This Is Slovakia

When you finally arrive at 8:10, you run to dressing room, where you put off your jacket, take off your shoes and put on your slippers, it’s time to run to your class and start a boring school day. Your 1st class is chemistry followed by 10 minute break, which you spend talking to your friends or studying for a test that you forgot about. Your 2nd class is Slovak language and literature, where you’re trying to type sentence Na bystrickom jarmoku predávali obilie, rôzne liečivé byliny i byvoly. with correct i/í or y/ý. 10 minute break again. The next class is history, then 25 minute break, which you spend eating your delicious desiata:

or some other food from school buffet. Next classes are physics, math and biology separated, of course, by 10 minute breaks. 6th class passes by and you run to school canteen, where a “nice young lady” gives you a plate with… something like this:

When you finish your “meal” you have some time left to your 7th class (‘cause you are a 9th grade student). 7th and 8th classes are usually something useless like ethical education, where you just watch some weird “educational” movies.

At 3:30pm you finally arrive home, you lay on your bed, just to realize, that you have a dance class at 6 o’clock pm and you have to do your homework and study for tomorrow test.

After a dance class you come home exhausted and you go straight to your bed. A sweet dream comes into your mind and somehow, it’s 6 o’clock am again and you have to get up.

English, IT, biology, Spanish, math, Slovak. Lunch. Bus. Homework. PC games, friends. Bed. Bus. Civic education…

Slovak education system isn’t difficult to understand even though it’s different than american or british. Here in Slovakia, we have kindergartens, elementary schools, middle schools, gymnasiums, and high schools. 

  In America (I think), how we call it, translation of how we call it

Kindergarten is for children from 3 to 5/6 years. Children arrive sometime between 7:00am and 9:00am, they leave from 3:00pm to 6:00pm. They have breakfast at home, but in kindergarten they have desiata – a small meal between breakfast and lunch, lunch, and olovrant – a small meal between lunch and dinner. Children in kindergartens play most of the time, but they also learn some basic stuff (days of the week, moths, etc.), they sing some songs, they draw, sometimes they go on a walk… After lunch children have to sleep for cca 2 hours. Every child have to bring his own pajama and pillow.

Children from kindergarten on a walk:

Elementary school is for children from 6/7 years to 15 years. The 1st class begins 8:00 or 8:15 (it’s up to school). The 6th class ends sometime between 13:20 and 13:40 (it depends on the length between classes). Children in first grade learn how to read, write, basic math, English, arts, gymnastics, ethical education/religious education (parents choose), music education. In higher grades more classes are added – chemistry, biology, German/Spanish language, geography, Slovak language and literature, history, IT, Civic education, physics...

Children in each grade are divided into classes (eg. 1.A, 1.B, 1.C, 1.D) and they have their home classroom, where they spend most of the time and teachers come to them. 

In ordinary classroom there is about 20 children. In some schools children are divided to smaller groups by their skills for subjects like math and languages.

1st grade timetable:

9th grade timetable:

After 5 years in elementary you can decide to go to 8 year gymnasium (there are 4 year gymnasiums too, but they are not that common). Many people want to go to gymnasium but not everyone will get there – you have to pass admission test. People say that gymnasiums are harder, not everyone can do it, gymnasiums are considered as prestigious schools. Some gymnasiums specialize on some subject (eg. Math or languages) so students learn in that class a lot more.

4th grade of gymnasium = 9th grade of elementary school timetable:

Middle school is after 9 years of elementary school and it’s for children from 15/16 years to 19 years – graduation. I think every middle school has a specialization on something.

Some random guy in Moscow: “Hi, where are you from?”

Me: “I’m from Slovakia.”

Random guy: “Sorry?”

Me: “I AM FROM S L O V A K I A.”

Random guy: “What the hell is Slovakia? Nevermind. Do you speak English in there?”

Me: *trying not to scream everything I know about my country into his face*

So, Slovakia is a small country in the center of Europe. The official name of Slovakia is Slovak Republic (or Slovenská republika in Slovak if you want). The official language is our euphonious Slovak. There is “only” 5 000 000 of us, but when I drive home through Bratislava (the capital of Slovakia) after school, even those 423 000 people in Bratislava are enough. Most people who live here complain about this little piece of Earth, but I think that when you look properly, you can find something good even about Slovakia.

If you want to see how Slovak language looks I translated this ˄˄ text for you:

Takže, Slovensko je malá krajina v strede Európy. Oficiálny názov sovenska je Slovenská republika. Oficiálny jazyk je naša ľubozvučná slovenčina. Je nás „iba“ 5 000 000, ale keď idem cez Bratislavu (hlavné mesto Slovenska) domov, aj tých 423 000 ľudí v Bratislave je dosť. Väčšina ľudí, ktorí tu žijú sa na tento malý kúsok Zeme sťažujú, ale myslím si, že keď sa správne pozriete, môžete vidieť niečo dobré dokonca aj na Slovensku.

Map of Slovakia:

Slovak flag:

Bratislava: