Todd: So Heidi, you are from Mongolia. Could you talk a little bit about what high school is like in Mongolia?

Heidi: Oh sure. In Mongolia, we don’t have elementary school, secondary school, or high school divided into three parts, but we have from 1st grade until 12th grade in one school so we don’t really call them like high school or secondary school or elementary school. And for the high school, like, from the 8th grade until 12th grade, well, they study what other students study in different countries but nowadays they are focusing on more, like, English studies or different language studies.

Todd: How long is a typicalclass? Do you have, let’s say, six classes a day, each class is one hour?

Heidi: We start school at 8:00 in the morning until 1:00 in the [after] noon and we have about six classes a day. Each class has like 45 minutes. So we finish at 1:00.

Todd: And then, what do you do in the afternoon?

Heidi: We go back.

Todd: You go home?

Heidi: Yes, ‘cause in Mongolia we have two parts. In the morning, the high school students go to the school and from 1:30 the elementary school students go to the school so we share one class [between] two classes.

Todd: Oh, so you split the school?

Heidi: Yes.

Todd: So do teachers sometimes have to teach both levels?

Heidi: Yes.

Todd: Wow! That’s tough.

Heidi: Yeah.

Todd: So when you go home, do you usually...do have family there waiting or do usually both parents work?

Heidi: In Mongolia, the mother and father they usually work and when I finish my school I just go back and make my own food, because in Mongolia mothers’ work is not to, like, stay at home or do housework. Kids are taught to clean up the home and cook their food and wash their clothes and that’s your work and usually the mothers don’t do that kind of thing.

Todd: Oh, so the children have to do all that work?

Heidi: Yes.

Todd: Actually it’s quite similar I think in the US pretty much. So what about your study load? Do you have a really heavy study load? Like, do you have two hours of homework a night or...?

Heidi: It really depends on the school but for me, like, I was studying in an international school so I had to study quite hard to get the level still. So for me, I studied after school...I’d rather study at night, so I studied like 3 or 4 hours at night. So that’s my study habit.

Todd: That’s a lot.

Heidi: Not really compared to other students.