Was reading through a text with some students the other day when we came across this part:
In the eighteenth century, 'manliness' was very different from what it is today...a true gentleman showed that he had feelings by crying frequently in public. According to one story, when the British Prime Minister, Lord Spencer Percival came to give King George IV some bad news, both men sat down and cried!
For some reason, this reminded me of an incident about two years ago in my German class. There was a Lebanase guy and an Albanian kid in the class, and when the teacher asked us, as a conversation starter if we ever cry, the two froze up. No, never. Never never never.
I, of course, happily told everyone that I cry all the time, which I do. I cried when my best friend left Berlin a month ago, I cried when I bust my ankle cos I thought I wouldn't be able to go to the Alps, I cried for about six bloody months last winter, I cry because of football with almost alarming frequency.
Still, with a little bit of encouragement, we got the two guys to open up.
The Lebanese guy, it turned out, cried once in his life and it was when he had to deliver a baby using only a kitchen knife.
The Albanian guy also only cried once, when he saw his dog blown to bits by a landmine. His brother, who was with the dog, was also caught in the blast, but survived.
I always knew I was old-fashioned.
