On My J’s in England

Summary: Live to work? Or work to live?

Word of the day: Jack (Jones)
A little Ldn slang brought to you by my co-worker James. It means alone, i.e. “on my Jack,” or simply, “I’m on my j’s.”
But who is Jack Jones, I asked? Well, my research tells me that it is just a typical example of rhyming cockney slang, which is written in fun code. The slang word is short for a word that rhymes with the word it means. Ok let’s break that down: Jack --> short for “Jack Jones” --> rhymes with “alone.”
Let's try another one. The phrase "On my Todd" supposedly means the same thing as "on my Jack." Todd --> Todd Sloane --> alone
Well who is Jack Jones? Of course there were a billion of them, I’m sure, so it's unclear of the celebrity it is referring too. It seems the saying could come from the lyrics of a cockney song played around the turn of the century, or could be named after a singer himself. Regardless, he might not have been a loner at all, but just a useful name to rhyme with "alone."

What I learned today: London is humbled like any old city when it rains, and I kind of like it. My polka-dot umbrella sure did hold up nicely!

Next time I go to London I will...speak in cockney. (The rhine in Spine…)

This feels like a lot of disjointed thoughts I could’ve put together to make a great paper…but I never will…so here’s my word vomit.

Today my co-worker Loyla and I were talking about life and jobs, blah, blah…

We discovered that when you’re ripe and fresh out of “uni” like me, you are just DYING to get your first paycheck and settle the heck down (having the same neighborhood bar for longer than a few months). And then when you hit her age (late 20s) and older, you start to wish you had gotten a lot of stuff out of the way when you were a youngin’ -- i.e. traveling, living in another city, eating more hamburgers, whatever.

My flatmate is in her late 30s (I think) and seems to give a similar message. She is always telling me not to worry too much about work/life, because I have energy now. And, like others, she tells me to travel as much as I can and do as much as I can and basically makes me feel like I'm going to die in a couple years…

It made me wonder, about how I need to stop trying to grow up. And how when I'm grown up, I still want to be adventuresome in some way. And how much I really should appreciate being in England, because in a few years, I’ll be stuck in my career, or whatever. I don’t mean to be a downer to my fellow twentysomethings, but I hope you all think as well about living it up, regardless of where you are/what you are doing. As much as we all secretly crave to just find security (in paychecks, locations, loves), it’s important to let the adventures happen.

Which brings me to some observations I came to about American culture. In America, we squelch adventure in general, perhaps. Overseas employees loooove us because Americans are workaholics. It is true that America is a more “live to work” society than many other countries, as Geert Hofstede found in his research of cultural work differences. He rated countries on a masculinity scale. Great Britain actually has a higher “masculinity index” than America, which surprises me, because I find America to be more work-focused, but there are other factors that can affect this (such as England's slightly more archaic treatment of women).

I’ve gathered that English college studies are not as career-focused as Americans. I was stressed out for four years, getting internships and managing a newspaper and all about getting the job after I graduated. Sure I liked learning as well, but I also received life training. (I know I went to one of the best schools in my field and was a little too live-to-work myself, so it’s difficult to compare, but I still find it's true across the board with many American college students.) I wonder if this is good -- American 18-year-olds are taught to go to school to start their horrendous 9 to 5 life. We shun people who study topics they are simply interested in. What are you going to do with that? We ask. It seems other countries are more acceptable of this, and maybe even encouraging of people to not jump into their career right away, and maybe take years after college to really get there.

Also, traveling seems to be much more integrated into the lives of people in Europe and other parts of the world. In Australia, it is standard for young people to take a year to travel. I would kill for that to be a part of the American agenda! Of course, in Europe it is easier to travel, but I still think they appreciate seeing other countries and strive to take more trips than Americans. With that said, studying abroad seems to be more and more popular but I don’t know that it is still a part of the average student’s education.

The State Department estimates that only a quarter of Americans own a valid passport, The New York Times reported. I’m realizing that perhaps our lack of traveling could build up to add to a more overall mentality in America, and contribute to a lack of cultural relativism in our country. Finding out about the rest of the world does not seem to be an important part of American education. Finding a career and making money is.

Of course, I'd love to hear your thoughts:)

I am reading: Emma by Jane Austen