Kate Adams writes on BirdBrain’s Nest:
Damn, kids are sharp today. I’ve been noticing that there’s a whole bunch of very good websites run by under-thirty-year-olders. I wonder what the average ETP’ers age is?
Andrea reveals her age and suggests I conduct a survey on other ETP’ers ages. Yep, in my book, Andrea, you’re a kid. But you’re also a European and that makes you more mature somehow!
Interesting: I’m twenty-four and still a kid. But I’m more mature because I’m European. Strange.
I’d like to know why Europeans are more mature than Americans. Is it just Kate, or do all Americans consider Europeans to be that way?
Yesterday on Netdyslexia:
It is complicated to explain how to climb up these charts. However, here is a rule of thumb: A link on Scripting News gives you approx. 400 hits.
That’s right. Yesterday, Dave had a link to How we met…, and the page has been read 379 times.
And I climbed to number 56 on the old Top 100 (from 69 yesterday). The new Top 100 Page Reads list me at 11 today – compared to 15 yesterday. Wow!
Kate Adams schrieb auf BirdBrain’s Nest:
Die Kids heute sind helle. Mir ist aufgefallen, daß es eine ganze Menge guter Websites gibt, die von Leuten unter dreißig gemanaged werden. Ich frage mich, was das Durchschnittsalter der ETPler ist.
Andrea verrät ihr Alter und schlägt vor, eine Umfrage nach dem Alter der ETPler zu starten. Ja, Andrea, aus meiner Sicht bist du ein Kid. Aber Du bist auch Europäerin und das macht dich irgendwie reifer!
Interessant: Ich bin vierundzwanzig und immer noch ein /”Kid/”. Aber weil ich europäisch bin, bin ich erwachsener. Eigenartig.
Mich würde interessieren, warum Europäer angeblich erwachsener sind als Amerikaner. Ist nur Kate dieser Auffassung, oder halten alle Amerikaner alle Europäer für reifer?
Gestern auf Netdyslexia:
Es ist kompliziert zu erklären, wie man auf den Ranglisten nach oben klettert. Es gibt aber eine Faustregel: Ein Link auf Scripting News bringt ca. 400 hits.
Das kommt hin. Gestern hat Dave zu Wie wir uns kennenlernten… gelinkt, und seitdem wurde die Seite 379 Mal abgerufen.
In den alten Top 100 bin ich von gestern 69 auf heute 56 gestiegen, während das neue Top 100 Page Reads Ranking mich heute auf Platz 11 hat – im Vergleich zu Platz 15 gestern. Wow!
Hi Andrea,
You wrote that you wanted to know why I (and maybe others in the States) think European “young people” (and by that I mean anyone younger than me at 37!) seem more mature.
Well there’s the obvious thing first. Y’all speak a different languages and I can’t understand you so you must be saying something profound and sophisticated.
Also, most Europeans speak more than one language while most Americans are still busy trying to master English!
Dumb story: I was on one of those bateaux-mouches (please forgive spelling!) in Paris. I’d been in Paris for several months and even though I still couldn’t understand what people were saying, I was starting to get an “ear” for the various french accents. There were three young women (early 20’s) in front of myself and George, who had come over to visit for a week. The women were speaking that beautiful fast clear french that I had come to think of as “Paris French”. So I said to George, in English: “Listen to those people in front of us. I think that’s what good French is supposed to sound like! Damn I wish I could talk like that!”
At which point the young lady who was speaking at the moment turned and said to me in completely perfect English: “Thank you so much! I am pleased that you enjoy it.” And the other two nodded and smiled.
So that’s a second aspect – the multi-language thing.
There’s more. Europeans dress better. I always felt poorly dressed by comparison. I eventually realized this didn’t matter too much but at first it was quite intimidating.
And Europeans know how to dine. Heck even in McDonald’s people sit and talk while they eat. No-one snacks between meals. No-one eats at their desk. I don’t know why but says “mature” to me.
(I wonder what the story on cell phones is in Europe? Are Europeans better behaved in that respect than Americans? They must be!)
I should probably be saying “French” instead of European here because my experience is rather limited to that. But I’ve also been to Sweden and saw the same thing there. And London too.
Foreign films are much more “mature” than american films so I assume the people who go to see them are more mature as well.
And as we all know, the educational system is better across the board. I went to kindergarten and first-grade in France and my Dad swears it was years after coming back to the States before I learned anything new in US schools.
And in Europe, I don’t think anyone would ever dare say that women are “sexually disenfranchised” (as the goofy article I pointed to a few days back did).
Now, there are some things the French, anyway, have not figured out. Driving. Humour (they really do like Jerry Lewis!). Public restrooms (in the older places anyway). French politics seem to be even whackier than American politics.
Well that’s enough generalizations for one day!
Best to you!
-Kate
I don’t really think that the existence of allophones in a particular region is more an example of neccessity than maturity. That is, there are people around you who speak different languages and so you learn to converse with them, in school or otherwise. Although I’m definitely not a linguist I think that it is possible to find similar traits in many parts of the world.
I’ve encountered this is in a few places close to home somewhat close to home among Franco-manitobains [French-English] and Mennonites [English-German], in Southern Manitoba proper (and less now than it used to be) but not really where I live (South Western Manitoba). I think that similar things could be said of many first nations communities (although I can’t vouch for that from personal experience).
Update: I think I should qualify my statements as the musings of someone who has not travelled a great deal, and has not lived anywhere but where I do right now.