Lesson 22. Section 1. Class in Britain and America.
Harry, as an American, have you noticed any strong class distinctions in English Society since you've been here?
Strong Class distinction? Yes, they haven't changed at all.
That's what, that's what amuses me, in 15 years or 14 years, that the stratification is exactly the same as it was when I first came.
It's extraordinary that it pervades everything.
What is class distinction?
Because I don't know whether it's what job they do or...(It's people's accents.)
In Pygmalion, you know, it goes back to, as soon as you open your mouth in England, you're immediately you know placed.
Do you mean that there aren't different accents in America?
Not, of course there are different accents, but they're not as clearly, they are not nearly as clearly defined.
But I mean, don't, doesn't a certain strata of American society use perhaps more slang than another one?
More correct? Not the way they do in England.
In England, they seem to really stick together.
I mean I went the other week for the first time in my life to a point-to-point and I couldn't believe what I found.
There I was in the middle of Lincolnshire and we went through muddy fields and suddenly we came upon this parking lot with nine thousand Range Rovers in it and everyone going, Oh, hello darling, how are you.
You know and it was so hilarious I mean and they were all, you know this meeting of the clan and that certainly doesn't happen in America and all those people spoke the same way.
But that, yes, I live in the middle of the country in the south, and I must say when I moved there, I noticed, I mean of course I'd been aware of class before that but I had no idea that the lines between them were so rigid.