
 Vocational schools,that are specialized in different topics,like hotel,tourism and computing.
We hope we have been able to give you an idea of our school. If you have questions we would be very pleased to reply to you.
Chiara, Mattia and company