# Slovak: Gymnázium



## natasha2000

Suane said:
			
		

> It must be perfect to know how to write both way. I wish I was learnt how to write in cyrillic in childhood too. Then it will be natural for me. I don't like that in my scholl (Gymnazium, High school) we don't have the opportunity to study some cyrillic language. Do you have also Gymnazium in your country? In USA Gymnasium means the place where you exercise. So when I tell someone that I studied on one, it has to sound quite weird.


 
Yes, as a matter of fact, I agree with you on that. It makes learning of a foreign language easier. At least at the beginning...

I think you are making a mistake as far as a Gymnasium... 
In Serbian, we also call the secondary school Gimnazija, but if you say like this in English, you will be misunderstood as you are now. I think that what in Serbian is gimnazija and in your language "Gymnasium"(I suppose this is your translation to  English, I don't know Slovak word, sorry) in English is college. Preparatory courses for University. And in English as in Spanish (gimnasio) means a place where you go to practice sports.


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## Suane

natasha2000 said:
			
		

> Yes, as a matter of fact, I agree with you on that. It makes learning of a foreign language easier. At least at the beginning...
> 
> I think you are making a mistake as far as a Gymnasium...
> In Serbian, we also call the secondary school Gimnazija, but if you say like this in English, you will be misunderstood as you are now. I think that what in Serbian is gimnazija and in your language "Gymnasium"(I suppose this is your translation to English, I don't know Slovak word, sorry) in English is college. Preparatory courses for University. And in English as in Spanish (gimnasio) means a place where you go to practice sports.


 
Slovak word= Gymnázium, I don't know exactly what you mean, but in USA, they have their Highschool as well as we have one in Slovakia. The basic difference is that they have one kind of school, in that you can choose which subjects you will study- so it's something like our "secondary" school and gymnazium in one, and in Slovakia you have different kinds of schools for different subjects. I'm of course not talking about the level of education, some subjects are more difficult or less difficult, but basically they have 4 years of highschool and we have too. 
I don't know about gymnasium meaning college, but we study quite similar stuff in USA and Slovakia, maybe some stuff from Slovak school is studied in college in USA, but generally (like most of studying stuff) not.


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## natasha2000

Suane said:
			
		

> Slovak word= Gymnázium, I don't know exactly what you mean, but in USA, they have their Highschool as well as we have one in Slovakia. The basic difference is that they have one kind of school, in that you can choose which subjects you will study- so it's something like our "secondary" school and gymnazium in one, and in Slovakia you have different kinds of schools for different subjects. I'm of course not talking about the level of education, some subjects are more difficult or less difficult, but basically they have 4 years of highschool and we have too.
> I don't know about gymnasium meaning college, but we study quite similar stuff in USA and Slovakia, maybe some stuff from Slovak school is studied in college in USA, but generally (like most of studying stuff) not.


 
Maybe I did not understand you well... Sorry. I understood that you say to people in English: I studied gimnasium". And the meaning of the word of Gymnasium in English is not the same as in Slovak or in Serbian... It is not a school, it is a place where you do sports. As far as I know, the word Gymnasium or shorter gym in English is only this - place to do sports. correct me if I am wrong... I am not completely sure about how it is called in America or in UK, if it is college or high school since I am unfamiliar with their respective educational systems, but I am sure that gymnasium is not the word that means any kind of school. If I am wrong, please correct me.
I don´t know if something has changed lately in Serbia, since I don't live there any more, but at my time, after finishing the primary school that has 8 years, and you are 15, you can chose between high schools or secondary schools where you study for some specialty, for example, hairdresser, nurse, etc. and after finishing it, you can go to look for a job, since you are completely trained to do what you have been studing for. On the other hand, you can choose "Gimnazija" which means that you are preparing yourself to go to the University. In "Gimnazija" you study subject like philosophy, psychology, sociology, as well as maths, science, at least two foreign languages, latin, etc... Meaning, you receive broader education in order to prepare yourself for the University. First wo years are the same for everyone, but the third and fourth are divided into two different groups: social and natural sciences.... There are also two schools for especially gifted people, one for languages and the other for maths.
That is Gymnasium in Serbian meaning.


