British question!

[aeroport_art]

Any of you British kids out there--especially roundabout Yorkshire--know what the British equivalent is of an American high school dance? I know prom = leaver's ball, but I'm looking more for information on something totally cheesy that takes place on campus after hours or on weekends. Or if there's nothing like that in the UK, what would be a school-ordained social event that happens once every few months?

It's research for an Eagle WIP :)

Comments

[toestastegood.livejournal.com]

Scottish instead of English, but we had "school discos" that were generally pretty cheesy dances - usually at the end of term or on Halloween, something like that.

[sistermine.livejournal.com]

Yeah, ditto in Northern England.

Nowadays the leavers' events are called proms here. We did dress up, but now they have additional american imports like limousines and posher suits/ball-gowns. We don't seem to have imported the night-in-a-hotel-bit yet though (or maybe that's just from Hollywood movies and reading too much fanfiction?!).

My kids (who've just finished secondary school) occasionally went to things at the end of a term, but if I called them discos (or bops, which is what we called similar things at university) they'd groan. But, they didn't have another name for them.

Sometimes they'd be run by a particular department - e.g. the French evening, called things like Paris Spectacular.

[aeroport_art.livejournal.com]

We don't seem to have imported the night-in-a-hotel-bit yet though

hahahaha i don't know exactly how many people actually do this! i didn't go around asking other kids during my own prom, but i did stay overnight at a friend's parent's sweet digs in san francisco with some other kids. nothing raunchy though, just some drinking and nerdy drunken word games, haha.

i didn't know you were from northern england! btw, i am now mortified you are reading the WIP because I DUNNAE WOT I'M DOING with all this fake accent-age that i'm heaping upon poor esca. after the story wrapped up i planned on giving it a thorough thrashing, brit-picking-wise, before letting it out for public consumption. in the meantime though, i'll admit i'm relieved you haven't run screaming at how utterly incorrect all their affected English is ._.

[sistermine.livejournal.com]

Hee hee, thanks for the reality check. I guess a lot of movies rely on the virginity-trope as a plot point, and often focus on certain crowds of young people; e.g. rich and outgoing.

Hee hee again. Yes, I am from Brigantes country - Yorkshire born and yorkshire bred (strong in't heart and thick in't head, goes the rhyme). My parents are from further north and east on the cleveland coast, and so Jamie Bell's not-quite-Geordie/not quite Yorkshire accent sounds like home. We lived for my childhood in Catterick, home of the army's basic training base (a useful plot point for a Happy Gay Farmers modern AU thing that I am struggling to finish - yes, use what you know). I now live across the pennines in Manchester.

Don't worry about the accent - it's so difficult to write accents, and you're doing a good job of it. I'm loving it anyway, characters, plot and all, but especially your little gob-shite. I think Esca possibly comes over as more Scots, but it works with him either way.

[aeroport_art.livejournal.com]

oh, i have heard this term "disco"! hee hee it just brings to mind saturday night fever for me, but my boss (who is from london) insists it's used for any sort of clubbing/dancing. thanks hon!

[kathkin.livejournal.com]

In my experience this tends to vary from school to school? We had generic school discos for the first three years or so of high school (and in primary school, actually), then a 'prom' at the end of year eleven (15-16), two Christmas Snow Balls in sixth form, and then a Leaver's Ball when we graduated. But my sister went to a different school and I think they had a different system.

I'd just call them school discos, tbh, it's not been long enough since I was in school for that to be dated, surely.

[aeroport_art.livejournal.com]

ohhhh, so leavers party is just for sixth form. and other dances were called balls. *nodnod scribbles notes* THANK YOU

[aeroport_art.livejournal.com]

Christmas Snow Ball!! That's a cute name, haha. And hey, I didn't know you were English :) Thanks for the info!

[kathkin.livejournal.com]

We just called them Snow Balls, actually. xD And I'm British, not English. My parents are Scottish.

[halfshellvenus.livejournal.com]

I'm reading a book set in Ireland right now, that uses "Hop" as a generic term. Like a Sock Hop, which we haven't used probably since the '50s or '60s in the U.S.

[aeroport_art.livejournal.com]

that's so cute!!!!! i want everything to be called a hop. like, instead of "going clubbing" at the weekends (which sounds really awkward/outdated to me, but what else can we call it?), i want to go to a hop. love it. thanks hon!! *smishes you*

also, Happy Thanksgiving!!!!!!!!!!