Looking at Youth Across Cultures

I'm writing onboard a train from Washington to New York, where I'm headed to attend a conference on theater and peacebuilding (more on that in my next post). I always jump at the chance to travel by train—a few summers ago I spent 86 hours straight on one from Ulan-Ude, Russia to Moscow—and I savor the meditative, unhurried feeling of getting to my destination. I also love the conversations I end up getting into with my neighbors, particularly on trains abroad. There aren't many foreigners traveling to smaller cities like Poltava in Ukraine or Petrozavodsk in Russia, and I've often wound up chatting with people who'd never met an American up to that point.

On one train trip, the college-aged young men in my compartment weren't aware I understand Russian, and started discussing my nationality. (Guy #1: "She's obviously some kind of foreigner. Probably German, since she's reading an English book." Guy #2: "Wouldn't she be reading a German book then? She must be American, or from some other English-speaking country." Guy #1: "What are you, an idiot? They never come to Poltava, and anyway, Germans know English really well.")

I introduced myself, and after a few sheepish moments, my neighbors began pelting me with an endless stream of questions. More than anything, they wanted to know what life is like in the US, especially if you happen to be a young person. What do young Americans do for fun? What kind of music do they listen to? What are American universities like? Is it hard to find a job after graduation? At what age do most Americans get married? What do we think about Ukraine? Oh, and what curse words are most common in America, and would I mind helping my new friends pronounce them correctly?

The young people I've met in schools and camps abroad expressed a similar burning curiosity about their American peers (and, coming from some of the bolder ones, about the finer points of American slang), which is why I'm a big fan of programs like Global Connections and Exchange and Tech Age Girls that support platforms for youth to learn about each other online. As a youth development program manager considering how to adapt successful models to new contexts, I've also been thinking about a question of my own. Clearly, cultural norms and everyday life differ around the world. The western stereotype of the rebellious teenager, for example, may not hold in cultures where it’s absolutely taboo to contradict a parent. But are there universal qualities or values we can associate with youth across cultures? What do you think?

Susie Armitage is a Program Officer at IREX