všeobecné gymnázium

11:11 Apr 4, 2013 

...while other kids may laugh at "gymnasium", the director surely could google it in seconds?

Grammar School might not be such a bad idea after all, but I suspect that'd only work for a Brit.

11:01 Apr 4, 2013 

I would suggest that Gymnasia are not “common” non-specialized high schools – that makes them sound as though they were akin to a UK comprehensive, which they patently are not. Notwithstanding my own preference for “Gymnasium”, I stress that I have not used the US term “university-preparatory school”. I have simply tried to find (and have found) an approximation used by an American, for Americans, to describe this type of European school, which I have duly noted here as a further suggestion.

10:26 Apr 4, 2013 

Unfortunately, a general preparatory schoool is something different (to a certain degree) from Czech gymnasium. Gymnasium is simply a "common" unspecialized high school. Many students continue to universities, but some not. And quality of individual gymnasia greatly vary.
On the other hand, preparatory schools in USA (I have recently read very interesting article about Horace Mann in the New Yorker) are exclusive elite schools with only aim of preparing kids for university studies. Students are either from rich families or very talented and annual tuitage tends to be very high.
To call a gymnasium preparatory school might mean that you give to the school credit that it doesn't deserve.

But maybe I am wrong and there are common state-owned or district/town owned schools preparing students for universities and called preparatory school.

06:02 Apr 4, 2013 

Stuart, the main person here is the Asker. She needs to decide. I am showing that if she translated for the US, gymnasium to them is a place where you go for your physical education classes. The need here is to relate to the target audience, I feel. With your permission, I would like to let others have their views, because they are important as well.

05:53 Apr 4, 2013 

Please stop editing and deleting posts, Hannah, I can't keep up! I don't think "general preparatory school" would mean "nothing", I'm sure a US audience can glean what is intended and will accept that it is an approximation. This all suggests that babylondon's suggestion (and my own for a European reader) would be best, accompanied perhaps by an explanation.

05:48 Apr 4, 2013 

I am sure there will be colleagues joining in with their views. I feel that General Preparatory School means nothing to the US audience.

05:38 Apr 4, 2013 

I think this is too general, Hannah. We really need to get across the purpose of a gymnazium. The equivalent in the UK is "upper school and sixth form of a grammar school", and I'm sure the US equivalent will also require a description which is just as unwieldy. That is why I am trying to convey the "preparatory" aspect.

03:30 Apr 4, 2013 

Actually, I was a bit influenced by the fact that my young relative in Prague is starting an 8-year gymnázium soon, thus corresponding to the nižší gymnazium. I would simply put High
School, (or General High School) because there are other terms for Odborné střední školy, such as Vocational Secondary Schools, Secondary Technical Schools, etc.
Wikipedia further continues (see my reference) how some exceptional 'general high school' students are allowed to take a course or two on the college level, but there is no 'general preparatory school' i.e. public 'preparatory high school', to my knowledge.