Why O why, Generation Y?

Lately I've been watching some Hong Kong series. It is quite different from a while back (like 10 years ago)when I used to be a fanatic TVB-fan. The set-up of these series are different, the actors/actresses are younger and seem less experienced and the slang used are so 'new'.

One of the things they talked about that caught my attention was '90 后‘, which means the generation after 1990. They are known by different names: the Millennials, the generation Y. In the series they're posed as the irresponsible, wild and plan-free/worry-free generation. Here are some characteristics of this group based on this article http://itthing.com/4-tell-tale-signs-that-you-are-from-generation-y:



1. tech-savvy
They are the generation that grew up with technology in bloom. Mobile phones and laptops were a necessity and not a choice.

2. attention- seekers

They LOOOOVE attention. Social network sites are a daily need. People need to know what they're doing. When they're sad/happy, they want to share it with the world. At work, they crave for compliments and approval. With friends, they want to be the center of attention.

 

3. Driven, but not so driven

They want financial success to buy all the material luxury: expensive apparel, expensive booze, expensive cars, which they mostly can't afford. Their goal is not to maintain it, their aim is to have it. For instance, if they want to buy a Porsche, they'll try to save money (or some other faster way) for it (some get it from parents), but they will not think about how much they'll need to pay for gas every month.

 

4. Teamwork

They like to work in teams, but due to personal experience, I believe they want to work in a group, so that they will not need to do everything themselves. If it fails it's finger pointing, if it's successful, they share the appraisal.

I do admit that in my direct vicinity,  I do encounter people in this generation and they do seem to have these traits. Overconfident, very assumptious and especially very unfocussed. I had and still have a hard time dealing with them.

They do have some traits that are sure to envy: open-mindedness, more ME-time and the dare-to-love mentality. It might come over as selfish, but what's wrong with a bit more ME-love?

But I see the same traits from people who are in the late 80s and some after 90s are pretty responsible. So does is really has to do with the generation or is it just people at that age?

Looking back at myself in the early 20s I consider myself back then very irresponsible. The first years in the university were so wasted away. The classes were loose: nobody cares if you attend or not. And since it was not a major I preferred I really only took classes that interested me. No idea which direction to choose, what plans to make and how further with my life. What mattered was that moment and what comes will come.

Probably Karma really hits me in the face by showing me the after 90s kids. I used to be the same person, who would procrastinate, making plans to party and doesn't have a care in the world about the things I said. I still kept the straightforwardness, since that's a personal trait. But I believe that I've learned to wait for the right time to say the right things ( not always though). And I actually don't see the wrong thing about it. I love honesty.

During college, I was in a student board. There was this girl, who dislikes me, but I like the way she is. I mean...of course it's not nice not to be liked, but I admire her honesty to show it to me. For me, I prefer a true enemy above a fake friend.

Baby talk

Recently there has been some discussions going between me and several people around me. The big topic is 'baby'!!

Back in the days, it is a natural thing to assume that one day you'll have kids. Nowadays, some people choose to have kids, some accidentally have kids and some choose not to have kids at all. So the big question was: "Why do you choose to have kids?"

About the fact that babies are the most adorable human beings in the world, nobody will deny. But what makes people, who have the choice to choose for kids? Is that the society pressure 'it is expected that every woman will have kids one day' or does every woman really feel the desire to become a mommy at some stage in their life?

Don't get me wrong. One day, I do want to have a baby of my own, but I always expected to have a certain feeling or desire. That one day something will light up or a certain mommy feeling will tingle within me and I'll know that it's time. Or am I the only one who is not having these kind of feelings?

On the contrary, why not have kids? They're adorable, will be a little you composed by the features of you and your loved one. However everybody complains about the sleepless nights and the dirty diapers, but it hasn't kept many from making more. Even moms who has told me nightmare-ish stories about their childbirth experience are willing to confine another one willingly. Why is that?

Does childbirth give people a certain confident or power of creation? That they have a certain feeling that they actually did something god-like...created a human being?

I assume I'll have a lot to research about this topic. When I talked about this with a friend, she even started to doubt about how certain she is about having kids.

In life, we learn most things as part of life: going to school, finding a good job, falling in love, marriage and kids. But how often do we wonder if these are necessities or are these just society requirements?

Funny things: suck it out of my thumb!

In Suriname, everybody is multilingual. You'll at least know your native tongue and one other. For me, I'm blessed with at least 5 languages I can communicate in. The most spoken language in Suriname is Sranang Tongo, a creole language with Dutch, English, Portuguese and African influences. In daily life, most people prefer to communicate in Dutch. But what if you have to communicate in both English and Dutch?

It's a relatively natural thing that people try to speak a foreign language in the sentence structure they're used to. If we have to translate the Dutch version 'Ik heb honger' into English, it'll become " I have hunger" or the other way around. That's why it's funny to hear foreigners trying to speak your language. Probably that's how I sounded in Aruba trying to speak Papiamento.

And what if people try to be formal and always like to insert proverbs into their sentences and literally translates these proverbs into English? This is the result:

No	Dutch proverb	English metaphrase	English equivalent/meaning
1	uit mijn duim zuigen	suck it out of my thumb	I made that up
2	De appel valt niet ver van de boom	the apple does not fall far from the tree	so the father, so the son
3	Wel de splinter in het oog van de ander zien, maar niet de balk in het eigen oog	See the splint in other's eyes, but not the beam in its own eye	see another's minor mistakes, but not their own defects
4	Hoge bomen vangen veel wind	high trees catch much wind	people on high positions will get many comments on their actions
5	De een zijn dood is een ander zijn brood.	One's death is the other one's bread	one's misfortune is the other one's luck
6	twee vliegen in een klap	two flies in one clap	kill two birds with one stone
7	Een ezel stoot zich niet tweemaal aan dezelfde steen	a donkey does not hit the same stone twice	one should not make the same mistake twice

 There are of course a lot more, but at such situations, what would you do? Are you gonna correct that person or are you just gonna laugh about it and leave that person be?

One more for you: I will see through the fingers if you use these metaphrases!