Yesterday, I was walking back to school from the post office, when I stopped to say hello to a friendly Dalmatian. His owner, seeing my BFA Pep Band T-shirt, asked if I was from the school. I said yes, but clarified that I’m a teacher.
Surprised, he said something like, ‘Really? You’re not old enough, are you? You’re really a teacher?’ I said yes, I’m old enough. He said, ‘How old are you? 19?’ I shook my head no. ’23?’ Nope. I told him my real age.
‘Wow, you don’t look your age. That’s a compliment! Now guess how old I am!’ I proceeded to study him and give a conservative estimate: ’40…?’ I tentatively put forth. ‘Nope! I’m 54! We both look younger than we are!’
Emily had a similar interaction with an older gentleman who asked her to guess his age (but he was in his 90s). In the US, age is the type of thing you don’t really talk about if you’ve just met a random stranger; if you want to know, you ask in a roundabout way, like, ‘What year did you graduate from college?’ In Germany, it appears that age isn’t an off-limits topic in polite conversation.
