Hello again and welcome back to America under the Microscope. Hello James.

Hello lulu.

So about what we're going to talk about today, first of all, I would like to ask you a question.

Okay.

You know, a lot of our listeners including me as well, we watch a lot of American movies and TV shows. And one of the major elements, especially if you watch it about young people, they always talk about this high school dance. I think it's called prom? And it seems to be such a big thing. You see it in all the major like sitcoms. They always have that few episodes talking about this, including things like Friends. They had a few episodes talking about, you know, Monica and Rachel's prom. So is this a real thing? Do people actually do it?

Well, yes, this is a real thing.

For everyone?

For most high schools throughout the country, yeah, it is very much a thing. We call these high school formals or prom for short, and also the term homecoming will come up.

You said prompt for short, short for what?

To be honest I'm not entirely sure, but what it is, is that technically it's called a high school formal, what everyone just calls it prom.

Okay.

I don't know the origins.

Since you're mentioning high school formal, there is another event that I kept hearing, homecoming.

Yes, homecoming is another high school formal.

So they're not the same, prom and homecoming.

No. Well they're the same as they're both formal dances, but they don't have the same purpose. In general, prom is for older students, juniors and seniors which would be in American year three and year four of high school.

Oh, so it's not a graduation dance.

No because this will take place before graduation.

So third year forth year student, junior and senior.

Whereas homecoming is usually in the fall and is open to all students and is usually connected to an American football game, and it's a celebration of the high school and people coming back home, hence home coming. And it's a celebration of that.

Yeah, I think that makes sense because in Chinese is actually translated into 返校日. So it's like coming to their home school.

Yeah that's pretty much what it is.

And these are all for high school students, right?

Yes.

So what exactly happen at these formal dances? First of all, do you have to wear specific things? Is there a strict dress code?

Oh well, it's a formal dance. So that means typically boys need to wear formal suit like a tuxedo or other black tie suit.

Wow tuxedo, as formal as that.

You know and the girls will wear what's called a prom dress which is a type of formal dress.

But it's not like sexy dress.

No because it is for high school students. So there will be things like they'll be shiny, they’ll be very elegant looking, but they're not going to be like those beautiful formal dresses. So the prom dresses are beautiful dresses, usually shiny. They are elegant, but like you said, not exactly sexy.

They are usually very long, isn't it？Floor length.

Prom dress tends to actually be shorter.

Oh really?

About knee length.

And it's a lot of, for example Satin and...

Things like that.

Lacy stuff perhaps. And you said girls will buy a prom dress. These dresses sound quite expensive, so do people rent it as well?

You can rent them, but a lot of the fast fashion brands like H&M, they make prom dresses which are much more affordable than some of the really designer style dresses.

That's nice. So you don't have to spend a lot to look nice.

No you don't.

Great! And what happens at these formal, just dance?

Well, in general, the students who go to the formal, first thing they need to do is buy a ticket because these events aren't free for them. They are provided by the school. But...

School needs to collect the money back.

They need the money for the decorations, the music, things like that. So they do sell tickets. But when they go to the dance, they obviously dance. But there will be things like photo booths where they can take pictures with their date, their friends. There will be live music or DJ music depending on how much money the school spends.

Is it just like normal, just like pop music what kids listen to?

It will be a mix of pop music, some slow music for slow dancing, and usually they'll be some kind of theme. So for example, they might do an eighties’ theme, so they'll play lots of music from the 1980s or things like this.

Since it is dancing, it's boy girl dancing, then is it traditional for boys to ask a girl to be his date, this kind of things.

Yes, that is the tradition. Usually the boy will ask the girl, although in today's modern world, sometimes a girl will ask the guy, or sometimes students will just go as a group of friends without any specific date.

Do they have to be boyfriend or girlfriends to ask each other out, or is it like a great time to confess your love for someone?

Most of the time, they are boyfriend girlfriend. Some people are just friends. There have been some times whereas brother and sister.

Oh, Yeah. Yeah. I think that's a big joke in many of these sitcoms are like oh yeah, you went to prom with your brother or with your sister. It's almost like you did not have a prom date.

That mirrors reality a little bit. Yes.

Good. And what about the participants because they're technically still not adults, a lot of them, so what about adult supervision? Are teachers parents...

So, are they watched?

Yes, they are watched.

They are watched quite carefully in fact. Yes. Uh, there will be teachers there as supervisors as well as some parent volunteers. So they will be watching to make sure students aren't breaking any rules, make sure that they're not doing anything rude or destructive, trying to keep it a safe environment for the kids to have fun.

Yeah, I mean, so it's controlled fun.

Yeah it's controlled fun.

And one expression that you always hear about prom is prom king and queen?

Oh the king and queen. We also have homecoming king and queen. So both the formals have a king and a queen. And basically these are popularity contests.

Are they just the most attractive guy and most attractive girl?

Well you usually yes. So the candidates will be picked from nominations and then they'll just be voted by the student body. So yes, it's a popularity contest.

So they will vote out king and queen before the dance.

Yes that happens before the dance. At the dance they will let the people know who is the king and queen, and the king and queen may not know each other, and then once they are crowned, they will traditionally have a dance together.

Oh they will put the crown on them.

And a sash that will say king or queen.

But they're usually just the most attractive people, I guess.

Yeah, that's not wrong.

So because you hear sometimes obviously in TV and movie and they're like, oh, I was the homecoming queen or I was the prom king, so to speak.

And when they get to adulthood, it doesn't mean much.

No, it doesn't really, but um then they have a dance together. It reminds me of that scene in Carrie Stephen King novel of the prom scene.

Well I can tell you that real life proms have much less pig blood and no fire.

If you're interested in horror films and want to see a really horrifying prom scene, well you can watch Carrie or remake of Carrie. Alright, so enough of the horror films. So we just talked about prom and its basics. In the advanced episode we can get deeper into the whole thing and then we can discuss maybe a little bit about the parents' attitude towards like dating in general?

And we can talk about the parents as well as more in detail of what the students do on prom day.

And perhaps what are the rules.

We can talk about that as well.

All right, so on that note, if you are interested in topic, leave us a comment. We'll see you next time. Bye.

Bye, everyone.

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