Hi. It's dawg. I just read Bethy88's article about New Zealand. I'd been brain-storming of an article to write, and now I've got it.
I bet you've all met people from all over the world, but most have been from Canada. Almost everyone on Whyville is from Saskatchewan and Ontario, as I've gathered, and everyone's met a New Yorker every once in a while, and apparently Whyville's a hit in Ohio. But if you don't know me, I'd be surprised if you've ever met someone from Quebec.
I'm from Quebec, myself. Our license plate says, "Je me souviens," which means "I will remember".
When I mention I'm from Quebec, some people say, "Wow, I didn't know people knew about Whyville in countries other than Canada and the U.S.!" These folks don't realize that Quebec is a part of Canada. It's one of the biggest provinces, actually!
Here in Quebec, as I hope you all know, we're 99% French. The goal for many folks in Quebec is to keep the French in and the English out, which is why it's such an isolated province. The English schools here are so private that to get in you either have to have a close relative who went to the school or have moved here from an English province! My school's secretary gets phone calls every day from people begging her to let their children in. Here though, 'high school' is called secondaries.
Let me start at the beginning. We start school at the same time as the rest of Canada. Grade 1 at 6 years old, Grade 2 at 7 so on and so forth until grade 6, which is your last year of Elementary -- you get a graduation, too. And then, you don't go to grade 7 (because there is no grade 7 here), you go to Secondary 1, which everyone calls Sec.1. You are now in 'high school'.
When I moved here I was in Sec.1, and I was the youngest in my school. I was 11 and my classmates were 13-16. Here, you can fail any grade, unlike in other provinces where you can only fail starting grade 7. My birthday is in November, which also explains why I was 11. And the reason that some people in my class were 16? They're just plain dumb.
Anyway, you do sec.1 to sec. 5 and when you're done, you're done with high school! Not so fast, though -- before moving on to college they have a rule here, you have to do CEJEP. CEJEP is like high school but it's to prepare you for college. If you're not going to college, then there is no point of going to CEJEP. You have to go to CEJEP for 2 years. So technically, we have to go school longer than everyone else! And, where I live there is only 1 English school (well, actually 2 if you include the high school and elementary school) that 4 cities have to share where I live! Some of the military families live on the base and have to endure a 3 hour bus-drive to school and back every day. My parents are both in the military which is why I've lived in so many places such as Edmonton, Winnipeg and Toronto and a lot more.
Well, I hope you enjoyed my article if you've read up to here! I told my friends I'd be right back about half an hour ago! Bye....
Editor's Note:
Editor's Note: One quick note -- Whyville is actually made up of almost half Canadians, and a little over half Americans, with a smattering of folks from all over the rest of the world. Which is kind of amazing for a little website based out of southern California!
