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Keesa
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Post by Keesa »

Emma_85 wrote: But otherwise my birthday was fun and all, and now I've finally got my driving license :) .
Really? I'm getting my license sometimes this winter. Yes, I know I'm nineteen, but I'm also homeschooled, so I had the option of waiting until I was nineteen or older, or getting my GED. At first I was just going to wait, but then it turned out that I would need the GED after all, so I went ahead and got it. Now I'm both nineteen and I have a GED, so no more excuses!

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Post by Emma_85 »

Ehh... what's a GED? Is everyone in the US allowed to drive as early as 16 or is that only in certain states?

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klewlis
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Post by klewlis »

um.... GED is a highschool education thingy.

Keesa, why would you need that in order to get your licence??

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Post by Episcopus »

Germans are crazy there is no speed limit auf dem Autobahn! :shock:

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Post by Emma_85 »

Ahh... I thought it probably stood for something like General Education Degree, but that didn't make sense... glad I'm not the only to think that.
Is it because you didn't have enough time or money, like only enough for either or something? :?
How expensive is it in America, then? I've heard that the test is just driving around the block once in an automatic car and it's virtually impossible to fail (that's what a guy in Florida told me, maybe different in other states :? ). Here it costs 1700 Euros, and that's if you pass first time like I did, most pass second or third time and so have to pay 1900 or even 2100 Euros. That's bloody expensive, but unlike in the US you actually have to drive to be able to get a license and the examiners are very strict indeed. It's annoying you can't even practise with your parents, you have to do all the practising with a driving school.

And yes there is no speed limit on the Autobahnen... on a Sunday lol, because on weekdays it's more like trying to drive at over 10 km/h (too many traffic jams).

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Post by Keesa »

The GED is the Test of General Educational Development, also known as the General Equivalency Diploma. It's the equivalent of a high school diploma...

I had to have it because of the homeschooling laws here in Alabama; they're too complicated to go into detail, even if I knew them completely, which I don't (I leave those things to mamma), but basically to get your license, you have to be able to present either 1) a high school diploma, 2) a high school transcript, or 3) a GED. I'm not in high school, so I don't have a diploma or transcript, and in Alabama, you have to be at least seventeen to take the GED.

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klewlis
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Post by klewlis »

I can't believe you have to be graduated highschool in order to get your driver's licence!!

In alabama of all places!!

:shock:

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Post by Keesa »

You don't. But, in order to keep kids from dropping out of school, they passed a law that you have to either be able to prove you're in high school or be able to prove that you've graduated. Proving that we had graduated (taking and passing the GED) was just the easiest of the two.

You don't have to have graduated.

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Post by Emma_85 »

That's a really strange law indeed... :?

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Post by Keesa »

It would have been very frustrating, indeed, if I had wanted to start driving at sixteen, but since I didn't, it wasn't.

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Post by Emma_85 »

I didn't realise that everyone in the US had to get at least a high-school diploma, although I know high-school isn't very challenging at all. A friend of mine went to high-school in America and graduated there last year (a private one). She said it was useless and that she learned nothing at all there and didn't work a bit and still got really good marks. Now she's finding the Abitur incredibly difficult. But even if it's not so difficult to achieve I don't understand why they want to keep kids in school for that long. Here you can leave school before that and start an apprenticeship...

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Post by Keesa »

You can start an apprenticeship here, too, if you're homeschooled. (as long as you keep up with math and English and reading, etc.) IN theory, at least, I've been apprenticed to my mother for the last six years. (In practice, there were some on/off times in there.)

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benissimus
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Post by benissimus »

You don't have to get a diploma. You can always drop out, after a certain age :evil:
flebile nescio quid queritur lyra, flebile lingua murmurat exanimis, respondent flebile ripae

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Post by Kalailan »

whats an apprenticeship?

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Post by Emma_85 »

You don't have to get a diploma. You can always drop out, after a certain age
But if you drop out then you don't have any special qualification? No end exam at 15 or something like that? :?
What's that evil looking smiley for? Did you want to drop out before that certain age?
whats an apprenticeship?
An apprenticeship is that your employer teaches and instructs you so that you learn a job or craft. So Keesa's mum is employing her (I suppose she gets some pocket-money :wink: ) and is her teacher.
It's normal here to become an apprentice after leaving school at 15 to 17.

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Post by Episcopus »

Keesa sure likes her mother. For my mother to be a teacher would be laughable, and I dislike her. How can one spend so much time with one's mother? Is it not annoying?

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Post by Emma_85 »

It probably depends on your mum, maybe Keesa's mum isn't really annoying (although I thought all mums drove their daughters mad). I couldn't have my mum teaching me - it would be a disaster, especially as she thinks molecules are just pretty coloured balls and needs a calculator to work out 7 x 8. The only thing she could teach me is English literature and History. My dad would be a great teacher, though... :P :
"History, ahh... now that's really easy, there's one date for each century you need to remember, 1066 and all that..."
"I read a book once... I think it was blue"
"Differentiation is easy, let my take a look at your book. ...... Are you sure this is differentiation, it looks very complicated?"
"We didn't do that in A-level Chemistry when I was at school..."
"Who cares about German..."
"Why do you bother learning all this anyway? Go marry a millionaire!"
"I had Latin at school - causa causas causat..."
:roll:

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Post by Keesa »

Emma_85 wrote:(although I thought all mums drove their daughters mad).
Only when daughters drive their mothers mad. :P

Mamma and I get along marvelously. She's also a wonderful teacher; she doesn't teach me subjects. When I was very young, she taught me how to learn. She also taught me to love learning. Now I learn and she guides. It's worked rather well, I think.

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Post by mingshey »

Wonderful mother you have, Keesa! (Congrats! :))
I wish I make such a good father. ;)

Episcopus
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Post by Episcopus »

Wonderful :)

Although it disturbs me :shock:

bingley
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Post by bingley »

Not half as much as the sight of episcopus in drag disturbs me.

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Post by Emma_85 »

Maybe Episcopus should explain his new sig? :wink:

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Post by Episcopus »

Ah...I thought you might understand.

If I must. Since I have 1000 posts and have just completed D'Ooge, I see the need for some kind of celebratory avatar. "Quicumque", although an adjective, sounds nicer than "Quidquid" meaning as you know "whatever".
"Laec" = "Like". That girl in clueless, as benissimus mentioned to me a while ago, sounds like me on msn when I incessantly reply "whatever", or more often "quidquid", or saepissime "quicumque". She is the girl from clueless! "Like, whatever..." I'm surprised you didn't know her :(

I'm sure she's not too disturbing, O bingley :shock:

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Post by Emma_85 »

Ahh... 'fraid I've never watched clueless, that's why I didn't recognise her.

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Post by Episcopus »

To salvage the topic, clueless is quite old, but it is still shown on some channels. I'm sure benissimus will get it, when he comes back hither. :lol:

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