[HPforGrownups] Re: British words

[A-chan]

No: HPFGUIDX 18894

More on "Miss, Mrs. and Ms." and "public, state and private":

> > Also, Amy Z.  said that she hoped that the word "Miss" has, more
> > recently, been replaced with "Ms." in British public schools.
>
> Public schools I have no idea about, as for some reason (why I know
> not) schools which are called public schools in the UK are actually
> fairly exclusive private schools such as Eton or 'Smeltings.'
>
> What Americans call public shools we call state schools.

Well, I'm currently attending a private fee-paying school for sixth-form,
but before that I used to go to a public secondary school. Even now when I
talk to my friends about schools we refer to state schools as "public" and
our sixth-form college as "private". In fact we hardly ever use the words
"state school", but I do realise that it is more commonly used in the news
and such. Perhaps I've just been using the term "public" wrongly for the
past few years? *shrugs* But when I was at the "public" secondary school
(non-fee-paying) I used to call it "public", too. Now I'm confused.

Now I'm not too sure about Eton, but I might to able to pull some strings
and check it with a distant relative who used to go there. I've always
thought it was a private school though.

Umm, back to the topic of "Miss", "Mrs." and "Ms." In both of my schools
most students use "Ms." until they find out the real marital status of the
teacher and then they start using "Miss" and "Mrs." instead. But I think on
reports and letters from the school, "Ms." is more commonly used. Then
there are also some elderly teachers who would get very cross if you
address them as "Ms." and not "Mrs." - such as my school librarian and my
Biology teacher. Personal preference and reminder of their respectable
marital status (*coughs*), me thinks.

'Lita