Djamila
Bosnjakinja
What sort of things do adults in your culture give advice to younger men and women about?
Try to think of aspects of this advice you imagine might be specific to your culture - they probably won't be, but just to make the discussion more interesting.
I suppose, among us, there aren't many categories of advice that differ from anywhere else - but I'm sure the actual advice does.
You have, of course, marriage.
There are warnings to young men not to marry a woman only for her beauty, because that will change - and in Bosnia, does it ever.
"Don't get too caught up in her long legs, my darling boy. Just remember: look at her fat, ugly mother - that's the face she'll end up with."
There's advice for women to choose a husband who is dominant in daily life, and not someone more sensitive:
"The boys who cry are the first to die."
"The more battles you fight, the more predictable your strategy and the easier you are to defeat." (Choose your battles)
Then there's advice against chosing an unrespectable (ie, ugly) girl:
"If you've got them lined up around the block, you need not choose the biggest there."
"A fiance's smile should always make your mother uncomfortable."
And there's advice for girls not to get too caught up in the looks of their men:
"By the time it's not nice to look it, it doesn't work anyway."
There's advice about... everything really. Kind of a hard discussion to have - maybe it will go somewhere.
Try to think of aspects of this advice you imagine might be specific to your culture - they probably won't be, but just to make the discussion more interesting.
I suppose, among us, there aren't many categories of advice that differ from anywhere else - but I'm sure the actual advice does.
You have, of course, marriage.
There are warnings to young men not to marry a woman only for her beauty, because that will change - and in Bosnia, does it ever.
"Don't get too caught up in her long legs, my darling boy. Just remember: look at her fat, ugly mother - that's the face she'll end up with."
There's advice for women to choose a husband who is dominant in daily life, and not someone more sensitive:
"The boys who cry are the first to die."
"The more battles you fight, the more predictable your strategy and the easier you are to defeat." (Choose your battles)
Then there's advice against chosing an unrespectable (ie, ugly) girl:
"If you've got them lined up around the block, you need not choose the biggest there."
"A fiance's smile should always make your mother uncomfortable."
And there's advice for girls not to get too caught up in the looks of their men:
"By the time it's not nice to look it, it doesn't work anyway."
There's advice about... everything really. Kind of a hard discussion to have - maybe it will go somewhere.