Ginny comes out of nowhere, but how about Ron?

[imamommy at sbcglobal.net]

No: HPFGUIDX 122690


--- In HPforGrownups at yahoogroups.com, "Brian Brinkman" 
<lexical74 at y...> wrote:
snip

> Onto Ron...
> I had a hard time taking in what I perceived as Ron's "new" 
> persona.  When Ron re-enters the scene in OOTP, he seems 
different.  
> In fact, he seems more life Steve Irwin from "Crocodile Hunter" 
than 
> the Ron I came to know in the first four books.  Since when did he 
> begin speckling his addresses to Harry with "mate"?  Or is this 
> simply an example of my misunderstanding of British English.  I was 
> aware of the "mate" designation, but its relative infrequency in 
GOF 
> vs. its frequency in OOTP had me wondering, "What does it mean?"  
Is 
> JKR attempting to show Ron employing a strategy in dealing with 
> Harry's new emotional state? 
> 
> What do you think?
> 
> Brian B.

imamommy:

I think that, barring editing differences between US and UK versions, 
it's one of those teenage things. Like, you know, like when your, 
like daughter, um, like starts to, like...well, you get the idea.  
These kids are teenagers now, and Ron especially personifies some of 
the dumb jock variety of cliches.

Just my two knuts!
imamommy