Don't Ask Me Nothin' about Nothin' - I Might Just Tell You the Truth

There's something to be said for being able to speak candidly to a bunch of 17-year-olds. It's not necessarily that in the USA people don't take teenagers seriously, or that in Austria they have it so much better, i.e. the freedoms they are allowed make them more well-adjusted as they become adults. The opposite may very well be true, but I haven't seen it yet.

It's really way too much to ask to create an either/or hypothesis when it comes to child development. But, the longer I live in Austria, the more I find myself agreeing that, at 16, people are capable of (some) advanced thought and decision-making skills - rudimentary as they may be. Thus, at 16, you can decide for yourself (legally and in full view of the law) whether you want to smoke, drink, or have sex, or do other equally "adult" things. Well, in that way, school culture is also on the liberal side. No matter how many people tell me Austria is conservative, I don't believe it. Compared to what it's like in America, things couldn't get less restrictive.

For example, the other day in class, we had a discussion about child molesters that began innocently enough with an article from the English book (Fast on Track - for Austrians, by Austrians) on New York city. Now, I must interject that I love New York. I even have the t-shirt to prove it. I think, in fact, I would live there in a heartbeat if I could. But that is a story for another blog post.

In class, we began by discussing the article. The teacher asked whether any of the students would want to live in New York. One girl raised her hand and said that no, she would not like to live there. The crowds and the noise would be too much for her, and she couldn't see herself wanting to raise a family there because cities are not ideal for such things anyway, and New York in particular seems unlikely to have lots of green spaces. 

The teacher agreed, "Yes. If you send your kids out to play, they might get run over by a car."

"Or be abducted by a child molester," I added without thinking. 

It just came out. I couldn't take it back once I'd said it. I surely would have been fired on the spot were I teaching in the USA. However, the teacher found it the perfect opportunity to teach a brand new word! He seemed unfazed - until I asked, "Oh, isn't there a slang term for 'child molester'?" I asked. "While I was studying in Berlin, someone taught me the word _____________. Could I use that?"

The word itself is unpublishable. Excuse me my error. Yes, I could use it. Yes, it is slang. Very, very bad slang inappropriate for the classroom. Even in Austria. The class, however, upon hearing my utterance burst out into giggles (this particular class is 100% girls) and it seems they were unharmed. They probably thought it was hilarious that the American assistant even knew the word - and that she said it in class! LOL! OMG! ROTFL! 

For those of you curious, and with passable German skills, look under "f" in the dictionary. Translate. Or just use your dirty little minds. You'll come up with something to fill the blank eventually.