How Old Are You?
My head is swimming. The Spanish course I'm taking, via Rosetta Stone, is getting difficult. Real difficult. I'm learning how to speak in past tense, and what can I say, I'm lost, but I'll catch up. Eventually.
One thing I like about Spanish. And this characteristic is shared by many languages, but ask a person how old they are in Spanish and they'll answer with 'I have' instead of 'I am."
Example in English: How old are you? Answer in English: I am 25 years old.
Example in Spanish: How many years have you? Answer: I have 25 years.
In English, we define ourselves by our age. If you're twenty, you should be single, out living it up, have some sort of job. But if you're thirty, you should have settled down, have a house, a great career, and one of your 2.5 kids. If you're fifty, you should have most of your million dollars that you will use for retirement.. You should be married and ready to spend your golden years with the love of your life. You should have grandkids, etc. So we define ourselves by our ages in English. We are our age. We become our age, and when we don't live up to expectations, we feel that we are failures.
But in Spanish, French, Italian, etc, the question is 'How many years do you have," And the answer, "I have this amount of years."
And the women in these countries are allowed to age and still retain their beauty. Think, Catherine Deneuve.
So, I have 54 years. It's not who I am. This number does not define me. I define it. This number does not reveal the sort of person I am, whether I'm married or not, or what I do in my spare time. This number only tells how many years I have lived on this earth.
One thing I like about Spanish. And this characteristic is shared by many languages, but ask a person how old they are in Spanish and they'll answer with 'I have' instead of 'I am."
Example in English: How old are you? Answer in English: I am 25 years old.
Example in Spanish: How many years have you? Answer: I have 25 years.
In English, we define ourselves by our age. If you're twenty, you should be single, out living it up, have some sort of job. But if you're thirty, you should have settled down, have a house, a great career, and one of your 2.5 kids. If you're fifty, you should have most of your million dollars that you will use for retirement.. You should be married and ready to spend your golden years with the love of your life. You should have grandkids, etc. So we define ourselves by our ages in English. We are our age. We become our age, and when we don't live up to expectations, we feel that we are failures.
But in Spanish, French, Italian, etc, the question is 'How many years do you have," And the answer, "I have this amount of years."
And the women in these countries are allowed to age and still retain their beauty. Think, Catherine Deneuve.
So, I have 54 years. It's not who I am. This number does not define me. I define it. This number does not reveal the sort of person I am, whether I'm married or not, or what I do in my spare time. This number only tells how many years I have lived on this earth.
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