![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
Friday, April 6th, 2007
That age thing again
Friday, April 6th, 2007 10:39 pm1. A few days ago, I walked in to tech services to get an ethernet cable, explaining that we'd just had an internet link put in our faculty housing, but it was in the wrong room, so I needed 20 metres of extension. The young whipper-snapper in charge of mundane requests looked puzzled. "Twenty metres? You are a student, aren't you?" "No,"I replied, "I said 'faculty housing', which strongly implies that I'm a faculty member, but thank you for underestimating my age so wildly."
2. On the other hand, I was reading one of my students' blogs in which she complained about 30-year-old guys hitting on her, and my first thought was "So there's bunch of kids hitting on her - what's the problem?"
3. On the other other hand (yes, I have three hands) that kind of thing won't wash with my TV producer. I'm currently helping to write the dialogues for an English education programme in which I will also be acting. The dramas (or rather vignettes) take place in a language school in England, not least because that way we don't have to find too many native English speakers, as most of the actors will be playing foreign students. So far we have four main characters: Deniz, our Turkish hero; Mrs Bracegirdle, the evil landlady; Albina, a sexy young thing from Bosnia (who really is from Bosnia and really is called Albina, though not having met her yet, I can't vouch for the sexy part) and finally Pierre, Deniz's evil rival for the hand of Albina. (In RPG alignment terms, that gives us chaotic good, lawful evil, lawful good and chaotic evil respectively.) I was going to recommend my friend Dan for the part of Pierre, but it turns out that Dan can't do any accent except Seattle (by virtue of coming from Seattle) so I ditched my former role of language school instructor and cast myself as Pierre.
I have now heard that our producer is not happy, and I will have to re-recast myself, because the lady playing Albina is 25 years old and looks about twenty, while I'm 45 years old and look about - well, whatever. "But that's the point!" I protest, "He's a slimy Frog who'll try to seduce any woman he comes across, regardless of age, marital status or physical appearance!" (That's why I love the French so much - it's OK to be racist about them.) However, the mere suggestion of the possibility of such a liaison is apparently too much for the people higher up who check all TRT (read Turkish BBC) programmes to make sure that they are in accordance with Turkish values. This is rather ironic considering that it's not unknown (at least in villages) for septuagenarians to marry teenagers here.
Oh well, it's not the kind of thing worth making a stand about, but I will miss the chance to do a silly French accent. All I have to say is ... "Your mother was a hamster and your father smelt of elderberries!"
2. On the other hand, I was reading one of my students' blogs in which she complained about 30-year-old guys hitting on her, and my first thought was "So there's bunch of kids hitting on her - what's the problem?"
3. On the other other hand (yes, I have three hands) that kind of thing won't wash with my TV producer. I'm currently helping to write the dialogues for an English education programme in which I will also be acting. The dramas (or rather vignettes) take place in a language school in England, not least because that way we don't have to find too many native English speakers, as most of the actors will be playing foreign students. So far we have four main characters: Deniz, our Turkish hero; Mrs Bracegirdle, the evil landlady; Albina, a sexy young thing from Bosnia (who really is from Bosnia and really is called Albina, though not having met her yet, I can't vouch for the sexy part) and finally Pierre, Deniz's evil rival for the hand of Albina. (In RPG alignment terms, that gives us chaotic good, lawful evil, lawful good and chaotic evil respectively.) I was going to recommend my friend Dan for the part of Pierre, but it turns out that Dan can't do any accent except Seattle (by virtue of coming from Seattle) so I ditched my former role of language school instructor and cast myself as Pierre.
I have now heard that our producer is not happy, and I will have to re-recast myself, because the lady playing Albina is 25 years old and looks about twenty, while I'm 45 years old and look about - well, whatever. "But that's the point!" I protest, "He's a slimy Frog who'll try to seduce any woman he comes across, regardless of age, marital status or physical appearance!" (That's why I love the French so much - it's OK to be racist about them.) However, the mere suggestion of the possibility of such a liaison is apparently too much for the people higher up who check all TRT (read Turkish BBC) programmes to make sure that they are in accordance with Turkish values. This is rather ironic considering that it's not unknown (at least in villages) for septuagenarians to marry teenagers here.
Oh well, it's not the kind of thing worth making a stand about, but I will miss the chance to do a silly French accent. All I have to say is ... "Your mother was a hamster and your father smelt of elderberries!"