Why is it that I compare everything I experience to my life in the UK?

[mwooldri]

Anyone got any ideas?

For the first 24 years of my life - well 20 out of 24 - 4 was in Dundee, Scotland - I lived in southern England in a village on the Surrey/Sussex border. It wasn't suburbia, nor was it fully urban. There are farms, rural roads, woods, and everything you might expect to find in rural England. Yet if I wanted to get into central London, I could within a couple of hours be walking by Westminster.

When it comes to the media, I compare what I had and what I have now and I find myself wanting. For public transport again I find myself wanting since I've never seen a bus go by my house here or at the end of the road - ever. Healthcare is one thing I find that is a huge yawning gap. My dad has never talked to me about a medical bill - he's had heart stents put in, which failed, and he had to be re-operated on with a heart bypass... and had to have his intestines temporarily re-routed. Not once has he worried about a doctors bill.

Yet when I go back to see my family I compare things that are good here to what's over there - e.g. the roads are far better here, stores are open longer and are often cheaper, and of course gas is way cheaper over here.

Why do I compare this way?

Mark.

[CaliforniaPeggy]

1. My dear mwooldri......

You have a thoughtful question, and it deserves a thoughtful answer....

Seems to me that you make comparisons because you spent your tender, formative years in GB, and then you moved here...

You bonded with the way things were there.....you identified with them.

And now you're here, and being an observant adult, you question what you see.....

My take on it, anyhow.....

:hi:

[mwooldri]

2. Thanks for a good answer :)

I guess I keep answering the never unending question "Why... "? My nephew often asks that question after asking anything as of late "Can I come home with you?" "Yes." "Why?" (Yes, even if the answer is favourable he will ask "why" automatically). Guess that's one reason why I love kids.

Mark

[CaliforniaPeggy]

3. Indeed, the curiosity that kids have is one reason we love them.....

And we need to respect, and to nurture that curiosity!

For that will lead to greater creativity and a better future for them...

:hi:

[Yollam]

4. I compare life in Japan with life in the States too.

Health care rules in Japan. Cheap, efficient, fantastic. Sucks in the states - and that's if you HAVE insurance.

Gas is more expensive here, but you don't need it as much - there's a train or a bus going wherever you need to go, and it's often faster and cheaper than driving.

The roads are better in Japan - nary a pothole anywhere. But they are often narrow and the freeways are all tollways.

Food is cheaper in Japan, or more expensive - depending on what you buy. At least veggies are cheap and milk and meat and eggs are reasonable.

TV here is stupider than in America, if that's possible, with the exception of PBS, which is educational, but dull.

People are generally kinder and more honest, but it's hard to get to know them beyond a superficial level.

etc. etc. It's natural to compare. I've never been to England, so I often wonder which would be more of a culture shock to me, UK or Japan. I'm pretty used to Japan at this point, but I get the sense that many brits give Americans there a hard time...

My good friend here in Japan was British. Even though the Japanese love to fawn over what gentlemen the British are, I was always amazed by this guy's unbelievably foul mouth and grumpy disposition. Everybody was a "fuckin' plonker" and a "wanker"... Good guy, though. :)