101 Being Yourself and Being Your Age

Topic 101 Being Yourself and Being Your Age 18 September 2020

1. What age would you like to be if you had a choice? Why?

2. Lots of jobs make you act in a way that you might not like much. How would you manage this situation? e.g. If you are a policeman you might have to arrest people even though you sympathize with them. If you work in a shop you might have to be nice to some horrible people etc.

3. When do you feel most free to 'be yourself' with no pretending?

4. Thor has just turned 75. He doesn't feel a bit like 75, and hardly mixes with "old" people. He runs every day. How should a 75 year old man behave? In your opinion, how should you behave at different ages?

5. The advertising industry (especially clothing) almost forces people to look/act like teenagers or yuppies or tradies or middle aged mothers, or retirees ... and so on. How influenced are you and your friends by this kind of advertising?

6. Most of you have English as a second language. How does your personality feel different using it, compared to your first language?

7. If your home culture is very different to life in Australia, how do you adapt? Would people in your home culture agree with everything you do and say in Australia? Why/why not?

8. A lot of people feel they have to be a bit drunk (or even take other drugs) to relax, make friends, be romantic and so on. Do you agree with this? What about yourself?

9. How close to the 'real you' is the image you create with posts in social media like Facebook, Wechat, Whatsapp etc ? Do you feel that you can be completely honest on social media? Why/why not?

10. Some individuals have a lot of self-control in public situations. Some have very little. This is partly a matter of cultural training. In you experience, people from which cultures show the most self control in public? Which show the least? Think of examples. What is the best balance?

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Here is an interesting story:

Sian Cain (2 Sep 2020) "What is it like to be a middle-aged woman? A son asked his mother – then wrote a comic. South Korean cartoonist Yeong-shin Ma asked his mother to fill out a notebook detailing her life. Her brutally honest response lead to his graphic novel Moms" The Guardian @ https://www.theguardian.com/books/2020/sep/01/what-is-it-like-to-be-a-middle-aged-woman-a-son-asked-his-mother-then-wrote-a-comic