Ask a Yank (non political questions) thread.

[clappyclaps]

Here in sunny So Cal we can count the truly snotty weather days each year on one hand.

Whereas here in the UK it's usually the opposite, we're able to count the decent weather days on one hand I'm envious if you!

 

[Kate_45]

Thank you for this - very insightful. Credit to my 11 yo DD for noticing the black jackets. Sounds like it is also a function of just how often you have to wear a jacket. Here in sunny So Cal we can count the truly snotty weather days each year on one hand. I never thought of a jacket as being "versitile". It's often only a function of how warm it needs to be (usually just a hoodie sweatshirt will do).

I had a friend who was from Swanston and he was naturally a Swanston Swan fan. He found it odd that you could live in one part of the country and be a fan of a team from another part of the country. What happens if your team is relegated? Well, that's football now innit? You don't go rooting for someone else.

It is odd to a certain extent and you do have people who don't count you as real fans unless you were born within a very small geographical radius. But there is so much more to how you end up with a football team.

The obvious reason is you inherit one - it's been passed down the family so long that no one remembers why you have a bunch of Leicester fans living in Brighton. That's often mixed up in cultural reasons, my Dad's family are Irish catholics so all support man u, my Ghanaian friends my age all support Chelsea for obvious reasons. Then there's political reasons, if you support Barcelona or Rangers/Celtic then you're not necessarily making a statement about football. Then there's the very first match you were allowed to stay up late and watch and Solskjær came on in the 81st minute... (sorry I can't help giving man u examples, they're just the best) and as you said, once you've picked, you can never change. That's your team.

If your team isn't in the premiership then you often have a second team near the very top that you support, to make it more interesting or you just develop a fondness for. This caused a lot of problems when Brentford went up to the premiership because they were so many people's other team. The one they went to watch regularly suddenly testing their loyalty against the big boys.

Also. Everything is closer together in the English Premier League. If you live in London you can easily catch many away games and make the journey up to enough home matches to make a season ticket worthwhile. The furthest you could travel last season would be Newcastle to Bournemouth which is under 350 miles. No Brit would do that, but you Yanks probably drive that far for a decent haircut.

 

[steve_rob]

Here’s my question. Quite often I’ll hear an American expert on the news say something like “it’s Economics 101” and from context clues I can tell they’re alluding to a beginner’s class or a bare-bones introduction to the subject, but what are the origins of this number and where does it come from?

I assume it has something to do with the American education system, but at what level are we talking - High School, College, etc.? Why does the numbering start at 101 instead of say 1? What’s the next class after the beginner one, 102? 201? And how far does it end up going or does that depend on the subject?

 

[SirDuff]

Here’s my question. Quite often I’ll hear an American expert on the news say something like “it’s Economics 101” and from context clues I can tell they’re alluding to a beginner’s class or a bare-bones introduction to the subject, but what are the origins of this number and where does it come from?

I assume it has something to do with the American education system, but at what level are we talking - High School, College, etc.? Why does the numbering start at 101 instead of say 1? What’s the next class after the beginner one, 102? 201? And how far does it end up going or does that depend on the subject?

University. Exact numbering depends on the specific school but the first number usually reflects the year (1 to 4 - though not everyone takes it in that actual year). You might have many courses at a given year level within the same main subject, so 101, 102, 103 or 201, 202, 203. Again, depends on the exact school.

One example (Canada, not the US, but system is the same):


https://coursecatalogue.mcgill.ca/e...tatistics-major-concentration-ba/#coursestext