Which tv show most accurately portrays teenage life in the US?
That's actually a really broad question. The American culture and lifestyle are different in different states and regions, so teenagers living in different places will have different experiences growing up. For example, movies in a metropolitan setting where teenagers travel via city bus and subway and shop in huge malls full of fancy boutiques are completely apart from the teenage experience in my rural hometown in Kentucky, where the teenage "hang out" spot is in the beds of pickup trucks outside Walmart or a fast food restaurant. I've never seen any media that accurately portrayed what teenage life was like for me, because they're never set in poor small towns.As for the ones that got close...It's not a show, but the best representation of a teenage life that I could relate to was in the movie "Juno." A lot of critics said it was unrealistic and that real teenagers didn't talk like that, but they were grossly misjudging and underestimating teenagers.As for shows, "Glee" gets it right a lot of the time, especially in the early seasons, about the kind of bond that ends up forming between the weird kids. It was moreso the teachers' shenanigans that made the show unrealistic. Most of the kids were normal awkward, weird outcast teenagers."Daria" is classic. Pretty much every adult who grew up as a strange, cynical outsider has a soft spot for that show.
Which TV shows, in your opinion, ended right when they should have ended, being neither overly long nor cancelled prematurely?
I found ONLY ONE SOLITARY show to end at exactly the RIGHT MOMENT. Only one. But first, there are several that were neither overly long, nor too short. Breaking Bad was perfect. I think Seinfeld nailed it. And actually, I really thought Friends did a good job bowing out. There were (and ARE) several that just...don't...know...when...to...QUIT! Just a quick few of those - The Simpsons, Prison Break (first 2 seasons were AWESOME! After that, total CRAPFEST!), and Southpark are 3 that spring to mind instantly. But here my friend, here is the one series that ended at the exact right MOMENT.....drumroll please.....The Sopranos. Think about it. No other show ever ended close to the way it did. Just a moment frozen in time...use you imagination from where the conversation was cut off on forward. A lot of people nowadays don't know how to use their imaginations. They expect the to do it for them on the big and small screens alike. Video games leave ABSOLUTELY NOTHING to the imagination! And books? Ha! Even tho they are still written well and in the same way as always, people nowadays, they don't seem to process information the same it seems. I recently spoke to a group of my son's friends and my son. I asked a simple question of them - "When you read a book, do you see a movie-like story playing in your imagination? Or do you simply see the words in front of you and read them? Each one, EVERY ONE, of the 12 young men said they just see the words, no story unfolds before their eyes. And 9 out of the 12 young women said the same thing. Does anyone have any thoughts on went they think this is?
At what age do British teens start drinking?
Varies massively by social circle, how permissive your parents are and so on. My parents were pretty permissive and so were my friends' parents. By drinking, I am meaning reasonably heavy drinking not just a glass of wine with dinner etc. I started drinking in my final year of high school. I would have been 16 at the time, in the mid 2000s. I went to an all boys school (there was an all girls school in the town as well) so it tended to be bars where you met girls. There were local bars that were easy to get into, basically their USP was letting under age people in. I get the impression that the police have massively clamped down on such practises as this was over ten years ago. I could buy booze from off licenses and bars with few issues at 16. I remember that whilst we sometimes drank beer, our drinks of choice tended to be vile alcopops. Horrible stuff in hindsight. There were some people in my social circle who started a bit earlier at 15, but this was comparatively rare. If someone is starting to get drunk before they are 15, this is probably prima facie evidence of other problems at home. I think my experience was fairly typical of kids of my generation. I don't think I could have started any earlier had I wanted to, since I didn't have a job until I was 16 and booze in bars is expensive. Kids today probably have to rely on drinking at home/house parties etc due to the police cracking down. Certainly by the time I was doing off licence work in my early 20s I would ID absolutely everyone who looked under 21. And anyone under 18 typically looks really, really young, even if they think that they look old. What is important is that you explain to your child the dangers of getting too drunk etc. Teenagers are going to get drunk. It's what they do, and no amount of tough parenting can avoid that. Better for you to know about it and know they are going to be relatively sensible about it.
