One of the things kids have asked me here is how I find the people and the students - and how they compare to Americans. In general, I find worldwide that people are people and kids are kids (ooh, deep!). You find good people, assholes, lazy people, crazy people, everywhere--although, in general, kids seem more similar around the world than adults.
Take the twins I live with. At neatly 11 years old, Dmitri & Sofia are much like American kids: sometimes bratty and whiny, sometimes silly, often bemoaning the restrictions kids face and eager to grow up (at which point they'll wish they were kids again), etc. A week or so ago, Sofia got in trouble for being "unfair" to Dmitri (not sure of the specifics) and was grounded for a week from the downstairs playroom and from playing on her phone.
Apparently Dmitri wasn't satsifed with this punishment as Sofia called her dad at work a few days later to complain that Dmitri was "torturing" her. Dad asks her to find Dmitri and put him on the phone. When he gets on the phone, Dad asks how he's doing. Dmitri says fine. Dad asks, "So what are you doing?" Dmitri: "Torturing Sofia." lol
In my 8th grade classes a couple months ago, I was teaching conditionals and doing a chain story on the board (e.g., start with a sentence like, "If I go to Egypt, I will see the Sphinx," and then the next person adds, "If I see the Sphinx, I will also see other toursits," and the next, "If I see other tourists" and so on). The sentence I started with for each of the three 8th grade classes was: "If the weather is nice tomorrow," All 3 classes started off with something pleasant/fun: "I will go to the park," "I will ride my bike," "I will play football with my friends." But after a couple of sentences - in every class - the situation turned dark and devoled into them ending up at the doctor's office (getting sick from too much ice cream) or the hospital (severe sun burn or broken leg). When I asked my counterpart about it after the 3rd class, she kind of laughed and said, "Yes, the children here are generally very pessimistic like the rest of us." Score one for American optimism - a trait frequently remarked on by the locals.
There's the occasional fun English language confusion, of course. I was doing a Jeopary review game with the 9th graders and one question was to use 3 adjectives to describe your teacher. One decent/not great student chirped up with "Expensive!" A 7th grader, when asked to list 3 well-paid jobs started with "Teacher!" which caused us to take a break while my counterpart and I laughed and laughed and laughed!
I already mentioned in a Facebook post the 8th grader who snatched a neighbor's car and took it for a joyride before crashing and dying. This goes to show that 15-year-old boys around the world can be crazy, but it was still jarring. The kid was often absent, the only kid in school that smokes, etc. - so it also shows there's bad parents everywhere.
Finally, they are definitely plugged into American culture - probably our "biggest" export at the end of the day. But it's strange the things they know and don't. In my Creative Writing Club, they had an assignment to do a shopping list for a famous person - real or fictional. A 7th grade girl chose Avril Lavigne, but when she shared in class, it turned out I was the only one who knew who that was. A 9th grader chose Bo Jack (for real!) and I was surprised to find about half the class, maybe a shade more, knew who THAT was. Finally, an 11th grade girl picked Patrick Bateman (!) - and they ALL knew who that was. I found that disconcerting. Now I'll let you old folks Google "Bo Jack"
Disclaimer: Any thoughts, observations, opinions, etc. are of course mine and not necessarily the views of Peace Corps.