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## Suane

natasha2000 said:
			
		

> Maybe I did not understand you well... Sorry. understood that you say to people in English: I studied gimnasium". And the meaning of the word of Gymnasium in English is not the same as in Slovak or in Serbian... It is not a school, it is a place where you do sports. As far as I know, the word Gymnasium or shorter gym in English is only this - place to do sports. correct me if I am wrong... I am not completely sure about how it is called in America or in UK, if it is college or high school since I am unfamiliar with their respective educational systems, but I am sure that gymnasium is not the word that means any kind of school. If I am wrong, please correct me.
> I don´t know if something has changed lately in Serbia, since I don't live there any more, but at my time, after finishing the primary school that has 8 years, and you are 15, you can chose between high schools or secondary schools where you study for some specialty, for example, hairdresser, nurse, etc. and after finishing it, you can go to look for a job, since you are completely trained to do what you have been studing for. On the other hand, you can choose "Gimnazija" which means that you are preparing yourself to go to the University. In "Gimnazija" you study subject like philosophy, psychology, sociology, as well as maths, science, at least two foreign languages, latin, etc... Meaning, you receive broader education in order to prepare yourself for the University. First wo years are the same for everyone, but the third and fourth are divided into two different groups: social and natural sciences.... There are also two schools for especially gifted people, one for languages and the other for maths.
> That is Gymnasium in Serbian meaning.


 
And maybe we just confused each other. In my first post on this topic, I said that gymnasium (or gym if you like) means the place where you exercise, or sport. I meant, that because I studied 2 years on Slovak Gymnazium and now I'm studying on American Highschool in 3rd grade, I can't tell someone that I studied on Gymnazium if he asks me where I studied before, because it could sounds weird because of the meaning of this word in English. That's all. But then you said something that confused me. 
We have similar Gymnazium in my country but we have changed the system a bit from previous years, so we don't study Latin language anymore, or we don't divide studyning in social and science direction as my father's gymnazium did. You studied several social and science subjects 3 or 4 years, but in some you have alternative studying system in 4th year when you studied only few subjects that you will do a graduation exam from or that you will do an exam to university from.


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## natasha2000

Suane said:
			
		

> And maybe we just confused each other.


 
I would agree with you on this one.


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## Jana337

Hello,

Please remember that you shouldn't open new topics in existing threads. 

Vítej, Suane. 

Jana


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## Suane

Jana337 said:
			
		

> Hello,
> 
> Please remember that you shouldn't open new topics in existing threads.
> 
> Vítej, Suane.
> 
> Jana


 
Sorry, it was just accidental digression but at first we were talking about cyrillic/latin difficulties with learning new language.

A ďakujem za privítanie!

BTW, do you know something about slavism.com? Why does the author think that Slovak language is easy to understand for slavic nations?

For all the people: What do you think: Which slavic language is relatively the easiest language to be understood by other slavic nations? I hope (Jana) that this question is not off-topic.
Ok, you can give it as a new theme. I just think that making always new themes is not so effective, because then in each theme are just couple of posts and the discusion is not getting so far. Maybe it could be fun to make general topic about slavic countries, their similarities and differences or about slavic languages, not only about some words.


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## Jana337

Suane said:
			
		

> Sorry, it was just accidental digression but at first we were talking about cyrillic/latin difficulties with learning new language.
> 
> A ďakujem za privítanie!
> 
> BTW, do you know something about slavism.com? Why does the author think that Slovak language is easy to understand for slavic nations?
> 
> For all the people: What do you think: Which slavic language is relatively the easiest language to be understood by other slavic nations? I hope (Jana) that this question is not off-topic.


I have to disappoint you - it is.  The topic is gymnázium. Please open a new thread, summarize the arguments of the author, share your doubts and ask for opinions.  

Jana


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