Interesting, i'll post mine as well. Here are my (final) results in my last year of highschool.

Dutch (4): 66%
French (4): 76%
English (2): 77%
German (1): 77%
Math (6): 58%
Physics (3): 63%
Chemistry (2): 67%
Biology (2): 71%
Art history (1): 70%
History (2): 74%
Physical education (2): 63%
Religion (2): 71%
Geography (1): 75%


And a grand overall of 68%. Now when i look at this numbers i serieusly start questioning my choice of studies at uni: i picked the courses i scored my lowest points in ... . Well that happens when you have absolutely no clue what you'll be studying i guess.

Btw: This all just proves that Ox was a way bigger slacker than i was. And that i would have been better off studying some languages, i knew i'm pretty good at them, but didn't realize that with a minimum amount of effort i still scored quite high.

Eeeeeeeeeek! *visions of a 50-year old self wearing a knitted sweater with math formulas*

Oh wait, if you'd count PE that would probably be my worst subject. I suck at football and we always play football. Teacher always says that results will be determined by determination, dedication and perseverance. Never heard someone as full of shit as him. Guys who only were around 1 lesson a week (in stead of 2) so they could sleep a little longer and shouted a lot got a 'g' (good) and I, who actually started jogging and working out ( ) and ran till I dropped got a 'v' (voldoende = statisfactory). I found out why he didn't notice my determination after we had our final PE grade ever. He didn't knew my name. Well actually he confused me with someone else. Hypocrit. Well glad I don't have him this (grade-less) year. No, in stead of him I have that woman who's been a few times in an asylum and who I shouted at that she was incompetent Damn I'm glad I don't get a % for PE.

Haha, talking about phys ed., did ya notice how that was my 2nd-best grade? haha

I'll post my results marks as soon as I can be bothered. What I can remember is that archaeology was
ACH 4- 90/90 (A, 100%!)
ACH 5- 78/90 (A/B)
ACH 6 (coursework) 108/120 (A)

I was sure that I failed ACH 4 tho In my coursework tho it was great to prove the teacher wrong "Don't do that you'll get a low mark". Showed him.

hehe, good stuff. 100% is insane, too.

And looking at all these results (and reactions) I think we can conclude there's a definite difference in approach and grading in the Anglo-Saxon world/system (Holland is pretty much into that too iirc) and the rest. In this case, J and me.

In some strange way you need better grades in order to get a 'pass' in the Anglo-Saxon system, I gather from the grades around here and Satis' reaction. It's a whole different philosophy behind it, obviously.

And J, yeah man, with grades like that you definitely could have done something like me, probably (very probably )outdo me too, hehe. My grades for languages weren't all that awesome so...then again, my grades for the rest sucked even worse. I also think I'm the only one of my final high school class with a master's, hahaha. All those suckas with higher grades are either nothing or professional/academic bachelors. Which in some cases equals and surpasses my grade (engineers and whatnot, but still, I rule supreme!! Or something.

Hm.. let's see what I remember from my grades, you need a 6 or higher to pass.
Dutch: 6 (I'm quite good at Dutch, but the exams are always about nonsense I don't want to learn about)
English: 9
French: 6
German: 6 (German and French are very basic, reading only)
Literature: 8 (combined English and Dutch literature, I had a 8.4 average, one tenth more and it'ld have been rounded to 9, dammit).
Math B1/2: 6
Physics1/2: 7
Chemistry1/2: 6
Sociology: 7
Latin: 6 (passed it mostly by learning translations by heart, quite easy actually, the only thing you need to know about the text to translate is where you have to start in your head).
History: 8 (basic history only, I couldn't combine it with other classes so I had to drop the advanced course)
ANW: 7 (refused to invest any time into that)
KCV: (can't remember, see commentary for ANW)

Is it true that the continent start language teaching earlier than us, i.e. before high school? it's just that when I have met people that have studied English from the continent (and GF and other ppl on the web) they can speak/type decent English when I struggle to understand spoken French

I had some basic English before I went to "Middelbare school", wich is our second level of education. But that was very basic (I don't believe I learned anything from that). I think most important is that whenever you turn on a tv or radio, there's big chance of hearing English. The computer age has made English even more present in daily life.
And I struggle with spoken French too, even reading it is hard. German goes well for reading short texts, but reading a book in German would be almost impossible for me. But that's mainly because I never took any interest in learning it.

Over here you get -apart from the obvious Dutch- a lot of French in elementary school, so that's usually firmly implanted in the back of ppl's head. No other languages tho, that's only in high school. If you're on one of the 'higher' lvls of education -like J and me were- you come into contact with quite a few languages in high school: Dutch (duh), French, English and German. (sometimes Spanish) And Latin and Greek if you take that option.

Anyway, this doesn't mean you get great at most of them or anything, but the cool thing about (Western) languages is: the more you know, the easier you spot patterns in others, so you get a very broad and solid background to base your study of a new language on.

Other reasons are indeed what Arathorn mentioned; overexposure to English gives just about anyone a decent grasp of the language. It kinda sucks that I studied English literature and stuff, cos in this day and age my usefulness on the job market is nil: my forte is supposed to be that I'm good at English, but hell, look at Arathorn or J's posts: they don't have a degree in it and hardly do any worse than me, if at all. hehehe

Yeah I wass just wondering whether it was British snobbery or better language teaching abroad or English ruling supreme. Tho might be combination of all factors.

Probably the last one. Movies, games, manuals, you name it, it's all in English or anything non-Dutch. And since dubbed movies are crap, we all choose to learn English. And the grammar is probably easier than German or French grammar. I mean English just has 'I have, you have, he has, we have, you have (again ) and they have'. 5x have, 1x has and the 2nd person singular and plural (is that right?) is the same. The French on the other hand decided they should have a different word for every person and sing/plur. They just asked for it. Idiots. And then there's German with all their Capitals and their case endings. Don't get me started on Asian languages with their, for us, unusual symbols they use to write. Connections between Dutch and English are kind of freaky actually. Just take a Dutch word, get a complicated synonym and you've got a word that really looks like it's English counterpart.

What about the English sayings
"Pot calling the Kettle black"
"Teaching you're Granmother to suck eggs"
etc. My uncle's girlfriend who is Dutch doesn't understand these. Do others?

Pot-kettle we use as well, literally translated.

The granmother, dunno what you mean with that, it's just sick i think.

lol i've never understood that one either J. Was it a talent of medieval old women to suck on eggs? Or perhaps it was some kinda sign of being a wise old witchdoctor in ye olde anglo-saxon villages... *shrugs* lol.

Well for those that don't know teaching you're Granmother to suck eggs means that you're telling someone how to do something they know. Probably originates from older people having no teeth sometimes.