Wenn our host this weeks wants to know :
1. What memories do you have of your school years at any stage of your education?
2. Did you keep in touch with your friends who were there with you in your formative years, or perhaps you lost touch as I did and are finding them again? Tell us about some of your school friends.
Going to school in 1949 wasn't fun at all in Bonn/Germany just after the war.The schools were all bombed out and I remember we had school in a quickly built up sort of barack, with banks they probably had safed from old schools in ruins. In first class of primary school we were 80 children in one class and sat in 3 on a bank for two. My teacher was an old woman (at least it seemed like this to me) fat, with greasy hairs and protrusevly yellow front teeth like a rapid and when she spoke or rather shouted she spitted white spots all over. She was a terrible unmarried woman (a dragon like that nobody wanted) and she loved to terrorize the kids. With me she had no chance, because I was and am not quickly terrorized and I was the only one who dared to answer her.
After that first school experience I then went to highschool but as I am allergic against all authority, it wasn't much better, I didn't like my teachers and they didn't like me.
When I had been moved to Brussels I went to the German school because I didn't speak any french. This school I loved very much, because in 1959 I was the 199 th student and of course it was a mixed school which was very rare at that time and the only thing I rember from there is that I had a great time and a lot of fun. Don't ask me about my studies, they were the last thing important to me.
After that I went to a French College where I learned "Commercial Correspondance" typewriting and other more or less important stuff and that was it. Afterwards I had a lot of success in my professional career, had never troubles to find work, people like me with German, French, English and Italian were in great demand especially since the creation of Europe started.
The languages I picked up just like that, writing them correctly I learned later. I could have had the best schools, but I am rather a practical girl I learned languages with chatting.
To the second question I have not much to say, I still am in contact with my girlfriend I knew in 1951 but I wrote about us not long ago here. The fact that I left Germany so early in my life, made me loose all contact to former classmates. And the once I knew from the German School in Brussels, moved all away and are now all over the world. All my other friends I made later in my different jobs or here in Waterloo with other mums picking up their children after school.
OMG...you didn't like the school teachers and they didn't like you. Are we two peas in a pod or what? Same here LOL tooo funny
ReplyDeleteSchool was OK for me. I more or less enjoyed it. And I have got back in touch with a lot of my old school friends through Facebook.
ReplyDeleteYes, do have photos of my favourite classroom in the mid-fifties with some of my classmates. Hope to blog it soon. Best part is we are in contact though scattered all over the world!
ReplyDeleteWhat a brilliant memoir you've written here, Gattina! We all can probably remember a teacher like the one you describe - I can for sure! Well done on learning all the languages. I admire you and am trying to learn Arabic here in Khartoum. I still have contact with quite a few school friends - some closely - some only on e-mail. Our 40-year reunion comes up in August in South Africa. I don't think I'll make it because I 'll probably be back in North Africa! Have a wonderful week!
ReplyDeleteI didn't like school at all. I found it very boring. No challenge at all. I also didn't seem to fit in anywhere. I met my first husband when I was 15, went to summer school and graduated a year early so we could be married. That marriage lasted 11 years.
ReplyDeleteI have many friends from High School, but only because recently I have found them on facebook.
I like my primary and secondary schools. There were several teachers whom I like. I was the teachers' pet in almost every class. I had my privileges. :P
ReplyDeleteI have lost touch with all my classmates because I changed addresses 9 times. :(
How interesting. I am amazed at your ability to pick up new languages. I have no capacity for new languages. There is some special block in my mind or something that seems to make it impossible for me! lol
ReplyDeleteAnyway, I can relate to the idea of not liking teachers and not being liked back....I have many school stories that start that exact way.
I have been reconnecting with old friends from high school on facebook and it has been a lot of fun.
First Gattina, are you all right from the terrible storms that raged across Europe this weekend? I read in the paper that they had hit Belgium. I'm also concerned about an English blogger friend who lives in the Channel Islands. She was expecting to be hit hard.
ReplyDeleteAs to school friends, like you I could not remember any friends from primary school. Unfortunately for many of us, our early school years were not that happy. I did, however, like school. It seems that you found your place later on in business school. I would bet that, like me, you wouldn't want to repeat those early years!
I loved my primary school years...most of my teachers were kind and caring. High school was a drag for me...I was there to socialize only. I admire your language skills ...I know only English. Now a days knowing a second language is like gold..with alot of American jobs being in other countries.
ReplyDeleteI didn't like school either. EVER. Teachers mostly liked me though. I was actually in some cases better friends with the teachers than I was with the students. But I was NOT good in my studies - barely passing most subjects. NOT passing others. I hated school...
ReplyDeleteIt is FUNNY how clearly you remember that HORRID teacher though! I only remember ONE really bad one - Mr. Deragon... WE called him Mr. Dragon! He wasn't a bad man though... just a lousy teacher. I NEEDED to pass algebra and he couldn't TEACH algebra for ANYTHING - 75% of his students FAILED - but he was the ONLY algebra 1 teacher! Not that it would have mattered for me... I have tried learning algebra from others since then - and I am an IMPOSSIBLE student! But I'm sure many of his other failures would have passed with a better teacher. ;)
I'm learning German by playing games like The Sims on my phone, with the "Sprache" set to "Deutsch"..!
ReplyDelete;->...
My Dad was in London during the bombing... I'm sure his school experience at that point was quite similar to yours. After it was all over, he was sent away to school and seems to be reconnecting with many of them now (in their 70s) through FaceBook! I find this to be rather amusing and endearing all at the same time.
ReplyDeleteYOu are blessed to have been able to speak/write so many languages. I'm sure it made you invaluable to your employers!
That teacher would scare any child! I do believe that if you have a good teacher, you will learn well and like school. Sounds like your teacher was not cut out to be a teacher.
ReplyDeletePS it must have been really weird growing up in post-war Germany...
ReplyDeleteI mean, I remember, and I'm not even 40, growing up with random derelict houses where kids would play, knowing it was "an old bomb site"... these have all gone now... but I feel very much that I was born on the cusp of two eras. Microwaves, home chest freezers, video recorders and home computers only became popular when I was in my last years of primary school... I still remember the amazement of actually watching a TV picture fast forward and rewind!... I heard children on the radio talking about vinyl records, they made them seem as outdated as the old wardrobe-sized valve-powered radiogrammes I used to play with when we rented holiday homes in Yorkshire ~ real blasts from the past. Even the "rave" music of my youth is now referred to as "old school"... Help me, Gattina! I feel so ancient!!
Such a different experience. I learned a little bit of spanish and that's it, and I have a college degree and have a hard time finding a job. (not looking right now).. but still. quite a difference in time!
ReplyDeleteI love your post and the description of that scary teacher, she sounds awful!
ReplyDeleteI can just imagine you being against authority, I bet you gave the teachers a hard time. Thanks for playing - my post is now up.