"Foreign" students at Hogwarts

[lumos28]

No: HPFGUIDX 58454

--- In HPforGrownups at yahoogroups.com, "Eric Oppen" <oppen at m...> wrote:
> 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)
> 
<snip>

Its perfectly possible that Cho and the Patil sisters are British 
citizens.

I had earlier made a comment on why JKR may have chosen "patil" as 
the last name for these sisters.

Thanks for the input on Justin's possible background. What do you 
mean everything about Neville screams working class?

The picture of British boarding schools that I grew up on were mostly 
Enid Blyton stuff: Mallory Towers and suh.
But yes, Hogwarts does seem to be a very comfortable place to live in.
(I can almost Hermione reminding me that the poor house elves do all 
the work!)

-Anita who is very very dissapointed that her Hindu mythology post 
got almost no replies :-(