Talk:where'd you go to high school?

RFD discussion: August–October 2022


Every place has some kind of information that people use to distinguish one sort of people from another. It may be where they grew up (where I'm from, it was which side of Ventura Blvd. they were from, or whether they lived in the Valley itself or in the hills on the edges of the Valley), where their parents are from, what college they went to, what kind of car they drive, what they were active in as students, etc., etc. Given the astronomical variation in what exact question might be asked, depending on the place and time, I don't think we should even try to have entries for these. Also, this just seems like a way of saying "in St. Louis, people ask what high school someone attended to find out their socioeconomic status" rather than documenting a fixed expression. What if they're speculating about a third person: "I wonder where they went to high school"? Chuck Entz (talk) 19:29, 27 August 2022 (UTC)


 * While I completely understanding your reasoning, I have to politely and respectfully disagree. It is very much a St. Louis question, unique to St. Louis, as noted by out-of-state transplants to the city who become very bewildered and confused when asked this question by locals.
 * It has become so ubiquitous that even two books have been written about it:
 * https://www.amazon.com/Whered-You-High-School-Vol/dp/1891442309
 * https://www.amazon.com/Whered-High-School-Baby-Boomer/dp/1891442333 Stlouisan1 (talk) 20:10, 27 August 2022 (UTC)


 * Urban Dictionary says nothing about social status, but that "the purpose is to learn if you and the other person have any mutual acquaintances". Equinox ◑ 20:14, 27 August 2022 (UTC)
 * I'm also pretty sure this is common everywhere in the English-speaking world. Definitely encountered these kinds of questions in the UK, and I've never been to/knowingly met anyone from St. Louis. Theknightwho (talk) 11:46, 29 August 2022 (UTC)


 * This does not seem dictionary-worthy. We do not (and should not) have entries like who do you barrack for in Australian English. These are common phrases with some cultural implications but they do not mean more than the sum of their parts. ---&#62; Tooironic (talk) 08:11, 29 August 2022 (UTC)
 * Questions are tricky, because they're often literal (i.e. the speaker wants to know where someone went to high school), but with an underlying motive.
 * In the UK, "you alright?" is a very common greeting, that is frequently not even intended as a real question (i.e. no answer is expected) as it just means "hi". I'd argue that might be an exception, but only because the listener knows it's not intended as a question (and therefore it's less than the sum of its parts). Theknightwho (talk) 11:42, 29 August 2022 (UTC)
 * In the UK, "you alright?" is a very common greeting, that is frequently not even intended as a real question (i.e. no answer is expected) as it just means "hi". I'd argue that might be an exception, but only because the listener knows it's not intended as a question (and therefore it's less than the sum of its parts). Theknightwho (talk) 11:42, 29 August 2022 (UTC)


 * Delete. - TheDaveRoss  14:22, 29 August 2022 (UTC)
 * Delete per nom. - -sche (discuss) 20:35, 30 August 2022 (UTC)


 * Deleted - TheDaveRoss  13:43, 7 October 2022 (UTC)