Lektorka Kika: Can you share a typical day in your life, including any cultural or social activities that you think represent American daily routines?

Sherrie: My days are always pretty average (priemerné), I wake up, get ready and go to school. After about a seven-hour day, I’ll come home or maybe I’ll do some nondescript (neurčitú) activity with friends (like going to our local mall or restaurants). There are some nights when I stay at my school for most of the day due to after-school activities, and there are some nights when I have performances, such as football games with the marching band (hudobná skupina, ktorá pochoduje, march = pochod, just google a picture, you will know it from the American movies!), which is probably the most stereotypical American thing about my schedule (rozvrh/harmonogram), as they are very much like the movies you may have seen them in.

Lektorka Kika: Have you ever been to Europe? If so, was there anything utterly (absolútne) surprising for you in comparison with what you are used to in the USA?

Sherrie: Unfortunately, I have not, but I do hope to travel to Europe someday.

Lektorka Kika: What sports do young American people do? I don´t necessarily mean the national ones, maybe what you and your friends like to do to stay healthy.

Sherrie: I run and lift weights (zdvíhať váhy) myself, and as a group sport I play tennis and I have played basketball.

Lektorka Kika: What foods do you usually eat? At home, maybe in your school canteen?

Sherrie: I personally don’t eat anything out of the ordinary (nenormálne); I’m a vegetarian so I have lots of fruits and vegetables throughout the day, mainly salads, but sometimes I’ll branch out (odbočiť) and have some pasta dish or something of that nature (niečo toho charakteru).

Lektorka Kika: There is a lot of talk about Americans not having as nutritious groceries as for example some European countries, what do you think about that?

Sherrie: I do think we could do better in that area, but I don’t think it’s a huge problem.

Lektorka Kika: Should I answer when an American asks me "Hi, how are you?" or is it just a polite phrase? How can I tell the difference?

Sherrie: When an American says “how are you?” it is a polite phrase, and the way we would normally answer would be “good, and you?” or something like that. It’s a phrase we use to check in on someone or just a nice thing to say in passing (mimochodom).

Lektorka Kika: What would you like to do after school? And what is a common profession/career that people your age aspire to do in their future?

Sherrie: I see a lot of people my age wanting to go into teaching, or engineering, or something that pays well and requires (vyžaduje) a four-year college at least. I personally would love to do something in music, whether that be writing, teaching, or performing.

Lektorka Kika: Is it easy to get a well-paid job in the USA?

Sherrie: It definitely isn’t, a lot of jobs pay barely (sotva) above minimum wage (the amount of money your employer legally has to pay you to work) and with how expensive things are it’s definitely difficult to make a living (uživiť sa).

Lektorka Kika: Is it common and necessary for people to do more jobs?

Sherrie: It absolutely is: a lot of people can’t afford taxes (dane) or their rent on just one job’s pay alone, so a lot of people end up working multiple minimum-wage jobs until retirement (do dôchodku).

Lektorka Kika:  Can you tell us a bit more about extracurricular activities available to students in your school?

Sherrie: There are quite a few options: there are different sports you can join, art clubs, athletic groups outside of sports, different bands, and most commonly you can work with a bunch (partia) of other students on a play that’s performed later in the year.

Lektorka Kika: Can you describe how the learning process goes in your school? What activities do you practise in lessons? (or you just have lectures and then memorize stuff? Or is it more interactive? - is what I mean by that)

Sherrie: It really depends on the teacher - some find it easier to simply lecture and have the students take notes, while some are more hands-on (praktickí/zainteresovaní) and more personal with their teachings.

Lektorka Kika: This might be an uncomfortable question but we see a lot of shootings (streľba) at schools in the USA in the media, is it really that common and bad? Do you have any training at schools on how to behave (správať sa) in such situations or is it false information?

Sherrie: There definitely are a lot of school shootings. I’ve never had one at my school, but there have been quite a few at the schools surrounding mine (v okolí mojej), so much so that we have gotten used to hearing about them. Our drills (nácvik) normally consist of “stay in your classroom with all the lights off and doors locked until the threat (hrozba) goes away,” but that would be quickly abandoned (upustilo by sa od toho) in a real shooting and students and faculty would abandon (opustiť) the building.

Lektorka Kika: What kind of transport do you use to go to school? Is it like in the movies, a yellow bus picks you up?

Sherrie: I am picked up by a yellow bus in the morning, like most of the students, but some either get rides from their parents, drive themselves, or walk/bike.

Lektorka Kika: Can you describe the town/city ... where you live? What are some interesting things to do in your area?

Sherrie: My area is pretty peaceful and uneventful (pokojná), though we are near some commercial cities (Salem being one of them) and we do get quite a few tourists looking at our history museums. It’s a richer city, so there are a lot of people but it is a nondescript (nevýrazné) place.

Lektorka Kika: Is there any criminality in the place where you live?  

Sherrie: There is in some areas, not mine specifically, but there’s rarely anything more than someone robbing a convenience store (obchod so zmiešaným tovarom).

Lektorka Kika: What is your dream place to visit in America and also what touristic places are overrated to visit in your opinion?

Sherrie: I’d love to go to New York, which I haven’t really been to before and its scenery is beautiful. Florida is definitely overrated (preceňovaný) - I’ve seen a lot of people wanting to go there but in reality, it’s not that enjoyable: It’s always really warm and run-ins/unexpected encounters (nečakané stretnutia) with alligators are dangerously common.

ZHRNUTIE

Dostal/a si sa až sem? To je skvelé. 

Dúfam, že bol tento rozhovor pre Teba zaujímavý a prínosný. Častokrát nemáme možnosť porozprávať sa s rodeným hovoriacim, a to je škoda! Ako vidíš, nevyjadrujú sa tak odlišne, aby sme im nerozumeli. Aspoň teda v tej písomnej forme! 

Učenie sa angličtiny je pre mňa taktiež spôsobom, ako sa kultúrne vzdelávať a rozširovať si obzory v tom, ako sa žije za hranicami Slovenska. A o tom to je.

Dočítania nabudúce, bye bye!

Tvoja lektorka Kika