"It’s honestly hard for me to not read Gryffindor and Hufflepuff as stand-ins for the UK state schools, Ravenclaw for the private schools, and Slytherin as the public schools."
I'm a product of a [grammar and then comprehensive] school with a four well-established houses (named after enlightenment figures; I was in Birkbeck - I think...) and an Oxbridge education, but I don't recognise the differentiation between "public" and "private" schools this author made.
I *know* this is an irrelvance to the tenor of the piece - well written and thought provoking - but it's really bugging me!
They would use words like “loo” and “napkin” rather than “toilet” or “serviette”.
This distinction between the (old, and not necessarily wealthy) upper class and others demonstrates how totally detached American usage is from this. Americans say toilet (among other words), but loo is rare here; but on the other hand, napkin is the only American word for it. I cannot imagine an American saying serviette, and if one did, it would be laughed at, in the unlikely event that anyone listening even knew what the word referred to; and it would be perceived, not as lower-class, but as unbearably pretentious, probably because it sounds French.
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andrewducker) wrote2021-08-23 12:00 pm
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I'm a product of a [grammar and then comprehensive] school with a four well-established houses (named after enlightenment figures; I was in Birkbeck - I think...) and an Oxbridge education, but I don't recognise the differentiation between "public" and "private" schools this author made.
I *know* this is an irrelvance to the tenor of the piece - well written and thought provoking - but it's really bugging me!
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Still trying to figure out how to fit JKR's later turn into a TERF into this comparison.
(Oh, and happy belated birthday, btw:)
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This distinction between the (old, and not necessarily wealthy) upper class and others demonstrates how totally detached American usage is from this. Americans say toilet (among other words), but loo is rare here; but on the other hand, napkin is the only American word for it. I cannot imagine an American saying serviette, and if one did, it would be laughed at, in the unlikely event that anyone listening even knew what the word referred to; and it would be perceived, not as lower-class, but as unbearably pretentious, probably because it sounds French.
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