"Foreign" students at Hogwarts

[Eric Oppen]

No: HPFGUIDX 58424

Actually, both Cho Chang and the Patil sisters could be as British, legally
at least, as Harry himself or HM the Queen.  (Who, let us not forget, is
mostly German by ancestry).  There are _lots_ of British subjects and
residents of Indian/Pakistani/Bangladeshi origins or ancestry; they range
from people fresh off the boat to people who, except for their darker skins
and last names, are just like the neighbors in almost every way.  I don't
think East Asians, such as Cho Chang, would be _as_ common as they are in,
say, the Western US or Western Canada, but they are far from unknown.

Justin Finch-Fletchley's name is very upper-class, as is his background (you
don't usually get put "down for Eton" unless you're right up there socially,
as I understand it.)  There's a whole bunch of clues to where HP characters
stand in the British class system that whizzes right past most American
readers; even I, who am far more familiar with British life and mores than
most USers, probably miss a lot of clues.  (A name like "Malfoy," spelled,
as it is, in archaic French, would mean someone _fearfully_ aristocratic,
while about everything about Neville Longbottom screams "working class," at
least according to a correspondent of mine from the UK who loves the HP
books herself)

In a lot of ways, JKR made Hogwarts as the antithesis of the "traditional"
picture of a British boarding school---abundant, tasty food, four-poster
beds, luxurious comfort instead of Spartan discomfort---and one of the ways
Hogwarts is different is that it ignores, as much as possible, the British
class system.  As I understand it, a kid from the "wrong" class (too low
_or_ too high) will be miserable at school, usually, in the UK.  His accent
will be wrong, his family's ways will be wrong, and the other kids won't let
him forget it for a second, until he learns to conform.  I could expand on a
thesis of Professor Dumbledore's attitude of "if you've got the magic
talent, you're welcome at Hogwarts" as JKR's comment on this sort of
nonsense---but I won't.

While I could easily postulate that "foreign" students exist at Hogwarts,
Harry might just not have noticed that they're "foreign;" odd names aren't
that uncommon any more, and they'd probably speak British English fluently.
Even American kids who get sent to British schools (poor wretches!) come out
of it able to switch into a British accent at will.

--Eric, whose own attempts to speak British English come out sounding like
someone the Kray Twins would have hired, back in the day