Livre d'Or

A few comments both here and on Siderea's post point out the reversal in the UK. While education is also a route to social mobility here, the window of opportunity is 11-13 (traditionally grammar school for working > middle class and public school for middle > upper). Probably because you have to start quite young to eradicate any regional accent. My sister teaches at a Scottish public school and early on commented to one of her pupils that she hadn't realised he was Scottish. He replied "No, ma'am, we don't speak Scots, we speak public school." - the main function of the school seems to be that the son of the prosperous Borders farmer and the son of the Japanese businessman acquire the same accent and the same skills in rugby as the child who is third cousin once removed to the Queen.