Monday, August 3, 2009

School Supply Dances Around the World

Something kind of crazy that I have been very interested in over the past few years is what kind of school and office supplies to people use in other countries? What does a high school student in India use versus a one in Russia? Are there different sized binders, notebooks and systems of organization? I know what we use in America: mead 5 star notebooks, yellow pencils and bic pens-general wal-mart fare. Obviously jetpens.com has access to pens that American's often don't have access to here and some notebooks that are hard to find, so obviously there are choices available. The French ruled Clairefontaine notebooks are a great example of this, the French use a completely different system for lining their pages! Who knew?

But because I am curious about how other places stock their offices and book bags I try and find the right search terms to come up with foreign school supply lists. That hasn't been very productive. What I basically need is a school supply kit from every country in the world, where they are using products they buy locally. I am sure I would end up with a few bic pens and mead notebooks, but think of the other items that would be in those packages! It would be awesome. I would settle on hearing from anyone out there that has direct knowledge of how the supplies may differ and what is the same.

On a totally different note, I made a jetpens.com order a few days ago. To be fair the Lamy and Hi-Tec-C and inks are for my husband. I think I am finally getting him addicted to pens like I am! The rest of the pens are for me...

Products
1 x Uni-ball Style Fit Gel Ink Multi Pen Ink Cartridge - 0.38 mm - Mandarin Orange $1.50
1 x Uni-ball Style Fit 5 Color Gel Ink Multi Pen - Pen Body with Clip - Silver $3.75
1 x Uni-ball Style Fit Gel Ink Multi Pen Ink Cartridge - 0.38 mm - Brown Black $1.50
1 x Uni-ball Style Fit Gel Ink Multi Pen Ink Cartridge - 0.38 mm - Blue Black $1.50
1 x Uni-ball Signo Broad UM-153 Gel Pen - Dark Blue Ink $2.25
1 x Uni-ball Style Fit Gel Ink Multi Pen Ink Cartridge - 0.38 mm - Baby Pink $1.50
1 x Lamy Fountain Pen Ink Cartridge - Blue Black - Pack of 5 $3.00
1 x Lamy Fountain Pen - Safari Model - Extra Fine Nib - Charcoal Body & Black Clip $26.00
1 x Uni-ball Style Fit Gel Ink Multi Pen Ink Cartridge - 0.38 mm - Violet $1.50
1 x Pilot Hi-Tec-C Coleto 4 Color Multi Pen - Pen Body - Black $3.00
1 x Pilot Hi-Tec-C Coleto Multi Pen Ink Cartridge - 0.4 mm - Blue Black $2.00
1 x Pilot Hi-Tec-C Coleto Multi Pen Ink Cartridge - 0.4 mm - Green $2.00
1 x Pilot Hi-Tec-C Coleto Multi Pen Ink Cartridge - 0.4 mm - Red $2.00
1 x Pilot Hi-Tec-C Coleto Multi Pen Ink Cartridge - 0.4 mm - Brown $2.00
1 x Sailor Ink Bar Disposable Fountain Pen - Fine Nib - Black $2.70
1 x Sailor Ink Bar Disposable Fountain Pen - Fine Nib - Blue Black $2.70

Any review requests?

6 comments:

  1. you think you have enough pens and ink there girl ? my goodness looks like my grocery list . I love it

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  2. I want to try the Uni-ball Style Fit Multi pen and am thinking of adding it to my next JetPens order. I'll be interested in seeing how yours turns out.

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  3. I wonder if you tried craigslist for other countries around the world. I'd love to see the responses. Since I teach 8th grade English here, I am curious what other schools require. Great idea!

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  4. i just bought my uniball style fit here in hong kong a couple of days ago. almost ordered it from jetpens but then saw it in a local store on promotion. how do u like yours? i like mine a lot so far. i got the refills with a 0.5mm nib.

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  5. I'm from England, and most my school supplies are from supermarkets. I like using papermate and up 'til last year, I've been lurking around the £ shops for cheap multipens :P

    WHSmiths is the most popular of places to get stationary! But prices are higher than getting the same stuff at Tesco's [popular supermarket]

    we have bic pens here too..but nobody uses them. recently i've started using pilot and pentel pens..the simple ones but nothing like the ones I've seen being reviewed online [most/all aren't available in UK :( at least by what i've seen so far]

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  6. American who studied in Singapore here (I'm now back in California). If you don't mind me sharing my collection... well, I will anyway. I'm guessing my stationery'll differ from the normal Singaporean student, but it's more of a:

    * Uniball Signo DX's, .28 and .38 (typically dark blue, dark brown, or dark green; writing essays with the .38's make essaying just that much more fun).
    * Pentel Graphgear 500/1000, .3mm, .7mm (for math and bubbling in Scantron tests)
    * Kurutoga .3mm (more math)
    * Uniball Signo Bit .18 (for being annoying and writing small)
    * Staedtler 2.0mm and generic Taiwanese-cartoony-pictures leadholders (more bubbling and sketching)
    * A'Zone Lecture Pad, Letter Paper (A4 size) (standard writing paper; there're lots of brands but these are what I use).
    * Stabilo Highlighters (Swing Cool, since they're the cheapest; they're about the same ones you'll get in the US)
    * Zig permanent markers
    * Pentel Ain Hi-Polymer eraser (soft) (I picked up one when they just came out, and they're finally dominating stationery stores in Singapore this season!)

    I was actually a big Pentel fan, but I got slowly converted to Uniball thanks to a friend. Pentel Hybrid Technica .3mm's were my favorite until I found out that the Uniballs don't smear as badly and write a lot smoother. Although, sometimes I go back to the Hybrids just because they've got a distinctly... different feel.

    That said, I hate Pilots since, at least in Asia, they're really unreliable. I'm not sure why so many people like the G2 here, but I've had Pilot pens explode ink everywhere and their Shaker pencils (.5mm) just die every week. Shakers are a schoolchild's favorite because most school bookstores carry them. If the local bookstore's a Pentel-based one, the Pentel Twist-Erase (often 0.7mm, then) is the alternative favorite.

    Oh, and I found your post because I just picked up a set of Style-Fit and was wondering if there were any positive remarks about it online/things that I should be wary of. Keep up the nice blog!

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