Natasha writes: I’m having a heated argument with my 17-year-old about instructions I found on a Kit Kat wrapper today: “TO OPEN: Lift Flap and Tear at End.” I think it’s silly, unnecessary and only possible in the United States. My kid says it’s helpful to others and doesn’t hurt me, so it’s fine. Who’s right?
The cliché that Americans are stupid and lazy is as pernicious as the cliché that teenagers are, well, stupid and lazy. Both are false. But our country is terrible in that it has only a few Kit Kat flavors, whereas Japan offers dozens (Raspberry! Easter Banana! Ocean Salt!). Thanks to internet translators, I deciphered several Japanese Kit Kat labels, and guess what? Strawberry offers the same instructions in diagram form. (Matcha’s label straight-up tells you to put the Kit Kat “in your mouth.”) So, you’re wrong. And your teen is extra right. He, she or they understand that certain accommodations may seem silly to some but quietly help others in ways we might not understand.
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