Tokyo volunteer
Please let me know your opinion. I was asked "are you young?" by one of users here.
For how old do you think they are still young?
I was wondering if you could correct my mistake as well.
Jun 10, 2018 12:00 PM
Comments · 5
3
Well I'm 24. And based on my country's life expectancy. I feel like I have reached retirement age. 
June 10, 2018
1

Hiromi, you can take it as a compliment that people have difficulty guessing your age by looking at your photo   :-)

I suppose "young" is a relative term.  People in their 20's can easily describe themselves as "young".  People in their 30s may still seem young to people who are 50+ years old...and yet they might seem "older and more experienced" to people who are still in their 20s.   Someone who is 70+ years old may think that anyone under 50 is still "young."

I saw one iTalki user introduce herself like this in a notebook exercise:  Hi, I´m Ilka. I´m quite old. Sometimes, but not always. Once in a while I´m 27. Sometimes even 81. Or anything in between. ;)

Ilka described how the way we feel about ourselves can change from day to day, moment to moment, situation to situation.  Sometimes we feel young and sometimes we feel old -- regardless of whatever our actual age is.

I think people often like to know whether they are talking to an age peer (someone close to their age) or whether they are talking to someone who is much younger or much older.  This helps them think about what topics might be interesting to the other person.  Also, people sometimes talk more or less formally to someone, depending on the other person's age.

Before I added my photo to my iTalki account, I used to give people a little clue about my age by telling them that I had children in college.   That way, without my telling them my exact age, they could have a general sense of the stage of life that I am at.   This could help them decide how they would want to talk to me in our first online conversations.   You don't have to tell people your exact age, but giving them a "clue" might help them feel more confident about how to talk to you.

June 11, 2018
1
Thank you for the comment.
Personally, I must say "you are younger" when someone is younger than me.
June 10, 2018
1
You could say ---- How old did they think I might be and still be young? ----
That question is a hard one. To some people, from an early age, age is a very important question. To others age means nothing. For me, it never meant anything, and there is only 'alive' and 'dead'.
June 10, 2018
To Sonya
Thank you for your comment.
You are always amazing, so I'm happy to meet you.
I have never met such a nice person who comment long sentences in detail.
I agree it might have looked for common topics to ask the question, but I felt weird when I was asked like that.
I would like to be like you who can share my opinion with English.
I understand what you said about 80% now, so I'll look up some words and vocabulary.
June 11, 2018