School.  Isn’t it a word that most of us dread?  Well, since I moved to China, the Opinions and Facts that frolic in the field called SCHOOL in my brain have multiplied significantly.  Their are hundreds upon hundreds of things I could write about concerning the new experiences I’ve had at an institutional school V.S home school, but I’ll keep those to myself for now.  Today, I will be educating you on the differences between Korean, Chinese, and American schools and students.  I must state that I hold Korean and Chinese students in great respect for their endurance through what I am about to explain.  The last two weeks I have been throwing myself a Pity Party as I go over and over the stuff I must memorize from my 4 big finals, but when I stop to think about it I don’t have it HALF bad!Schooling to Asians is one of the most important things in life, for you to succeed.  I’ll start with Chinese students.  When we taught an English class to a few Chinese students last spring, they told us that Chinese Middle schoolers to High schoolers are physically in school, learning, for approximately 12 hours a day, not including breaks for  lunch and dinner.  Most student, as you can imagine, get very little sleep.  The schooling environment is very different as well.  “Structured” would be a good word to describe it .  Because their is so many students in classes (there can be up to 50 per class room) talking or any fooling about is strictly dealt with (and corporal punishment is common and accepted throughout the schools).  All Chinese students are required to wear uniforms as well.  Thankful for American schooling system yet?  Well I’m not done!Now there is the Korean schools to deal with!  Imagine, I was complaining about studying for all my finals, but just think about having to study for 4 hard final is a DIFFERENT LANGUAGE! AHHHH!!!!  I would DIE, if I had to study in Chinese!  (Okay maybe I wouldn’t but you would NOT want to see my report card!)  There are kids at my school that work extremely hard every day to keep up with homework and studying in English while for most of them Korean is their native language.   Then, even my close Korean friend, goes to Korean Academy after school.  Academy is like going back to school to study a lot of what you just learned, but the teaching is all in Korean!  Sot that they will understand it!  One of Rachel’s friends goes to Academy from 5pm to 12pm every weekday then on Saturday goes from 11am to 2pm!  Screaming yet?  There is more!  One of my friend said that in Korea  her 3rd grade teacher was her least favorite teacher.  She said that if they did not eat all the food they were served at lunch they would have to write a two page essay on Confucius beliefs.  Then other punishments would be that if the class misbehaved they would have to raise their arms above their head and hold them there for an hour!Any one up for becoming a Korean or Chinese exchange student?