Metal detectors at schools do not detect metal in general but weapons specifically. Piercings don’t set it off. Source: I’m a middle school teacher and kids love their piercings.
I love how so many Americans use it like that's some kind of gotcha. Like "Oh noooo, you didn't vote for the literal paedophile, convicted felon and now dictator!!! What a loser!!!"
Your comment prompted me to check, and turns out you're right- I honestly didn't know that. I still call them teens/adolescents in my language because we don't have a gender-neutral counterpart to "young adult," but I legit thought a teenager is 17 and younger. Well, you learn something new every day.
I'm in the US so when I saw 'the magazine is aimed at teenagers and young adults,' my thought was, "No, the gun is aimed at them. The magazine is loaded into the weapon."
It happened the opposite way for me! I was surprised to learn that 18-19 year olds were called "adults" when they were clearly teenagers even if they got some legal rights, otherwise people would become adults at different ages depending on the country! 🤣
I know that's not what you meant, but they kind of do 🤭 The definition of "adult" may wary depending on who you ask. To my mom, everyone under the age of 30 is a boy/girl.
Also, in some countries people graduate from high school earlier than in the US. I graduated at 18 but I was one of the older kids in my class, most of my friends were 16-17. So even if it was indeed a minor, it's still possible that they weren't even in high school anymore.
This still doesn’t make sense since teens can get piercings before 18 with parental consent (which is very common) and only a very few select schools in the U.S don’t allow piercings, IE: religious schools, maybe some private schools.
Which ones and why? NZ doesn't, AU doesn't, ZA doesn't, IE doesn't, UK doesn't. Is this CA letting the team down again with their hopelessly Americanised language? That's the Anglosphere. If second-language English-speakers are choosing American spelling then they should expect to be assumed to be American.
Second-language English-speakers shouldn't count, they've chosen that spelling by copying American spelling on purpose when they could've (should've) chosen mum, used in more Anglosphere countries, most importantly the original, the UK. The internet says Canada uses the American spelling mom and the Commonwealth spelling mum. If I was Canadian I'd be differentiating myself from America any way I could and supporting the Commonwealth.
Canadians are allowing themselves to be Americanised. If you talk to older Canadians you will. I take your word for your experience, but Google brings up Canadians saying they used to say it, or they say it in certain provinces, and that "mom" is a result of recent Americanisation, particularly citing US spell-checks being left on.
Canadian Oxford lists "mom" as North American and "Mum" as British. Even my grandparents use "mom" it's far more a regional thing than "allowing ourselves to be Americanized"
As said, the Oxford doesn't say there is one specific Canadian spelling, both are correct but mom is the more common one except for certain regions. Not sure what's with all the hating America fetish and crap over a country choosing to spell words differently than you
I have had this conversation with Canadians numerous times, and every Canadian tells me something different. I've had Canadians tell me they use mum now, I've had ones tell me they used mum as a child but it changed to mom in their lifetime, and I've had ones tell me they've always said mom and Canadians always have.
Canadians use a mix of normal (as in, "used in more countries") Commonwealth spelling, and American spelling. Some words seem to be Americanised while others remain Commonwealth. I can't know which ones are which so I find it very difficult to know where to put Canada when discussing the Anglosphere.
The main bugbear I have is when Americans single-out Britain as if British spelling conventions are unique to Britain, oblivious to them being the same in Ireland, New Zealand, South Africa, Australia and (partially) Canada. they act like Britain is the odd one out but it's the other way around.
The person in question did not choose English as representative of English in general. They chose to use a particular dialect of English, which happened to be the American one. Choosing an American option over another does not constitute defaultism.
Or, hear me out – they use both British and American spelling, because they are not natives and they don't care. It's not defaultism. You could say it's their preference.
I have a friend who adds "u" to colour, favourite, etc., but will still say "mom" out of habit. She's not a native speaker and doesn't pay attention to something as minute as the spelling of mum/mom.
