Emelt szintű érettségi/4.

Az iskola

My school:

I attended a primary school in….. Now, I attend to ……………… high school. My

classroom is spacious and light. The walls are white. We have 20 desks and 40 chairs. We
decorate the walls with photos, flowers and our timetable. Our class is specialized in …… I
do it quite well and stand out from the others. My favourite subjects are …… They
come to me easily and I take pleasure in studying them. I especially like…. ……. is not
for me, my efforts are not always crowned with success. The teacher-student
relationship in our school is…… Normally I spend 6-7 hours in school, but in the last
year, ….. was really hard, I had a lot of hard classes.

School events in Hungary and in our school:

In every school there are different formal and informal school events. Commemorations
are held all over Hungary about our national history: we celebrate 15th of March (the
revolution and war of independence in 1848-1849) and 23rd of October (the revolution
and war of independence in 1956 and the declaration of the Hungarian third republic in
1989) with a performance. Students prepare a short program with songs poems and they
perform it in the assembly hall.
In autumn we have the prom, or ribbon pinning ceremony:
it’s a formal occasion, a traditional ceremony when school leavers get a small ribbon with the
name of the school. It takes place in a large sports hall, family members and friends are
invited, every school leaver class performs a dance (classical, modern, folk).
School leaving ceremony symbolise the end of school
years. In the case of secondary schools it takes it takes place in May before the final exams.
Students wear formal clothes and they walk along the corridor of the school with their class
teacher, they say goodbye to the school, the classrooms are decorated with flowers and
balloons. Popular informal events are class trips which are usually
held in spring. Classes go on a trip with their class teacher to the different parts of Hungary.
They spend their time with outdoor cooking, sightseeing and the build a good community at
the same time. the trips are 1, 2, or 3 day-long, students usually rent a bus, they go to different
parts of Hungary, they go sightseeing, hike in the mountains, have outdoor cooking, and have
fun, class trips are good opportunities to build a good community.
Student council day is also an awaited day which is
usually in spring. In our school we have traditional programs like outdoor cooking, or
different competitions and contests. Every class cooks some food in the school yard and a jury
decides who cooked the best food.There are sports competitions in the gym, karaoke in the
assembly hall.

Education system in Hungary:

 Compulsory education begins at the age of 6 when children have to start elementary
school. However, before that, children attend kindergarten or nursery school between
3 and 6. The kindergarten prepares them for school, to be in a community, among
other children of the same age.
 In the first four years of elementary school (junior section), students acquire basic
knowledge of reading writing and calculus. Between 10 and 14 (senior section),
they get acquainted with other subjects like History, Geography, Physics, Biology and
Chemistry.
 Traditionally in Hungary there are 3 school types in secondary education: vocational
schools, secondary technical school or grammar schools.
 vocational school: gives students a trade, diminishing them because everybody wants
to have a secondary school certificate.
 secondary technical school: students learn a trade and also obtain a secondary
school certificate by the end of their studies.
 grammar school: students mainly prepare for university. There are some special
grammar schools for example, bilingual schools where students participate in a one-
year preparatory language program and in the remaining 4 years most of subjects are
taught in the target language.
 After secondary school, most students continue their studies in tertiary education, at
colleges or universities. Higher education trains students in academic disciplines and
prepares them for professions such as dentistry, medicine, law and architecture.
 Our education system is constantly changing. Let me introduce the most important
changes in educational issues. Since 2005 admission to universities depends on how
students do on their secondary school leaving exam. There is a two-level
examination system and students may decide whether they want to take the
intermediate or the advanced level examination. As a consequence of Covid-19
secondary school leaving exams in 2020 are held in a simpler way, oral exams are
 cancelled unless if they are important. Intermediate language exam as the
requirements of admission to the tertiary education was also a popular issue at
the parliament however it was cancelled at the end of 2019. Degrees which were
stuck at universities because of the lack of language exams are also given to
students, thanks to Covid-19. Another impact of Covid-19 that 2-weeks language
scholarship for 9th and 11th grade of high school were also postponed.

Education system in the UK:

 Children are required to go to school between the ages of five and sixteen.
 Children can attend infant schools, then junior schools or primary schools
 Then they go to secondary school, which is normally a comprehensive school or a
grammar school
 (In some other areas, children go to first school at the age of five, and then to
middle school, which is followed by the upper school at the age of thirteen.)
 Most children go to state schools. A few go to public schools. (Despite the name,
public schools are not funded by the state.
 Children are required to take standard achievement tests at ages 7, 11 and 14. At
sixteen, students take exams for the General Certificate of Secondary
Education.
 In Britain, the uniform symbolising the social equality.
 Many students go to university. The best known universities: Cambridge and
Oxford.

Education system in the USA:

 Children have to attend school between the ages of five and sixteen. These
years of school include the kindergarten, then schooling from first grade to
twelth grade often referred to as K-12.
 In a high school, the different grades have their special names. Ninth-graders
are called freshmen, tenth-graders sophomores, eleventh-graders are the
juniors and the school leavers are called seniors.
  The majority of Americans has post-secondary educations as they go to
colleges or universities. There are some prestigious schools such as Harvard
or Yale.
In the USA, most of the schools are run by states. These are called public
schools. However, there are private schools, for which parents start saving up
the money when the child is born.

The importance of speaking foreign languages:

Speaking a language is inevitable in our modern world. Since Hungarian is not a widely
spoken language, you have to be familiar with at least one foreign language to be able to
get along in life. In all walks of life speaking a language at a high conversational level is
required. One cannot go to a job interview without being able to utter a word in some foreign
language. You have to express yourself clearly to get accepted and be given the job. Learning
language also exercises the brain and it is often suggested that retired people should take up
languages to keep themselves mentally fit. It is useful in your free time, too.
For Hungarians it is also useful to have a good command of German. Every summer
we have thousands of students coming from Austria and Germany. Nowadays the most
advisable language to study is English.

Methods of language learning:

Most satellite channels offer English and German speaking programmes, but there are also
French, Spanish, Italian and Russian channels, too. The most famous English-speaking
channels are CNN and BBC. Nowadays, with the help of the Internet, you can watch films,
videos or listen to music anywhere and anytime. By watching or listening to this channels,
you can learn a lot, especially you can improve your listening comprehension skills.
Newspapers also help you to master this language, if your read them regularly and don’t
give up after the first hardships.
In Hungary you can learn English at school, both in primary and secondary
schools or even at university. Well-structured study material and the guidance of
language teacher equip you with good language knowledge, adequate to pass exams and to
provide a good basis for your further plans. On the other hand, large groups of mixed ability
and lack of resources may hinder progress.
If you are not a student any more or you want to take extra classes you
can go to a language school and get as many as four to twenty English lessons a week. In
bigger towns there are courses for all levels mostly in world languages: beginner,
intermediate and advanced, general, intensive, courses for specific purposes, courses to
prepare candidates for language exams. These courses are usually cheaper than the ones
offered by private teachers, from whom you can get one-to-one tuition if you wish. Smaller
groups and relaxed atmosphere give you more opportunities to practise and use the
language. Online courses utilise high technology and provide a multimedia
background to language learning. Courses of good quality give tutorial support.
The idea of self-study is favoured by some of those who are false
beginners and think that a language can be acquired alone without the help of an expert
teacher. The contents and pace of learning are tailored to your own needs give tutorial
support. Courses abroad, in the target country: You enjoy an
international atmosphere and a variety of sports, social and leisure programmes.
Courses abroad are usually expensive. In 2020 the Hungarian goverment organized 2-weeks
language scholarship for 9th and 11th grade of high schools, however these were also
postponed due to Covid-19.