I was having a chat with an American friend of mine about how English people (and I'm guessing other Europeans too) and American people see time very differently because of the way it's treated in their countries generally. I see 100 years as a blink, she sees it as an eternity.
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I think about how confused I am when Americans are shocked by the age of things, and if you guys are feeling the same way when we are shocked by distances then honestly, I get how weird it is, and how ridiculous we must seem to you.
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I think it's related to our perceptions of space in relation to our tiny nations. Like, travelling three hours in one country seems like a much shorter journey than one of the same length that crosses national borders, even when they're open and take no effort to cross.
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I can imagine the language thing adds a hurdle
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In all my travel to Berlin, I've never met a German who has even entertained the idea of learning Czech and Prague is a beautiful city closer to Berlin than I am to Philadelphia.
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Oh I love Prague! But yeah, the language thing is a problem, particularly in England where the mindset is generally "everyone will, or should, speak English". The system for teaching foreign languages at school here is awful, and it shows.
End of conversation
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