new york new york

Among my private English lesson students, I have one high schooler named Pedro*. He is really a fresh of breath air, because my other students are either children whose parents put them up to improving their English, or adults who are a bit overeager and demanding. Anyway, I was recently in class with Pedro when he told me about a short trip to NYC he took last summer with his friends. A little background...

Pedro´s biggest passion is basketball. As we all know, basketball is heavily tied with African American culture, which is, in turn, sometimes linked with the gangster culture. Pedro is a priveledged white boy from Madrid, who, unlike most of his peers, is really, really into all this. He dresses in large Nike (pronounced "nyk" here in Spain) track suits, would like to get rims on his car wheels (he just turned 18 and got his driver´s license), and idolizes, for just one example, G-Unit. Basically, he walks the walk and he talks the talk ( especially after I made him a small reference dictionary of commonly-used gangster slang...).

And as any other modern young man, he likes video games. So when you add an affinity for gangster style with a natural draw to technology, what do you get? Well, you get a Grand Theft Auto expert.

In 2008, the gods of Playstation released Grand Theft Auto IV. This fourth edition of GTA takes place in "Liberty City", a fictional but heavily-based version of the big apple. I´ve played GTA a few times, but really all I ever really did was run around wreaking havoc in the streets...you know, robbing cars at gun point, punching baffled police officers... more or less showing little ruth for any other fellow human beings who were so unfortunate as to cross my path. But I am a video game novice. Of course, Pedro mastered GTA IV, completing all gangsterly missions which probably involved a plethora of illegal acts.

Little did he know, while he sat on the couch doing all this, he was also double tasking. He got to know the city inside and out (thanks to a number of stolen vehicles), without so much as stepping out of his front door. So when he went to New York City...wah! He knew how to get everywhere. No need for a tour guide, a map...none of that. He was like a native...in virtual reality, more like a fugitive.

Many foreigners feel this way about New York when they first visit...that they already know the city after seeing so much of it on television, in the movies, etc. It must be really exciting to get there and see something like the Empire State building, a sight so familiar but at the same time new and real to the eyes.

*Name has been changed :)