I'm trying to learn Mandarin Chinese and one of the first lessons was numbers. It occurred to me while learning to count in Chinese that teenagers only exist in the English-speaking world. Not that youth in other countries don't go through the same aging process, it's just that "thirteen", etc., does not exist in other languages. (For those of you keeping track, it's shi san in Chinese.) Does absence of the "teenage" years make a difference in how other cultures view their youth?
In a couple of months, this blogger will be rambling so far west that it will be east, when we temporarily relocate to Beijing, China. My first love is still the outdoors and we will try mightily to spend as much time as possible in observing the natural world. I'm excited to check out China's ornithological society and all the Fatbirder sites in the China section. Those not interested in China, please check back in about a year. We intend to return to the Pacific Northwest and resume talking about this beautiful part of the world.
Meanwhile, we'll see what the world would be like without teenagers.
LOL - your Mandarin is coming along quite nicely. :) We're so excited to hear about your wild and wooley adventures in the Far East. We've already started digging so we can wave to you from our backyard.
ReplyDeleteI think we left Sean's sippy cup over at your place last time we were over, don't take it with you. :)
Cal says finders keepers, losers weepers.
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