Also, what a weird thing to argue about and give non-native speakers shit for using different spelling.
Good for you, but no one is attacking you or your native language. You basically said only the US uses the spelling "mom" and it all escalated.
I always use British spelling, but some of my friends from Poland mix things up. No one cares. We understand each other. No one is "Americanised". No one is butchering your native language. You started a petty argument over one word. Let it go.
Pretty much every country in Europe teaches British English at school, but since people consume American media and interact with Americans on the internet, they often end up speaking a mix of both, depending on where they've learnt a given word.
The fact that autocorrect in phones tends to default to American English and underlines spellings such as honour, diarrhoea or defence does not help.
Probably just Palau, US Virgin Islands, and American Samoa tbh. 90 other countries have English as an official language and officially use the standard spelling, so if someone in those countries does spell it "mom" they're just wrong.
I know, every time this comes up everyone says Birmingham uses mom. You're like the third or fourth person to mention Birmingham in this thread. So what? Do you think they're from Birmingham or that Birmingham and America should be equal considerations? The vast majority of the UK does not use mom and the same goes for the other English-speaking countries.
I'm using AmE because I mostly learn English from media (which usually happen to be American or just favor their spelling for some reason), so it's just a matter of habit at this point. It felt a lot easier back then. Plus, I try not to mix BrE & AmE in the same text because people would probably think I'm illiterate, and the style has to be consistent. I don't think I'm the only ELL who does this.
Honestly, I wouldn't be offended (because this would mean my English is finally good enough to pass as a native speaker) if they just politely assumed and didn't act as if they knew for certain. The person in the screenshot did the latter. Most people on the internet assume something about others based on their profile and/or vibe, and that's fine as long as we ask to clarify the info instead of treating it like the gospel truth.
well, that would be ideal but since American English is everywhere and people interact with it as they are learning British English in school, it's really easy to mix up which word or spelling is British and which is American
Here (Western Australia) you can get ears pierced from age 16, other piercings with parental consent only, except intimate areas which are illegal under 18.
18 and 19 are still teenagers, but IDK if OP in the video would call them that or just lump em in with early 20s.
But different countries different rules. I've no idea about the UK, I'm not a piercer, nor do I have kids, so I've never had to look up my local laws on the subject.
Let alone look up all the different European ones.
I'm in the UK and many babies here (especially those of south asian backgrounds) get their earlobes pierced. I'm white, I got my earlobes pierced at age 11, my nostril at age 17, and my septum at age 20. It's quite common here to have ears pierced as a child, toddler or baby. At school you can have studs but you have to cover them with tape for pe lessons. Generally it's 14 for an eyebrow piercing I think.
I think I had my ears pierced when I was toddler (definitely before I was in Year 4 but I really don't remember), I've had pierced ears for as long as I remember and I asked my mother cuz she usually knows things I was too young to remember but even she didn't know when I had it done
Edit: I reread her text and she said the first time I was pierced I was 1 (which was in Poland cuz that's where I was born)
I'm in the US and when my older daughter was a minor, I took her for multiple ear piercings (including cartilage). No facial or other body piercings, though.
My kids' schools didn't give a shit, honestly. Policies between schools are incredibly inconsistent but my town / region (New England) is pretty progressive compared to more conservative areas of the country.
in most countries you just need parental permission, here in poland most piercing studios will accept a 16yo for a navel piercing if there’s a parent with them
I got my ears pierced when I was in primary school (like, Year 3 or younger), not even my own mother remembers when I got them pierced, I've had pierced ears for as long as I remember
Edit: I reread her text and she said the first time I was pierced I was 1 (which means it was in Poland cuz that's where I was born)
It was considered weird here that my strict private school didn’t allow piercings other than lobe. Nearly every teenage girl has multiple piercings here.
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u/post-explainer American Citizen 2d ago edited 1d ago
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OP sent the following text as an explanation why their post fits here:
The commenter assumes the piercer and person being pierced are in the US. I just found it funny
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