What does 「学校が学校」, 「年が年」and such mean exactly?

Question

So I came across this sentence when reading "Kokoro" by Natsume Souseki: > ...友達は中国のある資産家の息子で金に不自由のない男であったけれども、**学校が学校なのと年が年なので**、生活の程度は私とそう変りもしなかった。 And a translation says: > ...My friend was from a wealthy family in the Central Provinces, and had no financial worries. **But being a young student**, his standard of living was much the same as my own. which shows that the pattern "A**が**A" expresses something along the lines of "*regarding* A", "*considering* A". Am I wrong? I wonder if there are any rules or restrictions in this use, as well as any possible indications and nuances. Any help would be much appreciated. Thank your in advance! The full book: http://www.aozora.gr.jp/cards/000148/files/773_14560.html (I'm not native English speaker and this is my first question here (geez, I'm nervous!) so, I'm sorry if there're any mistakes or confusions in my question.)

Answer 1

This is a pretty old question so you may already have your answer, but there is a similar pattern in English when people say: X is X. Even if you try to dress up or present X in a different way, it still remains X. In this case 学校が学校 means that school is school, and 年が年 means that they are still the same age. So, even though his friend's family is wealthy, a boy is still a boy, so wealthy or not, his lifestyle is still similar to the speaker's.

Answer 2

The expression, ...ga..., has almost always negative meaning. ...ga... means that ... is not good.