(no subject)

[doyle]

Hmm. Looking through some old BBF discussion and I saw this comment by Gyrus (whose LJ handle I forget, sorry):

(For example, I recently read a fic in which something bad happens and Giles tries to tell Buffy that there was no way she could have anticipated it. She replies, "But I should've done!" That just looks weird to a Yank like me.)

I'm sure I'm guilty of using that myself. Why's it wrong? Should it be 'shoulda' instead of should've?

...any other glaring errors any of you have noticed non-Americans making? Because god knows I could go on for pages in obsessive Brit-picking of both Harry Potter fics and Buffy fics set in England (the language thing I get, but some of the cultural stuff, the 'my character's British so they've never heard of ___' : we do have pizzas and action movies and strange flavours of chips/crisps in Britain and Ireland, I promise you)

Comments

Re: sorta off-topic

[airawyn.livejournal.com]

UC Sunnydale seems to have been the kind of state school that's required to let in pretty much anybody who applies.

Except that it's a UC school (University of California), which means it's got high standards. (The "state schools" that let almost anyone in are CSU - California State University. [Although those are getting tougher to get into, because of budget cuts.] There's a two-tiered state university system in California.)

Maybe it has something to do with the location.

UC

[octopedingenue]

Ahhhh, cool! I didn't know that about California schools. Thanks for the clarification.

Apparently incredible standardized-test-taking skills are just part of the Slayer package...that or the Council pulled some strings, thinking that she should be in college where the freshman-sucking vamps lurk or that it would be unbecoming for the Slayer to work at McDonald's the rest of her probably-short life!

Re: sorta off-topic

[doyle_sb4.livejournal.com]

Maybe nobody wants to go to UC Sunnydale because of the town's high death rate?

Of course, that doesn't explain how Sunnydale became so large that it not only had a university but that Buffy and Willow lived on campus instead of staying at home... but then I expect Smallville to grow a college next year, too.

Re: sorta off-topic

[airawyn.livejournal.com]

Some students do live on campus even when their parents are in town, so they can get that "away from home" experience. That's what I figured Buffy and Willow were doing. Both of them came from families that would be able to afford pay for housing, presumably.