Sophomore Shiji (Jack) Zhang would be hitting his alarm button at 5:30 a.m. if he was at home in Nanjing, China. School typically starts at 6 a.m. for Zhang so the 8:30 a.m. start time at Albert Lea High School has been an adjustment. Zhang is the first foreign exchange student to enroll at ALHS for at least five years.

Zhang explains what a typical school day was like for him.

“In China we had to go to school at 6 a.m. and got to go home at 10 p.m.” said Zhang. But then explained that he didn’t mean ‘home’ but rather that he was done with school for the day. From Monday through Friday, the students stay and sleep at the school. They had almost no free-time to themselves outside of the school day. 

“My free time is always doing homework,” Zhang said and goes on to explain that the most interesting part of being in America is “Less homework, more free time.”

When he’s not doing homework, he plays games with his friends. Specifically, he brought up a game called “Arena Breakout” that they play on their phones. 

In China, Zhang’s schedule was Chinese, English, chemistry, physics, biology, maths and Politics. There were 6-7 classes before lunch. The lunchroom is a large hall that, according to Zhang, serves different combinations of rice, meat and vegetables daily. His lunch and dinner breaks were 45 minutes.Then it was back to the same classroom until dinner. Instead of students moving from room to room throughout the day, the students stay in the same classroom and the teachers move around. Zhang didn’t get to choose any electives. 

“After lunch it was teacher free time,” Zhang said, explaining how the free hour worked each day. Students didn’t know which teacher would show up after lunch and what topic they would be learning. “Any teacher could just come here and teach class.” 

Afternoon classes and a dinner of rice, meat and vegetables and then there is more school. Classes end at 10 p.m. but once the students get back to their sleeping quarters, they still have about an hour of homework to do.

School for Zhang was spent preparing for a test that would determine his future by deciding what college he would go to. It’s called the Gaokao and it’s an assessment taken by seniors on every subject at the end of high school. It takes 2-3 days to take the test.

Foreign exchange programs aren’t popular in Zhang’s school and those who do sign up don’t get to choose where they are placed. The location is picked for them. Despite the educational differences, Zhang seems to be enjoying his time here.