Why do Europeans have so few swear words compared to the US? The British still say words like "bollocks" and "bloody hell" when we might say something considered as a stronger exclamation.
Everything is indeed bigger and greater in the New world, innit?Even your leader is a bigger tosser than anyone else’s.Eh..anyway,I think the problem here is the relative “strength” of any term.What a North American considers “strong” might be quite diluted for a Briton (or for a Finn, or for a Frenchie)The strength of a curse word is defined by the emotional response it incites. (Such as disgust, shock, etc)What is shocking in your culture, might not shock someone from another culture, at all. Curse words are words related to taboos. Taboos differ from one culture to another.Take the word cunt.I bet your arse it’s always Americans who try to edit that one out from my answers…I’ve heard many, many Brits use it in speech. Never an American. So I’d say it is more shocking for them.Female sexuality seems to be more of a taboo in North America, because they have so many profanities related to it. The discussion on abortion & family planning clinics supports my view. This is not even a matter of any discussion in Europe.Then again, historically Catholic countries are also fans of terms equivalent to son of a bitch, whore son, whore mother… Because of course.In Finnish, the equivalent of cunt, (vittu), is one of the most common curse words, and although it has a plethora of derivatives, it can’t be used as an insult even if you really wanted to. It doesn’t carry the same injurious meaning as cunt does.Therefore, I could say one of the most shocking insults in the English language is pretty lame in my perspective. I simply fail to see why it would be insulting.Another good example is the word motherfucker, which is rare anywhere else.In many languages, this is not even a curse word.Whore is another one.In French, the near-equivalent pute (and especially putain) are not nearly as shocking. Putain is a very very mild curse word. Pute is an insult, rather strong, yes, but closer to bitch as its dynamic equivalent.All in all, what is deemed shocking & strong in one place, probably isn’t in another. Therefore making this type of comparison is like comparing apples to oranges.Great Britain and the US have quite different cultures, with different taboos. This, along with some dialectal variation in time & space, vastly explains the difference in profanities.
Why do Europeans have so few swear words compared to the US? The British still say words like "bollocks" and "bloody hell" when we might say something considered as a stronger exclamation.
Everything is indeed bigger and greater in the New world, innit?Even your leader is a bigger tosser than anyone else’s.Eh..anyway,I think the problem here is the relative “strength” of any term.What a North American considers “strong” might be quite diluted for a Briton (or for a Finn, or for a Frenchie)The strength of a curse word is defined by the emotional response it incites. (Such as disgust, shock, etc)What is shocking in your culture, might not shock someone from another culture, at all. Curse words are words related to taboos. Taboos differ from one culture to another.Take the word cunt.I bet your arse it’s always Americans who try to edit that one out from my answers…I’ve heard many, many Brits use it in speech. Never an American. So I’d say it is more shocking for them.Female sexuality seems to be more of a taboo in North America, because they have so many profanities related to it. The discussion on abortion & family planning clinics supports my view. This is not even a matter of any discussion in Europe.Then again, historically Catholic countries are also fans of terms equivalent to son of a bitch, whore son, whore mother… Because of course.In Finnish, the equivalent of cunt, (vittu), is one of the most common curse words, and although it has a plethora of derivatives, it can’t be used as an insult even if you really wanted to. It doesn’t carry the same injurious meaning as cunt does.Therefore, I could say one of the most shocking insults in the English language is pretty lame in my perspective. I simply fail to see why it would be insulting.Another good example is the word motherfucker, which is rare anywhere else.In many languages, this is not even a curse word.Whore is another one.In French, the near-equivalent pute (and especially putain) are not nearly as shocking. Putain is a very very mild curse word. Pute is an insult, rather strong, yes, but closer to bitch as its dynamic equivalent.All in all, what is deemed shocking & strong in one place, probably isn’t in another. Therefore making this type of comparison is like comparing apples to oranges.Great Britain and the US have quite different cultures, with different taboos. This, along with some dialectal variation in time & space, vastly explains the difference in profanities.