[HPFGU-OTChatter] Cliches, English mysteries, home schooling

[storm]

Tabuli said:

> Ahaaaaa!  (cries the resident cross-cultural Hermione).  But
did you know that the notion
> that cliches are "bad" is particularly Anglophone??  I presume
this is a reflection of our
> individualism and celebration of the original and personal
(which we even protect by law
> with copyright, to the mystification of many other cultures).
In Greek and Japanese, for
> example, there are a lot of set phrases designed to be used in
particular circumstances
> (e.g. a death in the family, marriage, etc.) which are
considered entirely sensitive and
> appropriate, even if repeated endlessly in a way only "happy
birthday" or
> "congratulations" are in English!  Whereas any English speaker
who trotted about
> declaring "Time heals all ills" or "Better luck next time" more
than once would get their
> neck wrung.

I had no idea but I have been thinking about it all week so
thanks for that.
>
> Interestingly, my Malaysian Chinese fundamentalist Christian
mother is positively proverbial <snip> "Spare the rod, spoil the
child" which I found particularly worrying when I was younger...

I'm not surprised!
>
> Sigh of relief.  One of my Great Mysteries of the English
Language solved at last.  Now if > I can just figure out what the
adjective for "integrity" is, whether "toward" and
> "towards" are interchangeable in the direction sense, the
correct way to use the
> possessive "s" with names ending in S (Klaus'?  Klaus's?), and
whether French words used
> in English still agree with their subject (e.g. blond man,
blonde woman, blonds men,
> blondes women (?), nouveau/x/nouvelle/s rich/e/s)...

me! me! me! I can answer (one) of these. And based on Harry
Potter too! JKR uses an 's' after a posessive apostrophere ie
"Scabbers's foot". BUT in Au we usually leave the 's' after a
posessive apostphere. I think the 's' after a possessive
apostrophe is a modern (USA-type)  thing.

storm