Prior Expectations
By Julia Schneider

The Strothoff International School was opened on the 24th of August 2009, so it is a completely new school. All students and their parents know a lot about the school system, the building and the lessons, but that doesn’t say that these expectations would get realized. “Will the students learn the English language fast?” and “Are the teachers good?”, they didn’t know this. That means that every student had their own expectations about this international school.

Like me, I’m one of the 107 students attending this international school from the first day on. Before I came here, I had also a lot of expectations.

But not only me, every student had different thoughts, like “How will the teachers be?,” “How are my classmates?,” “Will the school uniform look good?,” and “Will I learn the English language fast or will I have some problems with it?”. Some students said that it would be really important to learn the English language and that the classes will be small in the future, too. Like for example Lukas Baum and Pia Wagner said, “I hope that I will learn the English language really good in a short period of time.” Also, Sara really expected that she will do lots of class trips. All of the students clearly had expectations about what they wanted and what they didn’t. On the other hand, also some students were very scared about this new experience. Some were happy and some very sad. Maybe some of them didn’t want to go to this school, so it was maybe their parents who decided that they have to go there. But most of the students had positive thoughts about the school, but were very nervous.

Before I came to this school, I was really excited. I was not scared, but there was a strange feeling inside of me. My first thoughts were that I was really amaze about my other classmates and about the teachers. I hoped that all of them would be nice, and yes they areJ. Then, my most important expectation was that I will learn the English language very fast and exceptional, that the lessons are marvelous and the learning process is really excellent. These were the most important expectations I had, and they all become my reality. My class is really cool, the teachers present the lessons in a fun way, and all of us learn the English language really quickly and in a short time period.

Expectations are really important in my opinion. A person’s thoughts and opinions about the unknown are sometimes fantasy, but sometimes real. Not every expectation can be good, but all of them have meaning. Expectations are a strong belief that something will happen.

And here is a link, which shows you some thoughts about the students’ expectations of grade 9. Enjoy this video.