Roommate
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A roommate is a person with whom one shares a room or rooms. Affectionately known as a roomie. Another term, suitemate is also used in rare circumstances that refers to roommates who may prefer similar climates but do not necessarily have much in common as far as goals or world view.[1]
In the UK, roommate normally refers to a person sharing the same room, whereas in the U.S. it typically refers to a person sharing the same house or apartment irrespective of whether they share the same room (bedroom). The latter would usually be referred to as a housemate or flatmate (flat being the common British word for apartment), if they shared the same house or apartment but not the same room.
Online resources have helped change the way that people have found a roommate. Services such as Craigslist ( http://www.craigslist.org ), Roommates Online Network ( http://www.roommatesonline.net ), The Roommate Connection Boston - the oldest roommate referral agency in America (http://www.RoommateConnection.com), Roommates.Com ( http://www.roommates.com ), RoommatesUSA.com ( http://www.RoommatesUSA.com ), Roomster.Net ( http://www.roomster.net ), and additionally in the UK, Perfect Housemate ( http://www.perfecthousemate.co.uk ), have helped to put would be roommates in touch with suitable accommodation. The first two discussed services are completely free to the user while the latter two are currently paid sites. (March 2007).
In most university dormitories, roommates are of the same sex. Cohabitants of apartments are also termed roommates. However, unmarried couples living together are generally not labelled roommates.
One of the more difficult tasks for the house office in college is matching roommates for incoming freshmen. Some statistics show that the academic grades, study style, social behavior and personality of one roommate will affect the other roommate's academic performance.
In Japan, people rarely live with roommates; perhaps given that most houses there are not designed to be shared by strangers.
Roommates are a fairly common point of reference in Western culture, especially in North America. Therefore, many novels, movies, plays, and television programs employ roommates as a basic principle or a plot device.
The Roommate Boom
Since the TV series Friends, sharing apartments with roommates has been growing in popularity in the world. Many want to experience the life style of living in a community to share high costs of rents, meet new people and learn new languages.
Additionally, any change in the cost of housing makes the consideration of roommates more attractive. As the housing market increases, so too does the roommate ratio rate. When house prices drop, the opposite can be expected. This has been seen extensively in cities such as Washington D.C., Phoenix, and San Diego.[2]
Another contribution to the roommate boom has been the successful French movie L'Auberge espagnole by French director Cédric Klapisch. In this movie a young French student moves to Barcelona in a shared apartment with people coming from different countries.
Student exchanges are getting more and more popular with globalization and has influenced a lot in the Roommate Boom. The Erasmus exchange program in Europe has contributed as being the biggest exchange program in Europe. Exchange students can live in university residences but a growing amount want to share apartments with other international students in shared apartments.