The European Tribune is a forum for thoughtful dialogue of European and international issues. You are invited to post comments and your own articles.
Please REGISTER to post.
I think that in part, the American reputation for overheating is city folk who aren't accustomed to the idea that there's a natural ebb and flow to nature. (A time when things turn green, it gets warm. A time when things die, and it gets cold. To everything turn, turn, turn. There is a season. Etc.)
This is a big factor, I think. The younger generations (of which I am still a member, despite my age) have been brought up to pretend that seasons don't exist. Hot outside? AC. Cold? Heat. No vegetables in winter? Fly them in from Chile. Everything is supposed to be just as comfortable at all times, and no adjustments should be made to the weather at all.
For whatever reason, the majority of new English teachers in my small Japanese city have been from California. Year after year, a group of young women arrive who believe that it is a birthright to wear flip-flops all year long, and have no proper winter clothing, and no understanding of home heating. But instead of adjusting to the situation after the first cold snap, they go into winter denial. They keep doing things the way they always did, keep wearing their same, grossly inadequate clothes, and whatever, because they cannot bring themselves to believe that winter is really cold, and that you have to adapt your behavior to the world around you on occasion. "Sure, I'm freezing to death, but it will only be for another few months."
The second year, they usually come around. Or they go home.
It will be a horrible, horrible shock for such people should a real energy crisis demand that the seasons be recognized.
by Frank Schnittger - Jan 26 3 comments
by Frank Schnittger - Jan 31 2 comments
by Frank Schnittger - Feb 2
by Frank Schnittger - Jan 22 3 comments
by Cat - Jan 25 56 comments
by Oui - Jan 9 21 comments
by Frank Schnittger - Jan 13 28 comments
by gmoke - Jan 20
by Oui - Feb 215 comments
by Oui - Feb 14 comments
by Frank Schnittger - Jan 312 comments
by gmoke - Jan 29
by Oui - Jan 2731 comments
by Frank Schnittger - Jan 263 comments
by Cat - Jan 2556 comments
by Frank Schnittger - Jan 223 comments
by Oui - Jan 2110 comments
by Oui - Jan 21
by Oui - Jan 20
by Oui - Jan 1841 comments
by Oui - Jan 1591 comments
by Oui - Jan 145 comments
by Frank Schnittger - Jan 1328 comments
by Oui - Jan 1221 comments
by Oui - Jan 1120 comments
by Oui - Jan 1034 comments