From: dswt@bnr.co.uk (Stewart Tansley)
Newsgroups: alt.romance
Subject: Re: American High School & bits (long)
Date: 2 Oct 92 15:57:12 GMT
Reply-To: dswt@bnr.co.uk (Stewart Tansley)
Organization: BNR Europe Limited, London Road, Harlow, Essex, GB

In the referenced article peregrin@husc13.harvard.edu writes:
>In article <BvC5v3.C69@kingston.ac.uk>, is_b420@kingston.ac.uk (Brendan Rooney) writes:
>> 
>> To all American readers:
>> 

[What the hell are all these weird US cultural terms about high school, etc?]

[Answers - from many]

Thanks for the answers (even though I'm not the original questioner). Some
of the US culture is very alien to us in the rest of the world. The info
posted recently has helped, even though I thought I knew enough about it.

However, some points still confuse... (follow-ups to soc.culture.american?
Nah... :-))

>	6) Junior Prom
>	7) Senior Prom

What is 'junior' and 'senior' (I know about proms now, but not the
difference between J. and S.). Are there only 2 years in high schools?
Are they equivalent to what we'd call in my part of the UK, '1st year' and 
'fifth year'? (Fifth year is the last compulsory school attendance year, 
about 16 years old; 1st year is about 11 years old.) What ages do they cover 
(J. & S.)?

Also, when do proms take place? End of year (June/July?)? Anytime?

---

While I'm here, there's been some strange explanations of the British terms 
'pranged' and 'chuffed' on a.r recently, following questions from confused 
non-British. My dictionary & me say:

Prang -- Chiefly Brit., meaning 'to crash, damage, etc.' as in an accident
such as an aircraft, car, etc. E.g. "Bugger, I've just pranged my car".
Thus, even less formally, one might say 'prang' in any sort of 'to bang into' 
type scenario.

Chuff -- Brit. Slang, meaning to please or delight. E.g. "I'm really
chuffed she asked me out". (Rarely used!!! ;-))


Anyway, soc.culture.british/american & alt.usage.english are the real
groups for such things...

---

BTW, established readers of a.r -- aren't you glad I restrained from
adding to the tsunami of Nice Guy posts of late? ;-) (Delusions of past
Nice Guy-dom grandeur fade into the aether...)

Like that other guy that posted, the bastard one, I've decided to become a 
deranged biker bastard from hell instead! :-) Being a NG is just not cool
any more in this group. :-)

Interesting fact from an ex-confirmed dyed-in-the-wool NG: the only woman
that I can really ever call a girlfriend (my ex-fiancee in fact), went out
with me *not* because I was an NG, but because she thought I was a deranged
biker bastard from hell (because I was into heavy metal music -- and still
am!). Then she decided I was *really* wonderful when she found out I was a
NG underneath......until she got bored of the NG bit & left. 

What do women want? I think it's so frigthening, it's best not to know... 
Get a cat instead.

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Stewart Tansley     | BNR Europe Limited              |  'Be cool, or be
                    | London Rd, Harlow, CM17 9NA, UK |    cast out...'
dswt@bnr.co.uk      | +44 279 429531 x2763 (ESN 742)  | Subdivisions, Rush
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