There is a ten to fifteen minute break between each class which is much longer than students in America usually get. My students spend that break playing basketball, hanging out with friends, or taking short naps. The lunch period lasts for an hour and a half and includes more chore time. Most students take a nap at their desks after the chores are done. The second half of the day has three normal classes and then one extra class at the end of the day for some students. The school day here is longer, but they get much more time to relax between classes.
After school, many students go to additional schooling known as 補習班 “bǔxí bān” or cram school. It is like large group tutoring in subjects like math and English. Most students don’t do sports or other activities after school because they are very busy with studying, homework, and cram school. Instead, they tend to play with friends, listen to music, and play video games in any free time they have after school. Not only are their school days longer, but they also have fewer breaks from school. They only have a few holidays and one winter break. So we have school from the beginning of September to the end of June with only one 3-week break at the end of January and about four days off throughout the year. This academic calendar is much more tiring than what I was used to having in the United States!
In addition to subjects like math, science, PE, music, and history, my students have a few classes that are different from American schools. For example, instead of taking language arts like American schools, students here study Chinese. It is a very difficult language to learn because they must learn to speak well with good annunciation as well as how to write with characters.
