Hi, I am an American. I must admit to be a bit (or a lot) ingnorant of the english culture. We Americans (at least most people i come into contact with) only have TV and movies to go by. To us all English people talk proper with a sophistiacated accent,(well, if you've never seen oliver twist). We often try to immitate it and very poorly pull it off.
Also, I would like to now what is it that English (or other foreign) teenagers do for fun, hobbies, or pass times.
Please inlighten me on this and any other topics you might want to straighten out.
Please and thank you.
"I would like to now what is it that English (or other foreign) teenagers do for fun, hobbies, or pass times."
After a quick early morning game of croquet, we trek on over to the Ascot Racecourse to cheer for our favorite horsies. Later, we have tea & crumpets with the Queen, followed by a mid-afternoon foxhunt with Prince Philip and Princess Anne. Afterwards, we have a scrumptious meal of shepherd's pie and spotted dick. In the evening, we head over to the West End for a theatrical performance. It's all jolly good fun!
Dearest Alfred:
Don't you have porridge for breakfast before your morning game of croquet? And what is it that you do if it rains? Do you read Shakespeare's sonnets or would you rather chase your younger male servants? It's wondering I am.
Alfred......a touch of English sarcasm there I guess! By the way, you forgot that trip down to Henley! Or ARE you English?
favorite?
Seriously, Mack...English... (I take it you really mean BRITISH? That is such an annoying American habit! Speaking as a Scot...!) .... teenagers are probably no different from their American peers in how they spend their time and basically do the same sort of things. My own teens are now three years behind me and I have had to change my behaviour and attitudes radically so I think your teens are every bit as obnoxious as ours! LOL!
Over here we are well aware that Americans are generally ignorant of other cultures, and when you say that all English people speak in a "sophisticated" way shows how very little you do know about us. Try watching some more realistic British films, or better still, come over here and see for yourself how we behave and how many different accents there are in a country which is smaller in size than the State of Montana but with many times more the population.
Anyway, why do you WANT to imitate a British accent and if so, which one? As I say, you have loads to choose from, as you have in your own country I guess. I saw a documentary on Texas on TV once and had to put the subtitles on.
Keep in touch if you want any further enlightenment. Happy to oblige.
Och, it's a wee bit ahin the noo and I'm feeling awfie fornyawed so I'm ganging tae ma bed! (Scottish.....I'm fae Edinburgh)
Cheers :-)
mack, I'm 17 years old from Pakistan and in my free time I play cricket along with my buddies. I'm not sure whether it is being played or not up there in the US. It is very popular game among boys and girls in my country. Martin Crowe whose was a swasbuckling cricketer from Newzealand in the late 80s, is a cousin of Russell Crowe. That's the information I have acquired from cricket fans. I think Russell Crowe is a Hollywood hero. I also play Badminton and soccer but not in great earnest.
To disturb neighbors was also a great past time for me. I used to do alot like ringing the bell of houses and ran. I and my friends used to tie a string on a handle of a neighbor's house door and used to pull it up and down during late midnight around 3/4 a.m when everyone was sleeping in their houses. Lol, they used to wake up for seeing who was knocking the door and when they opened the door, the portion of handle automatically moved aside so they could not see the string. It was quite a funny and risky attempt. We used to do it from the roof of my house.
But at one instance we were caught, the cold air was blowing and we all went to sleep while doing that. We forgot seperating the string from the handle and left it as it is. After that, my father was scolding at us early in the moning cause we disturbed the neighbor and string tied on the handle and where it was coming was a crystal cleary evidence for our misdemeanor.
Alfred, wickedly funny!
Mack,
Hi, I'm no longer a teenager as well (there seem to be a lot of twenty-three year olds on this board :-). I live in France.
As the previous posts point out, your question really sounds like Europe is very different from the US, with a lot of weird customs. That's not true. The westerner teenagers do basically the same things, and I think that's what most Europeans think. But who knows? Maybe our awareness of the similarities prevents us from spotting some slight differences that may exist? Let's try to draw a (non-comprehensive) list of the things that the French (and other European) teenagers can do so that you can tell me if you see some differences:
Talking, chattering, discussing, debating, joking, telling what one has been up to, flirting, spending one's time along with relatives, friends or one's girlfriend/boyfriend, having sex, going to a bar or a pub for a drink (and sometimes getting drunk), clubbing, going to the cinema, playing football (soccer), playing video games, watching a DVD at home, learning and playing a music instrument, hanging about the streets, shopping, smoking a spliff (one young French out of two has tried cannabis at least once), drawing, practising a sport in a club (Handball, Football, Basketball, Gymnastics, Dance, Karate, Judo, Ju-Jitsu, ...), giving a party, surfing on the internet, trekking in the mountains, lying on the beach or on the grass in a park, seeing one's favourite music group play live, eating (mostly at Mc Donald's, brrr!!), tag, graffiti, skating, listening to music, watching tv, ...
And I think we all have done a lot of foolish things just like Boy and his friends have done. ;-)
I'm a student....getting drunk is compulsory! hee hee :-)
LOL!!! Tu-shay (or however you spell it in French)
touché....just for the record.
Yeah, muggle youth culture is pretty much uniform around Europe and North America. Muggle teens all wear their funny little clothes, a few sizes too large for the boys and revealing oh so much on the girls. Then they all do strange little things together, like staring at moving pictures on a screen for hours on end, making themselves deaf by turning on music so loud, and drinking fizzy drinks from aluminium containers that release a puff of air when opened. Some very weird muggles pretend they're dragons and like to puff smoke out from a tube- it looks rather disgusting and the smoke smells horrible too.
I'd say that wizard society is far more conservative. At least we value family more than modern muggles teens do.
Oh, and young muggles spend too much time for their own good talking on fellytones.
no gentlemen, just a difference: in europe most of the teenagers aren't fat
They're getting fatter in the United Kingdom though.
Got to love teenagers in the 1940s and 50s though. Smart little blazers, pretty little dresses, duffle coats, etc. Go back in time a bit and you've got flappers. Go forward a bit and you've got hippies and all that rubbish. Yay, 1940s and 50s rule- the era of conservatism!
Personally I prefer to sacrifice half a dozen young virgins and dance widdershins and nekked around Stone Henge, preferably whilst drunk. Afterwards, a little burning at the stake, the invocation of some demons, and then home, to watch pub darts.
